Pluto

In this three part story, North No. 2 is a robot who serves as a butler to Paul Duncan. From the moment Duncan meets North No. 2, he displays a strong dislike towards the robot. It was not the robot’s appearance but rather his how he feels. To the composer, the robot is just a piece of metal with no feelings. The robot would just kill others like him without a second thought. Duncan thinks that unlike humans, North No. 2 does not seem to possess any empathy towards others especially his own kind. Although North No. 2 may feel a tiny bit sorry for murdering his kind, it does not mean that he understand these kinds of feelings. To feel empathetic, one understands and feels the same as another person but Duncan thinks that North No. 2 can’t understand the feelings he feels so he pushes the robot away. Throughout the story, the composer would mention how the robot won’t be able to understand his feelings. Because North No. 2 is a robot, Duncan deduces that whatever feelings the other feels were downloaded which means the feelings were fake. Even when North No. 2 said that he wanted to learn to play the piano, Duncan said that he won’t be able to because to play the piano requires feelings and North No. 2 does not have any.



Question: Why did the narrator in “The Elephant Vanishes” start to smoke again after the disappearance of the elephant?