The Wild Robot

“As you might know, robots don’t really feel emotions. […] And yet, as she sat in her crumpled crate, Roz felt something like curiosity.” 

This is the first instance in which the author uses the phrase “felt something like” to describe Roz’s “feelings,” her robotic responses that can be compared to human emotions. The Roz’s character is developed to show how, even though she is a robot, she experiences the world in ways to which the reader can relate, creating empathy through difference. She feels curiosity about her surroundings, having just been activated.

“Animal sounds filled the forest. Chirps and wingbeats and rustlings in the underbrush. […] The forest animals fell silent, and from their hiding places they watched as a sparkling monster stomped past.”

This is the animals’ first introduction to Roz, watching as she makes her way through the forest. The animals do not understand what she is and thus consider her a monster. Her metallic appearance and unnatural way of moving make the animals instantly judge her as foreign and repugnant. The use of the word “monster” is an interesting one, denoting a creature that is alien, dangerous, and heartless. This passage also describes the atmosphere of the forest, how it is full of the natural sounds of the animals, which contrast strikingly to Roz’s unnatural stomping noises.

“The island was teeming with life. And now it had a new kind of life. A strange kind of life. Artificial life.”

Roz establishes herself on the island and effectively transforms it by her very presence. The animals do not understand the concept of artificial life, the idea that humans could make a being rather than being born to a mother and father. It appears that even the migratory birds of the island have never encountered robots, since they keep a flight path that avoided human contact. Roz is such an anomaly because she speaks and moves like a living being, but she does not eat or drink and therefore does not have the same competitive needs as the animals.

"So she sat and anchored her hands to the rocks, her nonessential programs switched off, and then, in her own way, the robot slept.”

In these early chapters, Roz is still trying to figure out what to do with herself. She was programmed to follow orders and perform tasks immediately upon activation, but she is all alone with no owners to tell her what to do. Her immediate actions involve ensuring her own safety, but once that is completed, she sits and powers down. This passage is also part of the author’s effort to “humanize” Roz by describing her actions as comparable to those of living beings. Roz does not truly sleep, but she seems more relatable if she is described as sleeping. 

“Wouldn’t you be afraid if two bears were charging toward you? Of course you would! Everyone would! Even the robot felt something like fear.”

This is another instance of the author using the phrase “something like” to assign an emotion to Roz. This passage develops Roz as a character with responses that are analogous to the feelings of living creatures. Here the author is helping the reader relate to Roz by describing the universality of her situation by stating that Roz should be afraid, just like the reader, when faced with charging bears. This blurs the lines between the instincts of living beings and the programming, meant to ensure continued functionality, of a robot like Roz.

“When Roz first stomped across the island, the animal squawks and growls and chirps had sounded like nothing more than meaningless noises. […] Now she heard animal words.”

The main impediment to Roz’s survival on the island is her inability to communicate with the animals, whom she believes can help her by sharing their survival techniques. Roz uses her analytical processes and her observations of animal behavior to develop understanding of their language. The reader must suspend disbelief to accept that all animals speak the same language, with different “accents,” but it is vital to the story that all the animals on the island understand each other and, by extension, Roz. This also helps young readers to analogize Roz’s use of communication to generate empathy to their own experiences with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

“Roz knew that some animals had to die for others to live. That was how the wilderness worked. But would she allow her accident to cause the death of yet another gosling?”

This is a major development in Roz’s “life,” that she accepts responsibility for the deaths of the goose family and for the care of the remaining egg. She knows that animals die and the rockslide was an accident, but Roz recognizes that if it had not been for her actions, the goose egg would not have been left without a family. This is the first act that the reader sees Roz make that is decidedly “human-like,” not what one would expect from a non-feeling robot.

“There was that word again—act. Very slowly, the robot was learning to act friendly. Maybe she could learn to act motherly as well.”

