"Today I am Paul. I activate my chassis extender, giving myself 3.5 centimeters additional height so as to approximate Paul's size. I change my eye color to R60, G200, B180, the average shade of Paul's eyes in interior lighting. My silicone flesh stretches, and I flood it with pigments to adjust my skin tone as well. When I had first emulated Paul, I had been troubled that I could not quickly emulate his beard; but Mildred never seems to notice its absence. The Paul in her memory has no beard."
Carey is the narrator and protagonist of this novel and is also an android. One of Carey's most interesting features is the ability to shapeshift. Carey uses this ability to help Mildred, who suffers from Alzheimer's, pretending to be her son, Paul. Shapeshifting for different purposes is something Carey does repeatedly in the novel, and this is introduced at the very beginning.
"I am torn between competing directives. My empathy net warns me not to agitate Mildred, but my emulation net is locked into Paul mode. Paul is argumentative. If he knows he is right, he will not let a matter drop."
Part of Carey's ability to shapeshift is the difficulty of acting exactly as that person would. Here, Carey is unsure whether to fight back to Mildred, because this is something Paul would do. This is also a sign that Carey is beginning to become sentient, due to the experience of empathy.
