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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Long Lashes:
Android women's remarkable eyelashes are a motif in the novel. In Chapter 6, when John Isidore meets Pris, Dick remarks on Pris's eyelashes to foreshadow her real identity:
Now he saw that she had a nice figure, although small, and nice eyes markedly established by long black lashes.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Long Lashes:
Android women's remarkable eyelashes are a motif in the novel. In Chapter 6, when John Isidore meets Pris, Dick remarks on Pris's eyelashes to foreshadow her real identity:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now he saw that she had a nice figure, although small, and nice eyes markedly established by long black lashes.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Kipple:
Dick's novel is known for popularizing the concept of "kipple," an accumulation of consumer junk that seems to reproduce on its own. In Chapter 8, this motif appears alongside an instance of situational irony:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The scavengers’ building impressed him; large and modern, it held a good number of high-class purely office employees. The deep-pile carpets, the expensive genuine wood desks, reminded him that garbage collecting and trash disposal had, since the war, become one of Earth’s important industries. The entire planet had begun to disintegrate into junk, and to keep the planet habitable for the remaining population the junk had to be hauled away occasionally…or, as Buster Friendly liked to declare, Earth would die under a layer—not of radioactive dust—but of kipple.
Related Themes:
