Tag Archives: cavesofsteel

Journal Entry 2

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Analysis of a significant event /passage in Caves of Steel:

“Suppose people started afresh on a new world (how that ran through his mind ever since Dr. Fastolfe had put it there); suppose Bentley, for instance, were to leave Earth; could he get so he didn’t mind working and living alongside robots? Why not? The Spacers themselves did it.” –Elijah

The quote stated above is particularly significant in the novel caves of steel.  Elijah, a character from the novel Caves of Steel, was at one point closed minded about the idea of living along side with robots.  He absolutely hated robots and never even considered the benefits of using robots.  It is also important to note that hatred toward robots was a stereotypical thought within Elijah’s society.  Earlier, Dr. Fastolfe a character which lives alongside robots had told him otherwise.  Dr. Fastolfe carefully explained to Elijah how robots can in fact aid human life.  With one simple, yet intelligent conversation, Dr. Fastolfe had managed to change Elijah’s stubborn aspects of robots. If a similar scene were to occur in the present dealing with a similar scenario, would it also be easy to persuade a person with stereotypical thoughts? I think it’s possible.  It’s actually real easy to do so. The fact the almost everyone in Elijah’s society hated robots,  is similar to how the media in present day society can persuade the masses into thinking and living a certain type of way.  When a person is told something from a more logical aspect, they tend to acknowledge and agree.  Maybe the author of this novel was trying to tell us that we should be more open minded and knowledgeable based off of this scene.

Journal #3: Caves of Steel

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“And she was guilty?”

“She was.”

“Then why was she not stoned?”

“None of the accusers felt he could after Jesus’ statement.  The story is meant to show that there is something even higher than the justice which you have been filled with.  There is a human impulse known as mercy; a human act known as forgiveness.”

“I am not acquainted with those words, partner Elijah.”

“I know” muttered Baley. “I know.”

This is an interesting and important part of the novel from the end of chapter 14 because it just gets down to the raw issue of the whole situation.  It’s interesting in the sense that it explores Baley’s occupation as a law enforcer, while highlighting the fact that even though he obtains such a position, he still can look past the view held in that stature.  There is a line and even though Baley knows where it is, he can cross it if he needs to.  This then interjects with R. Daneel’s complete lack of understanding.  Baley has spent enough time with R. Daneel at this point to realize the gaps in knowledge that R. Daneel possesses and the fact that he only possesses certain human like qualities.  He may be able to produce a smile but concocting a thought process based on a feeling that maybe I shouldn’t do this, will not occur for R. Daneel.  He would not have been moved by Jesus’ statement and would have stoned the woman.  For him, she did the wrong thing and that’s that.  Once R. Daneel decision is made, it’s made.  So when Baley mutters, “I know.” he is just so passed the problem with R. Daneel not understanding basic human emotions and acts because he’s experienced the confusion numerous times in the novel that he’s done trying to explain, for the moment at least.  Baley just feels like he’s wasting his time explaining something that a “thing” will never understand.

Journal Entry 1

Caves of Steel, Comparison to Present day Society

The society within Caves of Steel and present day society are physically different in various ways.  As I picture the scene of Caves of Steel, I image a dark depressing enclosed city without windows or sunlight.  It’s a clear separation of nature from the city.  There are no trees or greenery. It is literally a cave made of steel.  It is a complete artificial society.

In comparison to our society, we are nothing like that.  I believe that man will always try to incorporate nature within their societies.  As we can see today, our cities are filled with natural elements, such as parks, plazas and trees.  Our cities are never enclosed spaces, as we prefer we

Chris R – Reading Journal #1 & 2

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Reading Journal #1

The world of Caves of Steel and our world are pretty much different from one another in almost every way. In the world of Caves of Steel, Men have a more dominate role in the community to make income compared to the women who stay home and take care of the children. The robots pretty much also replace humans in the labor force such as running a shoe store for example. The humans (referred to as “Earthmen”) think that one day the robots will take over and there will be no way in obtaining money since the owners of the shops would want to have someone working with no pay. Second, is the overpopulation that the earth has and not being able to find a way to keep the number down. Another thing that I realized when reading the book was the fact that Elijah had no idea of the changes that go on in the outside world (such as rain or what not). Maybe since they’re always in the chambers that he hasn’t seen the phenomena called rain. When traveling to another area (in the book’s case the area is called Spacetown), it’s a custom that you take a shower in order to remove the city dust from you. Also, you’re not allowed to carry a weapon when in the area. I can understand this, but in Elijah’s case, he’s a cop. A cop should always have a gun in his possession.

Reading Journal #2

The scene that really stood out to me the most while reading this book was the last part of Page 97 (this was of course before reading ahead) but out of everything I read, I just keep going back to this scene non-stop. It was the scene where Elijah and R. Daneel Olivaw was having a meeting with Dr. Fastolfe as well as commissioner Enderby over the trimensional personification about the murder of Dr. Sarton. This was where Elijah stood up from his seat and mentioned that Dr. Sarton wasn’t dead and he points straight at R. Daneel and stated that he was in fact Dr. Sarton, that there was actually no murder case. This was where so many thoughts kept rushing into my head. The one specific thought that came to my mind was the fact that he was using this as an excuse just for his wife. He probably said this so that way the case can be solved and that way he wouldn’t have to worry his wife anymore because of the fact that they won’t be living with a robot in the house anymore. As well as that he can stop his wife from trying to talk him out of his job to find a new one and lose his current position. Another thing is the fact that the Earthmen can stop spreading rumors about the fact that Elijah was cooperating with a robot ever since the scene at the shoe store. The theme and motif this would probably relate to is the Spacer/Human Relations, because everyone is scared about a robot living in the environment, and since Elijah wants to get this case out of way as quickly as possible shows that he doesn’t want to be working with any robot.

Journal #2

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One of the themes that have stood out for me while reading “Caves of Steel” is the concept of socialism through out the book. One particular moment that stood out to me was when Elijah and R.Daneel went to a foreign kitchen to eat and discussed how the food around the world is exactly the same. He also discussed how they were allowed to eat certain because of his class and how they weren’t allowed to eat depending on whether kitchen was short or not. The food distribution in this book is controlled by one entity and is distributed to everyone in the world. Elijah is only allowed a certain amount of choices to eat, he cannot buy whatever he wants like in a capitalistic society. Another example of socialism in the book was how many children a family is allowed to have is controlled. Elijah is a level five so he is allowed to have two kids. This book was written during the 1950’s so this theme is very strange for this time period. I feel as if he was maybe telling his readers that socialism is the future or he was telling readers that it isn’t the future since their are many problems in the Caves of Steel.