Plot
"The Minority Report", a short story by Philip K. Dick, encapsulates a very rare breed plot development. The reader is immediately immersed into the action as the story begins with the founder of Precrime conversing with an agent about what his life's work is all about and how his unique system is run (p. 119-123). This information serves as a basis for what the reader understands about the main characters and the Precrime system in general. As the story continues, Dick does a phenomenal job of keeping the reader guessing. Many times I found myself questioning who the good guys and bad guys really were. A sort of tug-of-war takes place in which the reader never knows who to trust or who to side with. Overall, the story has a very engaging plot that keeps the reader engaged and always guessing.
Point of View
This literary work is written in the third person omniscient in which the story is told from an all-knowing outside source that can not only interpret the words and actions of the characters, but their internal thoughts and feelings as well. The use of this narrative mode helps the reader to fully understand what the characters are truly thinking. In the opening line of the short narrative, the thoughts of the main character, Ed Anderton, are referenced to express his thoughts on his aging condition. He says, "I'm getting bald. Bald and fat and old" (p. 119). This internal information helps to paint a better picture of not only the physical attributes of Anderton, but also his mental stability and rationalization of the need to find a replacement. The ability to comprehend the thoughts of the character throughout the work allowed the author, Philip K. Dick, to fully explain and get his point across in a relatively short time span and word count. The use of the third person omniscient point of view was an instrumental part to the delivery of the short story.
Characterization
Indirect characterization is riddled throughout the entirety of the short story. Dick never came out and told the reader that a character was bad or that they were out to get another character. This fact made "The Minority Report" everything that is boasted to be. The use of indirect characterization gave the literary work a sense of mystery and essentially fueled the story. If the reader were to know, right off the bat, who was bad, who was good, and what every character truly intended to do, there would not be a story, but rather just a retelling of events. The reader has to concoct their own views and opinions on what kind of person each character appeared to be, creating a sort of "who done it?" atmosphere. A prime example of this uncertainty of actual characterization came to me when Tod Flemming, a man I thought to be on Ed Anderton side the entire time, ended up being a spy who was trying to control the Andertons (p. 141).
Setting
The setting of the short literary work plays a very vital role the legitimacy of the story. "The Minority Report" is set in the future where space ships (p. 137-141), travel to extraterrestrial planets (p. 149-151), and the ability to predict crimes before they happen are all a reality (p. 120-122). This future reality allows the reader to consider the possibility that the use of Precrime could actually one day exist. Personally, stepping into the future is one of my favorite settings because virtually anything is impossible. This fact allows for limitless creativity on the author's part and boundless extents for one's imagination. In the end, the futuristic setting allows the reader to expect the unexpected and the author to run free with creativity.
Theme
The major theme expressed in the literary work are fate and deception. In the first section of the story, Anderton receives his fate to murder a man that he had never even met (p. 122-123). He then continues, throughout the story, to try to prevent his fate from occurring. In the end, he finds out that the very act he was trying to keep himself from doing must be done to preserve the validity of the the Precrime Initiative. Deception is also a prominent theme in the story. Anderton is deceived by numerous people including Kaplan, the man he was fated to kill. Kaplan played Anderton to make him seem innocent and as if he was only trying to protect himself from his future murder but he; however, had much bigger plans. Kaplan's real intent was to bring down the Precrime movement and deny it's validity, but as he attempted to disprove the system, he completed the exact opposite as Anderton murdered him in the presence hundreds of people (p. 149).
