The story “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree, otherwise known as Alice Sheldon, is a story with deep roots in our society. It revolves around the themes of escapism, capitalism, infatuation, and greed. These themes run deep within our world and when used in the narrative allow us to understand where these impact our lives. However the themes of the novel aren’t the only aspects of the story that reflect our society, many of the actual events reflect things that occurred in the past and still occur in modern times. These themes are directly involved within the three characters second most important to P. Burke.
The world of “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” shows us a version of our society in which the ads that have become commonplace within our media consumption have been forcibly restricted, and have been replaced with word of mouth. This is explained by Mr. Cantle, one of three major characters in the story, “Advertising as it used to be is against the law. A display other than the legitimate use of the product, intended to promote its sale.” (Tiptree 7). Not only is Mr. Cantle important because he introduces us to the reason why Delphi is required, but he also represents one of the major themes, capitalism perfectly. Mr. Cantle is this story’s main antagonist, and the relation to capitalism seems to be his driving force. All he cares about at the end of the day is the output of Delphi.
Another important character in the story is Delphi’s main love interest, Paul. He introduces us to the concept of infatuation, and continue’ s the throughline of greed throughout the story, taking the baton from both P. Burke. and Mr. Cantle. Sheldon is trying to hammer home the difference between love and infatuation with this novel and decides to do so by playing out a scene in which, when Paul has to look past physical appearance, he can’t seem to do it. “Wouldn’t you, if a gaunt she-golem flab-naked and spouting wires and blood came at you clawing with metal studded paws—“Get away!” He knocks wires.” (Tiptree 29). And in the end his greed, for wanting her more than reason ends up killing the Delphi that he knew. Not that he would have lasted long with her anyway.
The last important character within the story is Joe, who apart from P. Burke and Delphi is the one who exemplifies escapism the most, mostly due to the fact that he is the one who provides Delphi with that means of escape. He is the engineer, and is placed in charge of taking care of her. He is also the only one who truly cares for Delphi, “Joe doesn’t mind P.Burke’s looks, he hasn’t noticed them. To Joe, system matrices are beautiful.” (Tiptree 5). Joe being the one who can look past P. Burke’s appearance tells us a lot about him but mostly, that he understands that things aren’t what they appear to be on the outside. He sees his systems as means to get to a beautiful end, and not as the ugly mash that they are.
I agree with your statement that the story revolves around escapism, capitalism, infatuation, and greed. It’s interesting seeing how these four things are depicted throughout the story and even within the characters. Mr. Cantle, like you mentioned, is an accurate representation of capitalism.
Escapism and infatuation were two heavy hitting themes throughout the story, and they work hand in hand with each other. The publics infatuation with these “gods” and the idea of this upper status they are all after pushes some to literally escape that world. Either in an attempted suicide to experience it no more, or to kill off the person figuratively and live on as an experiment living both in the sun with the beautiful people and in a concrete cell underground. There is a lot to unpack there but I think Sheldon was able to make a very interesting twist on how these two work in tandem.