James Tiptree Jr.’s story “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” is a very bleak and complex story that is about a world where beautiful celebrities are remote controlled by other people to sell products and help the rich get richer. Throughout the story, we meet many different characters that play important roles in P. Burke’s life and her transition into her new body.
For example, one of the first characters we meet is a man named Joe. Joe a man who works at GTX, or the Global Transmissions Corporation, and he works as a supervisor during P. Burke’s technical training in her new body. Throughout the story, Joe tries his best to explain P. Burke’s situation to her and guide her through the ups and downs of her new life, but he does leave out many key details that may have stopped P. Burke from going through with the whole procedure, like how she was viewed and treated as an advertisement by many of the people around her, and nothing more.
Another character we are introduced to in the story is Mr. Cantle, who is presented as one of the men behind P. Burke’s whole situation, in other words, he is her boss. In the beginning, Mr. Cantle introduces himself as a gentlemen who wants what is best for P. Burke as she begins her new life as Delphi. He goes over many of the things she will be doing for Mr. Cantle and GTX and acts as if he has her best interests at heart, but we learn that that is all a facade. We see that Mr. Cantle is very irritable and even when Delphi makes one mistake, he views her as a failure and a waste of time. Mr. Cantle only sees Delphi and P. Burke as another advertisement and a means to an end, nothing more.
One of the most important characters we meet is Paul Isham III. Paul Isham is a director who was working on a project not too far from where Delphi was, and as soon as he laid eyes on her he fell in love. Paul and Delphi would go on to spend a lot of time together and grow closer, all the while Delphi is doing everything in her power to not let him know the truth about her situation. Eventually, Paul learns about Delphi’s situation and does everything in his power to help free her, but when he encounters the real P. Burke, he is disgusted. However, he still wishes for her to be free from this life but, ultimately, it is his intense feelings for Delphi that leads to her and P. Burkes’s death.
This story can definitely be seen as a way to critique the way our society operates and the values that we have as a whole. For example, the idea that many people, both boys and girls, envision themselves living a life in a body that is not their own is very negative and P. Burkes’s character shows that. We see that, overtime, P. Burke begins to completely throw away the life she once had and the person she once was in favor of this new one, when the people around Delphi do not even view her as a human, they just see her as an advertisement. This story shows that giving up your integrity and self-respect just to live a life that you may think is amazing is not worth it in the long-run
I like how you related our society’s boys and girls to what happened to P. Burke in the story. If given the opportunity, I think an unhealthy amount of young people would do the same as P. Burke in terms of completely throwing away her old life for this new one.
Paul is a fascinating character to me, because for a moment it almost seems as if he is actually going to fall for the real P Burke. Did you also get that feeling? How would you feel if you had been catfished to that level? Do you think you could keep on loving someone who lied that intensely?
The development of Mr. Cantle was more and more frustrating as we got to know him, effectively representing that exploitive ruling power that advertising companies crave! You had mentioned integrity in your conclusion, which is a heavy component of the theme here, I think. Do you think P. Burke had any to give up from the moment we were introduced to her?