Yang Breaks Down
The story begins with the imagery of the moment that Yang breaks down. It is at the breakfast table when his head suddenly falls into his bowl of Cheerios. But it is really a portrait of the narrator’s breakdown:
“At times like these, I’m not the most clearheaded. I stand in my kitchen, my chair knocked over behind me, at a total loss. Shut him down, call the company? Shut him down, call the company? By now the bowl is empty, milk dripping off the table, Cheerios all over the goddamned place, and Yang has a red ring on his forehead from where his face has been striking the bowl. A bit of skin has pulled away from his skull over his left eyelid. I decide I need to shut him down”
Man or Machine?
The entire story revolves around the issue of whether Yang is man or machine. And what, exactly, is the dividing line relative to machines designed to replicate humans in every possible way. There is no questioning that Yang is a constructed piece of advanced technology, but details tend to get a fuzzy, especially for the narrator who never fully seems able to reconcile the issue himself:
“What arrests me, though, are the objects on his writing desk. Small matchboxes are stacked in a pile on the center of the table, the matchsticks spread across the expanse like tiny logs. In a corner is an orange-capped bottle of Elmer’s that I recognize as the one from my toolbox. What was Yang up to? A log cabin? A city of small wooden men and women? Maybe this was Yang’s attempt at art—one that, unlike the calligraphy he was programmed to know, was entirely his own.”
Racism
The story is about what gives humans their humanity. Obviously, the centerpiece of this overarching theme is the issue of robots made to look and act like human beings, but since this is a bit of futuristic fiction, it is worth nothing that this world is also to the point where clones have assimilated fully into the social weave. An interesting addition to the theme is the undercurrent of racism running throughout. Jim and his wife are Americans who have recently adopted a Chinese daughter and Yang is himself a Chinese android. The issue of racism’s impact upon humanity is centered in the anti-Asian repairman that first takes Yang to:
“The work space is full of body parts, switchboards, cables, and tools. Along the wall hang disjointed arms, a couple of knees, legs of different sizes, and the head of a young girl, about seventeen, with long red hair. There’s a worktable cluttered with patches of skin and a Pyrex box full of female hands. All the skin tones are Caucasian. In the middle of the room is an old massage table streaked with grease.”
George
The issue of humanity is also raised with the surprising complexity revealed about Jim’s neighbor, George. It is significant that George is the person who recommends the racist repairman. This recommendation is all tied up with the first-person characterization of George provided by Jim that is not entirely positive. One is left with the impression of George as someone unlikely to feel genuine empathy regarding the breakdown of a robot built to look and act like a teenage boy. Ultimately, however, George’s role in this examination of humanity becomes something rather unexpected:
“When it’s all over, we go back inside to have breakfast. We’re eating our cereal when the doorbell rings. I get up and answer it. On our doorstep is a glass vase filled with orchids and white lilies. A small card is attached. I kneel down and open it. Didn’t want to disturb you guys. Just wanted to give you these. We’re all very sorry for your loss—George, Dana, and the twins. Amazing, I think. This from a guy who paints his face for Super Bowl games.”
