In 1998, Robbie takes care of Gloria Weston, a young girl, although he cannot speak. Robbie is very simple, but he is good at his job and they play during the time he babysits her. The unusual thing is that the nanny is a robot and Mrs. Weston does not approve of the robot and sends him away. The mother is afraid that Robbie might do something bad to Gloria because of the fact that he is not human.
George Weston disagrees and he believes that having a robot as a babysitter is safe. He says: “His entire ‘mentality’ has been created for the purpose. He just can't help being faithful and loving and kind. He's a machine—made so. That's more than you can say for humans“ (Asimov 5). The robot was expensive when George bought it and there is no doubt about Robbie being useful. However, Grace manages to persuade her husband that they should remove Robbie from the house while Gloria is away. When Gloria finds out about this, she is unhappy and she recollects the time spend with Robbie. The dog the parents buy for her is not satisfactory and it is revealed that Gloria thinks of Robbie as her friend. “He was not no machine!” screamed Gloria, fiercely and ungrammatically. “He was a person just like you and me and he was my friend. I want him back. Oh, Mamma, I want him back” (Asimov 7). This is the moment when it is obvious that Robbie was considered to be a person who could spend quality time with humans. He was constructed in such a way and it is a disaster for Gloria to see him gone.
Gloria remains unhappy although she gets a dog and a vacation in New York because of the fact that she lost a close companion. The funny moment in the story happens when the family visits a museum where a robot is exposed. Gloria asks him to find out where Robbie is, but his brain fries at that moment. Grace cannot help Gloria in any way because she does not want Robbie in her house and George is trying to make Gloria realize that robots are not humans and that they do not have feelings. They go to a factory to observe how robots are created and how their parts are assembled. The idea is to make Gloria aware of the fact that Robbie is certainly not human and that he does not have any kind of feelings.
What happens next proves that robots do have some sort of feelings, or at least Robbie does. A tractors is about to kill Gloria, but Robbie turns out from nowhere and rescues her life which would have been impossible for a human being. Robbie is like a superhuman in her eyes at the moment and Grace allows for Robbie to return home which is a happy ending for everybody.
The point is that robots are developed for the special purpose and are supposed to help people explore planets like Mercury where the mines could be exploited. Robots might also be bad for people, which is why it is better to use them for economical purposes and for work in the places that cannot be reached by humans. In this story, Gloria establishes a warm friendship with the robot and this kind of a relationship would be impossible with another human being. Robbie is a very special kind of a robot because he seems to have feelings and he is capable of self-sacrifice.
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. "Robbie." Baruch. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/machine/files/2014/09/1940-Isaac-Asimov-Robbie.pdf>.
