The Minority Report

Philip K. Dick was a prolific and highly influential American science fiction author primarily active in the mid-20th century. His work is often philosophical in nature (“Philip K. Dick”), tending to explore hypothetical “what-ifs” rather than fantastical adventures to other worlds. Many of his life experiences feature, if obliquely, in his work; the more obviously autobiographical and/or self-insert characters tend to appear in his later writings (Satifka 54).

Common themes in Dick’s writing include travel through time/space (possibly with associated colonization motifs), war or postwar societies, technological and scientific advances (especially with automation and/or psychological influences), paranoia/suspicion, and the idea of precognition—prediction or anticipation of future events. Dick also tends to choose “everyman” protagonists (often literally men) who are more focused on the minutiae of their daily lives than dramatic, world-altering drama. Finally, although his mother was a “proto-feminist,” most of his female characters do not reflect her influence, possibly due to his strained familial relationships. Instead, Dick tends to rely on the 1950s stereotype of women—domestically oriented, supportive of their husbands, and very much side characters. To that end, his depictions of both Donna and Lisa in “The Minority Report” are unusual extremes: Donna is a precog, likened more to a machine or an animal than a human, and Lisa is an independent, intelligent career woman who returns to the domestic sphere at the end of the story.