Minority Report by Philip K. Dick

This quarter I read The Minority Report, which was a collection of short stories created by fiction author Philip K. Dick. Though this book may have multiple stories within it, I've decided to stick to one story that was really intriguing: "Explorers We." The story revolves around a group of explorers, led by Captain Stone, arriving back from an expedition to Mars. On the way down to Earth, crew member Parkhurst shows eagerness and hope, which makes him my choice for my favorite character in the book. He had very high expectations for what to come across upon the arrival on the surface of the Earth after a few years on Mars. Once they landed on Earth in the middle of San Francisco, Parkhurst immediately thought of what to do with the crew now that they've arrived on Earth. I'd personally relate to Parkhurst as I would also be pretty excited to be back home after a long vacation. However, there is one characteristic that, although all characters have, made Parkhurst stand out the most to me. When they had arrived on Earth, the crew had noticed that there weren't any people present. A few minutes later after walking around, they were approached by a couple of FBI agents, followed by many citizens watching behind them. The crew had died on the expedition, and the crew that arrived on Earth weren't human at all, as stated by the FBI agent. The reason I say that Parkhurst is a character that stands out so much is that this non-human being acts like a genuine person. This twist had led me to trust in these men to find their way home, but after finding out about their true personality, I was astonished that these human-like beings were not human at all.