A Rover's Story

These chapters contain many tests and experiments, showing the care and detail that goes into preparing a rover for Mars. Warga wrote A Rover’s Story with the true process of creating and preparing a rover in mind. Therefore, in addition to showing some of the science involved in the process, these chapters illustrate how much time passes with apparently little happening. Resilience’s early “life” is mostly spent testing and retesting his systems to ensure that he has the greatest chance of functioning as intended on Mars. The length of time spent on tests also provides space for Rania and Sophie’s story and relationship to develop. Resilience requires a lot of attention from Rania, which causes Sophie to struggle with the emotions of jealousy and anger. Sophie’s letters continue to be a way for Sophie to deal with her emotions, though, and her growing interest in Resilience helps her to work out that she isn’t truly mad at either the rover or her mother. Rather, she wants to be more involved in Rania’s life. Sophie’s letters also show the difference between what happens in the lab and what is revealed to the public. Resilience becomes news when something big happens, such as receiving his name. However, all the small tests and victories in the lab are celebrated only among the scientists, meaning there is much more to a rover’s development than most people ever see. These aspects of these chapters help capture how The Pursuit of Knowledge requires a balance of passion and patience, not to mention teamwork.

In addition, these chapters continue to explore Balancing Emotion and Logic through comparisons between Resilience and other machines. Journey is more logic-based than Resilience, a quality that makes her believe she is a superior rover and a better candidate to go to Mars. She doesn’t understand Resilience’s desire to experience human emotions, and in her rejection of emotions, she brings out Resilience’s personality and hopes. Journey is a foil to Resilience, offering a look at what a rover “should” be like. The contrast between the two is the main source of the uncertainty that Resilience experiences throughout the rest of the story. Journey’s unshakable certainty that her logic is the best approach to Mars makes Resilience fear his emotions will doom the mission. His doubt turns out to be ironic when his emotional desires are in fact part of what makes his mission a success on both a literal and metaphorical level. The pursuit of knowledge is not only about logic—it’s also about exploring the human condition and learning to be part of a team.

Rania’s phone is another example of how machines are all different. Whereas Journey is all business, the phone is focused on games. This characterization, in part, is a humorous dig at how much time people spend playing games on their smart phones. It also suggests, in the context of the novel, a correlation between how humans use a device and what that device internalizes. As rovers, Resilience and Journey have a certain level of responsibility, and the endless tests prepare them for the important role of exploration and understanding. As a result, they both take themselves and their futures very seriously. By contrast, Rania’s phone is mainly used for leisure, either through communication or playtime. The result is that the phone has a more casual personality, its greatest concern being “game over” in an actual game.

Resilience starts to grapple with heavier and more layered emotions in these chapters. As the journey to Mars grows closer and becomes more real to him, he experiences not only excitement but also worry and hope, sometimes all at once. Nonetheless, the desire to do well on Mars and discover something that will be of use outweighs those swirling feelings and provides a centering force, showing the importance that Resilience places on what he does and what he will leave behind. Resilience associates success, ultimately, with making Xander and Rania proud; the pursuit of knowledge, for Resilience, is intimately tied into his human emotions. Journey’s continued insistence that Resilience’s emotions will be a hindrance on Mars makes Resilience worry about the mission, but it also reaffirms Resilience’s desire to do well and prove Journey wrong. Altogether, the emotions that Resilience experiences in these chapters and through the rest of the book bring him closer to being human.

Resilience meets Sophie for the first time in Chapter 15, and this moment informs his understanding of family and being a team. Resilience sees a different side of Rania when Sophie is present. Instead of the cold, stoic scientist, Rania becomes a loving parent when she’s with Sophie. Observing this transformation makes Resilience want to help her all the more; his understanding of Rania has advanced, as he now sees what Rania is working so hard for. This meeting also changes the relationship dynamic between Resilience and Rania. After Sophie meets and takes an interest in Resilience, Rania speaks directly to Resilience for the first time; in the following chapters, she then begins to treat the rover more like a friend and less like a science experiment. In the final chapter of this section, the theme of Grief and Loss as Part of Life starts to emerge with the first mention of Courage’s demise. Resilience does not yet quite grasp his own mortality: “I do not know a lot about dust storms, but I have heard the hazmats talk about them” (65). The depth of emotion and connection that he acquires in these chapters, though, is what will ultimately help him process that knowledge on Mars.