Our story continues with our characters having to face of death and other major obstacles, but chapter six bring us back to John Isidore. He goes to investigate his new neighbor who at first is very shy to meeting him, but eventually accepts his invitation to the building. She introduces herself as Rachel Rosen (which is the woman we met earlier that did not know she was an android) but when Isidore starts questioning her about the Rosen association she changes her name to Pris Stratton. After this encounter Isidore says he will return to help her after work. At work Isidore is sent to pick up a sick cat, he tries to find the outlet for the electric cat to hold it over till they get to the vet, but he cant find it. When he finally arrives at the vet with the cat he learns that the cat is actually a real ct and that it has died, his boss yells at Isidore and tells him because he is a special that’s why he messed up. He is then forced to call the owner and or be fired. He calls the owner and a woman picks up and is shocked by the news and tells Isidore how much her husband loved the cat. He then offers to make her an exact replica of her cat, but as an electrical one. She agrees so she does not have to tell her husband the truth. This made me feel like people in this world don’t know how to deal with death because they don’t even know how to control real feelings. Also it shows they would rather mask death then deal with the real feeling sit would bring them. The next chapter begins with Rick telling his boss officer Bryant what he learned from the Rosen association  and that he was going out to find Polokov. He goes to Polokov place of work and search’s very thorough and carefully for him, however nothing is found. On his way back to the station he meets a Russian officer who he was told would be accompanying him to find the rest of the nexus six androids. While in the taxi together the Russian officer is showing off his pistol and it is then learned that the officer is actually Polokov in disguise who decided to try and kill this bounty hunter since he got the other one. He starts to strangle out Rick, but he gets lucky and shoots Polokov in the head with is old school .38 pistol. He has now retired one of the six he needed and goes after the next Luba Luft at the opera house. This shows how smart the Nexus six really is because it thought it can out smart a human and it almost did too, but because it is an android it has certain flaws.

Now in chapter nine Rick Deckard goes to the opera house to retire his next andy. When he gets there he admires the Mozart’s The Magic Flute that is being performed. After the practice he follows Luba Luft to her dressing room. He introduces himself as San Francisco police department and that he wants to perform a test on her. While performing the test a adhesive disk falls off of Luba and when rick goes to pick it up she puts a laser tube on him. She then calls the cops and claims rick is a sexual deviant. Officer crams shows up and rick tries to to tell him that he is bounty hunter, but crams says he has never heard of deckard. To prove it he shows officer crams polokov’s body and they decide to take everything to the station and figure it out. However Rick realizes they are going in the opposite direction of the police station and that this must be a trap sent up by the nexus six androids. Rick is then taken to a fake police station parallel to his own and is then processed in the station. After that he is called in to the office of the stations official. He is introduced to garland and deckard realizes that this is one of the androids on his list. This shows how smart and human like the nexus six androids really are and that there must be a bigger plan going on because they all must be connected in some way. For example Luba Luft called this specific police station because she is probably working with garland. We are then introduced to Resch who is a bounty hunter at this station and while being brought up to speed on deckard they all agree to take the android test.While Resch leaves to get the test Garland pulls a laser tube on rick and admits to being an android, he also reveals that Resch is also an android, but with false memories. When Resch comes back in he realizes Garland is an android and he retires him. He and deckard position garland’s body to make it seem like he is alive and they leave the Station. Rick does not tell Resch that he is an android and even lies telling him that he might be able to have a job at his station. This is where we start to see Rick to have feelings,  empathy in particular and to an android. They head back to the opera house to finish off Luba Luft, on the way there Resch tells rick he wants him to give him the Voigt-Kampff test because he does not believe his memories are fake, he remembers owning a squirrel and he felt nothing but love for it. This makes me believe that in this world there are certain androids who have more feelings and control over them, then of some humans.

Deckard and Resch get to the opera house, but learn that Luba had gone to a museum ans they head there to find her. They find her looking at the painting The Scream and some believe that this is how the androids must feel. I agree that they must not being able to have the real feeling that humans have, that feeling that when it affects you so much you just want to scream. They escort her to the parking lot where she admits she is an android and that she just wanted to be human. She then accuses Resch of being an android and in frustration he retires her. After they get her transferred for a bone marrow test Deckard performs the Vogit-Kampff test on resch who shows that he is human. Deckard then takes the test on himself and it shows that he feels empathy towards certain androids and he begins to question himself as a bounty hunter. I like that Deckard begins to question himself and his feelings toward androids because they are not all bad, in fact they are all very alike. The story continues with John Isidore coming home and going to help Pris Stratton. Over dinner she tells him that she is an android and that she is being hunted by a bounty hunter. She also tells him of the horrible living conditions on the dead planet of mars.They are then interrupted by Roy and Irmgard two of her friends who she came from mars with and are also androids. They Update Pris on what has happened and that they are the only three nexus six androids left on the list. They decide to stay in the abandon apartment building in Pris apartment and she can move in with Isidore to be more safe. After they all settle in Roy does not know what to do with Isidore because he knows they are androids. He suggest they kill Isidore, but he tells them that he does not care they are androids because since he is a special the human race treats him just as bad. Pris realizes that he is special indeed. I like how the one classified as special or weird has more common sense and true feelings more then any of the humans. He is the example of what the human race used to be and what it needs to be to gain there true feelings back. Androids in the story want nothing more than to be humans, but it seems as though the androids wanting to feel human is more feelings than what the human race really feels and that the humans are just as bad as androids they are just about empty on the inside. The Story continues with Rick deciding not to hunt anymore that day and goes and buys himself a goat so he can replace his electric sheep at home. At home he shows his wife the new goat and they are both excited together, after they settle everything with the goat they go back to the apartment and use the empathy box. While using it Rick comes face to face with the Guru Mercer himself who tells rick that the empathy box is there to show people they are not alone and that he needs to go do his task even though he knows its wrong. I realize that the empathy box is like a crucifix in our society because it symbolizes a closer connection to god and to show we are not alone. Rick is told by Bryant that he wants him to retire the rest of the androids that night, but rick does not know if he has the energy to do it. Bryant tells him it has to be done that night so that the androids don’t get away. Rick then asks for Rachel Rosen help, even though she refused she agrees to meet him at the St.Francis hotel. These chapters were wrapped around the death of multiple androids and how deckard is coming more in touch with his feelings and not really understanding how to control or what they really mean.

