The Electric Golem: Updating The Myth in Ian McEwan’s <em>Machines Like Me</em>

Abstract

This article presents the evolution of the Golem’s myth in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me using the myth’s actualisation presented in Borges’ poem “The Golem”. An analysis of how the mythic roles embodied by the main characters of the novel are reverted is provided, establishing a parallelism between the myth and the modern theme of androids. The result of this appears to be catastrophic for humanity as the artificial creation of life and the inclusion of androids in society is perceived as a threat due to the fact that ancient creation myths remain in humankind’s memory, especially those where humans’ creations defy their creators. Adam, the android who plays the role of the Golem ultimately reveals himself as a perfect creation, far from what his mythic counterpart is supposed to be and Charlie, his owner and creator, afraid of being inferior to the android, decides to kill him in order to reaffirm the already established human power over the machines.