A Rover's Story

Though Resilience and his fellow devices are human-made constructs of synthetic material and computerized thought, the robots and humans of Warga’s world are more alike than they are different. In Chapter 26, when Resilience searches for the difference between living and non-living things, his research suggests “that Xander and Rania would be in one category, and Journey and [Resilience] would be in another” (86). That this finding disturbs him, however, only contributes further to his humanity. Rather than focusing on the line between humans and robots, the novel is interested in the processing of human emotions. In particular, Warga uses Resilience as a way to explore how we process grief and loss as part of life.

Encountering death for the first time is a major part of coming of age. In the novel, both Resilience and Sophie have to face the fact of mortality—Resilience through Courage and Sophie through Rania’s illness. When confronted with Courage’s blank state, Resilience experiences fear of his own mortality for the first time. He sees his own end through Courage’s blankness. It’s therefore on finding Courage that Resilience’s courage ironically falters; it’s when he finds Courage, the rover, that Resilience needs actual courage more than ever.