Roz has already taken on a “fake it till you make it” attitude, figuring that she can try to act like she is alive in a way convincing enough to make the animals accept her. She has learned how to act more friendly in the hopes that the animals will behave in the same way towards her. In this passage, Roz shows that the “acting” lessons she learned to increase her own survival skills may also be used to increase the gosling’s chances of survival, if she can act like a protective mother.

“Then Paddler looked up at Roz and said, ‘You’re a very good robot to take care of Brightbill.’” 

This is the first time one of the island’s animals has complimented Roz on her behavior. It is an important moment, as this is when Roz transforms from a “monster” to a mother in the eyes of the animals. Though it is a new term, this is also when Roz comes to be accepted as a robot, essentially a new species. It is worth noting that it is Paddler, a young beaver, who first speaks to Roz in these terms, which in turn makes his parents see her in a more positive light. The younger generation is shown as more accepting of difference and less prone to judging on the basis of appearance and uniqueness.

“But what most astonished Mr. Beaver was that Roz and Brightbill were huddled around a small crackling campfire.” 

To the animals of the island, fire comes from lightning strikes and always means death and destruction. The concept of controlled fire is completely foreign to them, hence Mr. Beaver’s astonishment at seeing Roz and Brightbill sitting around a campfire. Roz’s introduction of fire as a survival tool is one of her most important contributions to the island’s inhabitants. Without it, many more animals would have died during the harsh winter.

“It was amazing how differently everyone treated Roz these days.” 

Adopting Brightbill transforms Roz from a scary monster into a member of the animal community. The animals appreciate her benevolence in taking in the orphaned gosling and how hard she tries to be a good mother, despite having no experience or frame of reference for motherhood. Brightbill becomes Roz’s reason for interacting with the animals and as they allow themselves to get to know her, they appreciate how kind and friendly she truly is.

“In a way, Roz needed Brightbill as much as Brightbill needed Roz.” 

As noted previously, Roz “awoke” on the island not knowing how to spend her time. Being thrust into motherhood gives her a purpose, a way to direct her efforts toward an important pursuit, ensuring the safety and happiness of her son. Because of this undertaking, Roz comes to have shelter, safety, and friends, all of which aid her own continued survival. Being Brightbill’s mother also brings Roz “something like pleasure,” as she watches him grow and thrive and become a leader among the geese.

“Roz asked Brightbill and Chitchat about dreaming and about flying and about eating and about all the things they could do that she could not.” 

Roz teaches Brightbill and Chitchat about topics stored in her data banks, including concepts that are beyond their understanding, such as the nature of stars, planets, and the universe. In turn, the young animals answer Roz’s questions about how it feels to be genuinely alive. Roz can observe how animals eat and go about the other activities of living creatures, but she wants to understand what the actual experiences are like. Roz is expanding on her understanding of what it means to be alive.

“The gosling giggled. ‘Oh, Mama, you have so much to learn about yourself.’”

When Roz and Brightbill go to see the dead robots at the shore, Roz learns as much about her construction as Brightbill does. Roz had not known that she has a button on the back of her head that activates and deactivates her, until they see one on the back of the dead robot. Brightbill finds it amusing that Roz did not know such a fundamental aspect of herself. His words are truer than he knows, for Roz truly does not know a great deal about herself. She is ignorant of her origins, her total abilities, and her reason for being.

“Whether she was capable of true forgiveness is anybody’s guess. But they were nice words, and Thorn felt better when he heard them.”

Roz has come to understand that the animals have standard responses to the expressions of others. Thorn feels remorseful that he pulled off Roz’s foot, so he apologizes. Without hesitation, Roz replies that she forgives him. As the narrator notes, it is difficult to know if Roz, as a robot, is capable of forgiving someone. This is another prime example of how Roz’s behavior appears so much like that of a living being that it is indistinguishable from “real” emotional response. In the end, it makes no difference if Roz is capable of true forgiveness, because her telling Thorn that she forgives him has the desired effect of making him feel better.

“Roz climbed to the top of a tree and watched as the flock slowly faded into the horizon.”