We are now starting to see a little bit more onto how these people are handling death. In Chapter 7, John Isidore begins to reveal on how sentimental even this dying of fake life makes him. Although other people in the shop seem to be un bothered by it. His boss Mr. Sloat actually seems to be not know the difference between a real cat or a fake one and then blames John for killing it. Isidore is terrirfied that he allowed a real animal to die. He then uses the phone to call one of the owners who is devastated over the cats death so even though other people in the shop aren’t heartbroken, atleast someone he calls is.

In chapter 8, Rick gets the demand from inspector Harry Bryant to “retire” (kill) Dave Holden a.k.a. Polokov. Rachel Rosen who is an android and a member of the Rosen Association calls Rick after he enters Polokov’s apartment building and tells Rick that the androids will retired him before he retires them. RIck didn’t care about what she had told him and goes casually upon his business. After Rick uses his standard pistol to wreck through Polokov’s head, he immediately calls Bryant that Polokov has been retired pretty nonchalantly. He then looks on to see what the next “andy” (android) is ready to be retired. Right away he tries to call his wife that he is optimistic about the fact that he just recieved $1,000 for it.

In chapter 9, Rick was taken into the New Hall of Justice and he begins to realize that the androids are just trying to kill him shortly before he does.

In chapter 10, while Rick is inside the New Hall of Justice he was booked for the crime of not representing himself as a police officer and homicide. One of the officers named Garland looks into Rick’s briefcase and takes out the equipment for the voigt-kampff empathy test (a test that determines whether or not someone is a human or an android). Plus the lists of androids that Rick is scheduled to die. He then finds out that he is indeed not an android. It’s pretty interesting to see how the reactions are after death is present.

As we move further into the book, the story really starts to pick up. We now see how some of the characters begin to deal with death. Rick is now on the trail of the escaped Andy’s and each interaction with them causes him to call into question his actions. The chickenhead Isodore deals with the loss of a cat during his pickup. And the possible Andy with false memories, Resch must deal with how he must deal with the new knowledge that his memories are fake, and what he must do now that he may be what he has always hunted. From these three instances, we see how a character from different walks of life, or even being different life forms deals with the idea of death.

In chapter seven, John Isodore goes to pick up what he feels is a defective electric cat. On the ride to the shop, he attempts to see what is wrong with the animal, and doesn’t realize that it is in fact a real cat. During the ride, he thinks about how much this affects him, even being an electric animal [1]. When he gets to the office, his boss Mr. Sloat makes fun of him for not realizing that it was fake, and forces him to deal with the distraught customer [2]. Of all the men in the office, only John seemed to care about the death.

Throughout chapters 8 and 9, we see Deckard go to work at hunting the Andy’s. He goes about it in a callous way. When he first meets Polokov, who is pretending to be the soviet policeman who Deckard is [3] supposed to meet, upon realizing that he is the android, he destroys it. Thinking back to the encounter as he calms down, he thinks about the money he just made, and that he has a faster reaction than Holden [4]. His mind is more worried about making the money to replace his electric sheep that the loss of “life” doesn’t seem to affect him. Later on in the book, Deckard struggles with his views on retiring Andy’s but that can be discussed at a later time.

After attempting to deal with Ms. Luft the opera singer/Andy, he is taken to an unknown Hall of Justice in Chapter 10. Here he meets a few more of the androids, including Resch, who, while his occupation is a bounty hunter, doesn’t know if he is an android due to Garlands misinformation. Garland tells Deckard that Resch has false memories, and doesn’t know that he is an Andy, but when told that he just might be, he insists that Deckard give him the test to see if he is. [5] As he talks to Deckard about it, “his voice, husky and tormented, broke off.” He asks Deckard if he doesn’t want him to take it. After taking the test, he finds out that he really is a human. This result has Deckard start to rethink what he previously thought about how humans empathize with each other. Its interesting to see that Resch was willing to be retired if he actually was an Andy.

Of the three John Isidore seems to be the one who deals with death with the most humanity. In his society, he is considered less than human, but he acts more human than any other character in the book. When dealing with death around him, he seems to handle it well. Deckard thinks only about the money, and Resch could almost not deal with the fact that he might not be human. Deckard’s interactions through these chapters with the rest of the characters slowly changes his views on the subject, and whether he can even retire them any more. Chapter 16 ends with Deckard heading to a hotel to meet up with Rachael to “talk” about dealing with the remaining Andy’s. We will only see what happens in the next exciting installment of reading.

[1] Chapter 7 pg. 72 last paragraph.

[2] Chapter 7 pg 79 first paragraph.

[3] Chapter 8 pg. 92

[4] Chapter 8 pg. 93

[5] Chapter 11 pg. 129