Theme Of Empathy In The Fatal Eggs

Phillip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” , Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Fatal Eggs" and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" each explore the connection between empathy and what it means to be human through a critique of their respective societies, challenging the assumption that humans have a morally superior standing. By critiquing their socio-political contexts, these texts question the extent of empathy humans have, pushing the boundaries between the human in relation to either the animal or the machine. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" explores empathy as a process detectable by a machine, thus questioning our sense of the genuine, when humans and androids directly confront one another psychologically and physically. "The
"The Metamorphosis" similarly questions the extent of empathy humans have when Gregor Samsa's family is forced to take care of him as a depraved cockroach but they fail to recognise Gregor as still having any humane feelings. Therefore, all these texts challenge the assumption that humans always hold the notion of empathy in high regard, as humans also appear to be the only creatures also capable of being ‘monstrous’ in terms of showing ‘inhumane’ behaviour. Thus, this questions the idea if animals and machines could ever reach a similar moral position, if empathy is the defining attribute of what it means to be human, and how the idea of ‘empathy’ and the ‘monstrous’ could coincide. To first engage in the concept of empathy, each of these texts use the animal as a central motif to explore the human psyche and society. In "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" caring for an animal is the only way one can display their true humanity. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, after the chaos of "World War Terminus" most animals have become extinct, with only a few remaining and bought by the affluent. As Toth writes although it is not explicitly mentioned, it can be logically assumed that humans