Analysis_of__The_Girl_Who_Was_Plugged_in_

Close writing assignment Within James Tiptree Jr’s short story, The Girl Who was Plugged in, there is very little description of the two main characters, P-Burke and Delphi, other then that of their physical appearance, yet with such information, each character is easily described as being, or not being a girl. To describe anyone as such, one must fully understand the concept of girl, but what is a ‘girl’' The concept of girl, as made out in Tiptree’s story, describes girl not only as one who is robotic, not in the sense of screws and metal parts, but one who is both controlled by others to do what society as a whole wants, and who has a desirable physical appearance. The concept of girl, made out in Tiptree’s story, is something unrealistic. “P-Burke is about as far as you can get from the concept girl. She’s female, yes-but for her, sex is a four letter word spelled P-A-I-N…”(506) By describing P-Burke as “the ugly of the world” (547) as well as “about as far as you can get from the concept girl”(556) one might see not what ‘girl’ can be defined as, rather more so as what ‘girl’ is not. ‘Girl’, cannot be P-Burke, and P-Burke is ugly. “But Delphi is in no sense a robot. Call her a Waldo if you must. The fact is she’s just a girl, a real-live girl with her brain in an unusual place…”(555) Delphi is described as “a real-live girl…”(555) as well as a “Goddess”(565) and “porno for angels”(550). This re enforces that ‘girl’ is Delphi, and Delphi is beautiful. To distinguish Delphi’s character, one must be able to see her whole being. She is perfect in every physical way; she even “walks lovely”(555). Not being only beautiful and graceful the way society calls for, she acts also as society commands. Mr. Cantle tells Delphi on page 554 “your job is to do what they say.” This takes away Delphi’s free will. Delphi is created and controlled by what society wants; she is a robot as proved by the phrase “Without a remote, it [being Delphi] is just a vegetable”(551), but every creation must another being to control it. P-Burke, though the controller of Delphi’s mind and of Delphi’s actions, is not who controls her completely, as it is society who controls her by shaping Mr. Cantle and Dr Telsa’s intentions, who control P-Burke and Delphi directly, thus making Delphi unreal, which further proves Tiptree’s concept of ‘girl’ unreal. At the same time, Delphi is not a complete robot, Delphi may be “89 pounds of tender girl flesh and blood with a few metallic components”(555) but Delphi’s ‘inner self’ is P-Burke’s very mind. Everything except for Delphi’s physical body originated from P-Burke, even her name came from “Burke’s ‘P’ which stands for Philadelphia…”(552). Robots aren’t made to have feelings, but by placing her consciousness into Delphi’s body, P-Burke enables her feelings to become Delphi’s. Everything anyone can see beyond Delphi’s model exterior is P-Burke. This appears to give Delphi a sense of free will, making her appear genuine, but her ‘free will’ comes from P-Burke and is very limited as Delphi’s actions are still controlled by society limiting her freedom, and that free will is what ultimately brings Delphi’s downfall upon herself. P-Burke falls in love with Paul while being in Delphi’s body and Paul falls in love with ‘Delphi’ without the knowledge that Delphi is something created for an ulterior motive, this being called the “Burke Project”(552), consisting no mind of her own; instead a whole other consciousness within her body which makes her who she is. Delphi herself has no control over whom she may love, for it is P-Burke’s love and feelings that are shown through Delphi. As Delphi’s created to be controlled by society, P-Burke is not allowed to use her free will and by trying to love Paul through Delphi it leads ultimately to her own down fall as well as that of Delphi’s. When Paul realizes that another controls Delphi other then herself, he did not think that Delphi’s mind, being P-Burkes mind, could be real and that it was simply controlled by an uncaring scientist. Paul tried to free Delphi from society’s control and enable her live her own life, and he kills P-Burke on the belief that Delphi can be real, but without P-Burke’s mental control, Delphi becomes what she was before P-Burke became her essence, an empty shell, a vegetable. It’s impossible to let Delphi, the girl, live because Delphi is just a robotic body controlled by another. Society creates the unreal term ‘girl’ and without it’s control, ‘girl’ is nothing but an empty word. Works cited: Tiptree James Jr. "The Girl Who Was Plugged In." The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3: Subversive Stories about Sex and Gender. Eds. Karen Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, Jeffrey D. Smith. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2007.