Critical analysis of Rachel Swirsky story "Eros, Philia, Agape." (Book Review Sample)

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Critical analysis of Rachel Swirsky story "Eros, Philia, Agape." Introduction Eros, philia, agape is a science fiction contemporary book written by an American author Rachel Swirsky. Rachael is an American citizen who lives in California; she is a dedicated and talented author who has written a lot of science fiction and fantasy stories. "Eros, Philia, Agape" are words from the ancient Greek. Eros means a love that reaches far beyond the outer surface and accommodates the recipient regardless of the shortcomings (Anna, 2012). Philia also known as phileo means love that is warm, tender and deep while agape refer to the love we feel for everyone also referred to as selfish love (Theodore, 1957). She bases her story entirely on love, as the name suggests. And this is love between two species, a human lady who is Adriana and a male robot Luciana, together they adopt a baby whom they name Rose. Rachel imaginative work takes into account the interaction of human and the machines and she tries to explore a possibility of, the modern technological advancement used to replace the human failures. However, throughout her work, a thesis statement of whether technology is the solution for human emotional satisfaction arises. The story forms a base or evaluation of human dependency on one another, and if by any chance we can replace the dependency with made machines, and in this case a robot. When critically examining the story, it’s evidently clear that human feelings can only be properly reciprocated by another human, a chain of dependency exists among us and we can never survive on our own. This is supported by the story as we find that even after Adriana had bought Luciana as a male companion and a partner, and their love is strong and rigid at first, the robot deeply relies on how it is programmed to respond. And it gets to a point according to the program and instructions, Luciana feels that he is slowly becoming more human and human emotions are developing in him, he makes a drastic resolution of abandoning the people he loved and escaped to the desert. Characters The story is based on three major characters, Adriana, Luciana, and Rose. Adriana is introduced to the story first, she is broken and dejected. This is after she has shortly lost her father. She longs for companionship, yet she is afraid of getting disappointed by fellow humans, so she opts to buy a robot friend whom she calls Luciana, and together they decide to adopt a child. This brings about to the introduction of the third character, baby Rose. In the choice of the characters, the author puts into consideration the perfect balance of a normal family. She tries to put across the idea that for a modern family to be complete, it basically must have father mother and a child, and it’s clearly presented in her choice of characters. The minor characters developed by the author are Jessica, Eleanor, and Nanette, who all are Adriana’s sisters. Ben and Lawrence are also dear friends to Adriana and offers her comfort when Luciana breaks her heart Setting of the story The author sets her story, in the United States at a rich town which neighbors’ a village and farms. This is evident in the story when Adriana offers to take Rose to the neighboring farm where she pays for her to see the goats and other animals. However, her house is in the suburbs of a rich town; all her house electronics are programmed with command prompts and the doors and windows opens and shut when instructed. This is a clear characteristic of an urban setting where technological advancement and uses is high. A desert setting is also incorporated into the story; this is where Luciana later escapes to when he feels human feelings are getting the better o him. Rachel Swirsky is an American citizen and the choice of the setting to unfold her story can be highly attributed to that fact. She is from California and the description of the story setting clearly resembles the California setting, which neighbors the Nevada desert. Her scope of imagination greatly depends on the setting that’s around her, and this greatly influences her story. California is known for both rich town and rich agricultural farms, the same setting she deploys in her storyline. The plot/structure of the story The story begins with a situation at hand, which is the departure of Luciana, and Adriana and Rose are on the front porch bidding him farewell. It’s an emotional departure which for all the parties involved. This is an effective, strategy meant to capture the attention of the reader right from the start of the story. It’s a strategy mostly preferred by the modern literature writers, which helps in breaking the monotony and traditions of story writing, where the author starts with how the event started. To help the reader understand the story, the author develops the use of flashback. She takes the event back to reconstruct the chronological sequence of event. That’s where we learn that an idea is suggested to Adriana as she attends a dinner invitation to her friend’s house that she could purchase a robot to aid her with household choirs. She at fist downplays the idea but later, gives in to the temptation. The purchasing of the robot brings desired results, as Adriana obtains the companionship and the help she needed. At first, the robot behaves as expected and strictly follows the coding and programs installed by the manufacturing company. However a crisis starts to develop, the robot slowly begins to integrate with humans and emotional feelings such as anger, desires, love and care starts to creep in. This is the climax of the story, and the author uses this setting to base the unfolding of the event. She portrays how the robot male and his human lover slowly and unaware falls deep in love and assume a setting of a family. Baby Rose is adopted, and she becomes the jewel of the family. Both the couple shows their love to this new member, and particularly this creates a deeper crisis in the mind of the robot. The author particularly focuses her attention on the robot to show her readers how the programmed machine fails. At the end of the story, guilt overcomes reasoning and Luciana escapes to the desert to hide from the reality and get rid of the emotions inside him. Swirsky, concludes the flashback by bringing an end to the emotional crisis in the story, she achieves that by Luciana escaping and leaving the human family alone and heartbroken. How the story concludes, directly answers the question of whether human emotions can be replaced by a machine. Such an attempted is clearly fatal and leaves Adriana more frustrated and broken than she initially was, this is clearly portrayed in this extract in the story (Rachael, 2010) "Adriana will feel the world closing in on her as if she cannot breathe, but even as her life feels dim and futile, she will continue breathing. Yes, she will agree, it is best to return to Boston, where her sisters can help her”. Theme of the story Love is the primary theme in the story, the author develops this theme through her work and from the inception, and she creates a superior of human feeling the need to be loved. Adriana needs love after she loses the love and care of her father to death. However the author employs irony in the search for love, instead of Adriana seeking love in a human companion, she goes to seek the companionship of a robot. Love is manifested in different ways in the story, away from the main character open love and admiration for each other, the author develops the concept of love in animals toward humans. The caged bird Fuoco, which Adriana was given as a birthday present by her father, shows deep love for her mistress and when Luciana is introduced into Adriana’s life, Fuoco suffers a condition associated with jealousy. It is because of love that Luciana cannot stand human company, and he has grown too attached to things. The theme of human superiority is also portrayed, and the act of human playing God is elaborated in the creation and assembling of Luciana. He is given the capabilities of humans, minds of mathematicians, poets and physicists. The success of a robot is supposed to glorify human’s abilities, yet the author creates irony by identifying how the machine failed in the basic activities where a human being would get it right. An example is when Luciana serves coffee in a wine glass or serves wine in a mug, and he has no idea of what he has done wrong. The irony is that regardless of the fact that Luciana is made to respond and maneuver tricky situations, he does not have the ability to make basic reasoning that a normal human has. Looking deeply into Rachel’s work we can also identify a theme of feminism, developed in the character Adriana. She is deep in fighting for female rights to love and make emotional choices as she sees fit. Contrary to most of the society’s customs and traditions which hinder women’s from expressing their emotions and make choices regarding love. The aggressive nature of Adriana in the story is a theme used by the author to encourage women to stand up and take initiatives. Not only in matters pertaining love but in advocating for things that would make thei...