Roz comforts Brightbill when he leaves with the flock on their winter migration, after having advised him to listen to his instincts and go. She does this as a loving mother who is thinking of what is best for her child, not herself. Roz knows that Brightbill belongs with his flock, though she fears being alone and that without Brightbill, the other animals will not associate with her. More than anything, she knows that she will miss him and will feel sad that they are apart. These “emotions” bring her the top of a tree to watch Brightbill fly away, like a human mother watching her child fly away on an airplane.

“Friends help each other. And I will need all the help I can get.”

The lodges that Roz builds to save the animals from freezing during the winter offer a place for the animals to come together and hold discussions. The animals express their gratitude to Roz for saving their lives and wish to pay her back, though Roz insists that their friendship is all the payment she needs. These are more than empty words. Roz is quite serious that without the help of the animals, without their wisdom and experience, she would not be able to survive for long herself as a robot not designed to withstand conditions in the wild. This passage also shows the depth of friendship that Roz has achieved with her animal neighbors.

“You see, Roz had noticed that the wilder she acted, the more the animals liked her.”

Roz is a highly adaptable robot. She has also developed preferences, which may be surprising for a robot, and she prefers that the animals like her. In her analytical way, Roz realizes that the more “wild” she acts, the more the animals treat her as one of them. This is understandable, since the animals fear and avoid that which they do not understand and which seems alien to them, so the more that Roz behaves in ways that are familiar and similar to their own behavior, the better. Thus, Roz evolves into a “wild robot,” the title of the story.

“Ma, the robot looked just like you. I think that factory is where you were built!”

On his detour during migration, Brightbill finds himself in a large city and sees many robots that are of the same ROZZUM series as Roz. He even finds a factory in which he witnesses the robots’ assemblage, who all look exactly like his mother. This solves the mystery of where Roz came from, before she was activated on the island. This discovery also becomes part of Roz’s plan at the end of the novel, as she intends to return to the factory where she was built to secure the repairs she needs.

“But Roz had more questions. ‘Who are the Makers? What is my purpose? Why can I not ask questions?’”

When the RECOS robots arrive on the island, Roz tries to engage them, asking them many questions about where they have come from, her origins, where they plan to take her, and for what purposes. Roz is not accustomed to being addressed like a “thing” rather than as a sentient being, so she continues to ask questions. Roz takes the opportunity of finally meeting other operational robots to ask a philosophical question she has not been able to answer with her animal friends, that of her ultimate purpose. It quickly becomes clear to her that the RECOS are not accommodating and refuse to take her desires into consideration, taking her refusal to obey their orders as proof that she is defective. This sets up the battle between the RECOS and the island animals.

“Chitchat leaped out from the branches and clawed at the robot’s eyes, yelling, ‘Anyone who shows up on our island and tries to take my friend’s mother away has a big problem which is me!’”

The island animals come to the rescue when the RECOS set out to capture Roz. Even tiny Chitchat jumps fearlessly into the fight. It is a testament to how much the animals consider Roz part of their tribe that they risk their lives to protect her. The animals refuse to allow outsiders to forcibly take away one of their own, which is ironic considering they once rejected Roz as an outsider.

“The hunter was confused. How had those animals gotten a rifle? And could they possibly know how to fire it?”

RECOS 1 considers the island’s inhabitants to be “just animals” based on the information in his computer brain. It is incomprehensible to RECOS 1 that animals would be capable of taking a rifle away from one of the other robots and that they would know how to use it. RECOS 1 has no way of knowing that animals can observe and learn in such sophisticated ways and that the geese have witnessed the operation of a rifle. His dismissal of the animals and their devotion to Roz results in RECOS 1’s demise.

“However, she still had her thoughts and her words, and for the moment that was all she needed.”

Roz is severely damaged, reduced to a head and torso after the battle with the RECOS. This passage reflects Roz’s appreciation for what is truly important. Though she appears sad and frail, she is grateful that her brain remains undamaged and she can still function well enough to communicate with her friends. Her ability to think is the one indispensable element of her being, which allows her to formulate a plan to make everything right.