Runaround
By: Max Babb and Tavis Turner
Speedy the Dynamic Character
Speedy the robot is a dynamic character in the short story Runaround. In the beginning of the story Powell and Donavan are unable to find Speedy the robot, when they find him Speedy will not listen to Powell or Donavan because he cannot figure out which law to follow. "Powell yelled: “All right, Speedy. Come here, boy.” Whereupon Speedy’s robot voice sounded in Powell’s earphones for the first time. It said: “Hot dog, let’s play games. You catch me and I catch you; no love can cut our knife in two. For I’m Little Buttercup, sweet Little Buttercup. Whoops!” This quote from the story shows Speedy not listening to any of the boys. Powell and Donavan come up with a plan to save speedy and make him listen to them. They plan to act like Powell is going to die unless Speedy saves him. Their plan works and Speedy stops acting dumb and "saves" Powell.
Social Commentary in Runaround
Social Commentary in Runaround the author criticizes technology because of the fact people have less motivation to do things for themselves because of the attention people put into technology. This quote from runaround shows how dependent the characters Donavan and Powell are on Speedy the robot " If Speedy didn’t come back, no selenium. No selenium, no photocell banks. No photo-banks -- well, death by slow broiling is one of the more unpleasant ways of being done in." If Speedy did not come back in a certain amount time they would die because they sent Speedy to get selenium which they need to live.
Dystopia In Runaround
The dystopia in Runaround is technological control because of how much of the society relies on the technology to do stuff for them. In the society that Donavan and Powell live in they can live without Speedy the robot because of the daily tasks that Speedy does for Donavan and Powell. This quote from Runaround shows how reliable Donavan and Powell are on the technology and what speedy does for them. "If Speedy didn’t come back, no selenium. No selenium, no photocell banks. No photo-banks -- well, death by slow broiling is one of the more unpleasant ways of being done in." Speedy was running to get them selenium which they cannot live on Mercury without. All this shows how reliable Donavan and Powell are on the technology in their society.