Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Summary: Plot, Characters and Ending
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter in a dusty, half-empty San Francisco after a nuclear war. He is assigned to retire six escaped androids so lifelike they can only be detected by an empathy test, and he hopes the bounty will buy him a real animal to replace his electric sheep.
The novel inspired the film Blade Runner, which changes much of the story.
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Rick Deckard | Bounty hunter |
| Iran | Rick's depressed wife |
| Rachael Rosen | Android working for the Rosen Association |
| John Isidore | Gentle man affected by radiation |
| Roy and Irmgard Baty | Leaders of the escaped androids |
| Pris Stratton | Android who looks like Rachael |
| Luba Luft | Android opera singer |
| Phil Resch | Cold-hearted fellow bounty hunter |
What is the world like?
After World War Terminus, radioactive dust covers the Earth. Most people have emigrated to Mars, where androids serve them. Real animals are rare, and owning one is a status symbol; Rick's sheep is a fake. Many people use an empathy box to share feelings in a popular movement called Mercerism.
↑ Back to the topWhat is Rick's mission?
Six Nexus-6 androids have killed their owners and fled to Earth. Rick tests Rachael Rosen at the company that makes them; the company tries to trick him, but he discovers she is an android. He retires the first one and then faces Luba Luft, an opera singer, who has him arrested by a fake police department run by androids. He escapes with Phil Resch, and they retire Luba.
↑ Back to the topWho is John Isidore?
John Isidore, a lonely man barred from emigrating because of radiation damage, lives in an empty building. He takes in Pris Stratton and then the Batys, treating them as friends. When Pris cuts the legs off a spider out of curiosity, Isidore is horrified by their lack of empathy.
↑ Back to the topWhat happens between Rick and Rachael?
Rick sleeps with Rachael, who reveals she has done the same with other bounty hunters to stop them killing androids. He nonetheless finds he feels empathy toward some androids. A television host exposes Mercer, the movement's central figure, as an actor on a film set, but people keep using the empathy box anyway.
↑ Back to the topHow does it end?
Rick goes to Isidore's building and retires Pris and the Batys in a single day, a record. He returns to find Rachael has pushed his new real goat off the roof. Exhausted, he drives into the desert, has a strange experience of becoming Mercer himself and finds a toad, which he believes is a real, extinct animal. At home Iran discovers it is electric. Rick is disappointed but accepts it, saying electric things have their lives too, and falls asleep while Iran orders artificial flies for it.
↑ Back to the topMore about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
This summary reveals the whole plot, including the ending.