San Francisco

San Francisco is the central, decaying stage of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a city on post-apocalyptic Earth where the radioactive dust of World War Terminus has settled over everything, and where the dwindling human population clings to a semblance of normal life. It is the home of bounty hunter Rick Deckard and the operational base of the San Francisco Police Department, from which he is dispatched to "retire" the six escaped Nexus-6 androids. The city's geography—from the Hall of Justice on Lombard Street to the War Memorial Opera House and the desolate suburbs—maps the novel's moral and physical terrain, a landscape of kipple, emptiness, and the constant, oppressive presence of death.

The City as a Post-War Wasteland

San Francisco, like the rest of Earth, has been ravaged by World War Terminus. The morning air is described as "spilling over with radioactive motes, gray and sun—beclouding," and its inhabitants must wear lead codpieces to protect their reproductive organs from the dust. The city's population has collapsed; a half-occupied conapt building is considered high-density, and the suburbs are entirely empty. The novel opens in Deckard's apartment, where the silence of the building's empty apartments is a palpable, haunting presence. The city is a place of decay and abandonment, where the legacy of the war has left the survivors to "degenerate" if they do not emigrate to the colonies. This physical decay is mirrored in the psychological state of its residents, who rely on Penfield mood organs to regulate their emotions and on the empathy box to feel connected to others.

Key Locations and Their Significance

Several specific locations within San Francisco are crucial to the plot. The Hall of Justice on Lombard Street is the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department, where Deckard reports to Inspector Harry Bryant and receives his assignments. It is a familiar, bureaucratic space, but its reality is thrown into question when Deckard is arrested by a rogue android police officer and taken to the Mission Street Hall of Justice, a building he has never seen before, which is actually an android-run police station. The War Memorial Opera House is where Deckard encounters the android Luba Luft, a talented opera singer performing in The Magic Flute. This setting highlights the tragic irony of an android possessing such a profound human artistic gift. The St. Francis Hotel is where Deckard meets Rachael Rosen, and their sexual encounter there marks a turning point in his psychological state, leading to his inability to continue as a bounty hunter. The city's Animal Row, a block of pet shops, represents the desperate human desire for authentic life, where Deckard, after earning bounty money, buys a black Nubian goat, only to have it killed by Rachael in revenge.

The City as a Moral and Psychological Arena

San Francisco is not merely a backdrop but an active force in the novel's moral drama. The city's emptiness and decay amplify the characters' isolation and despair. Deckard's journey through its streets and buildings is a descent into the moral ambiguity of his profession. The city's police department, with its bounty system, represents the institutionalized violence against androids, while the android-run Mission Street station reveals the fragility of human authority. The city's suburbs, where the last three androids hide in a decaying conapt building, become the final battleground. The novel's climax, where Deckard retires the Batys and Pris Stratton, occurs in this desolate, kipple-ized building, a microcosm of the city's own ruin. Ultimately, San Francisco is the place where Deckard confronts the limits of his own humanity, a city that forces him to see the world through the eyes of both the hunter and the hunted.