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True Love PDF
True Love PDF
Characters
The story “True Love” by Isaac Asimov includes two active characters, Milton and
Joe, which we will help you characterize next. The women and the police are
episodic, absent character…
Joe
Joe is the narrator of the short story, an intelligent computer program (which
today we would call AI – Artificial Intelligence). Accordingly, its outer
characterization tells us that it is a software that works with data, algorithms,
and symbols, and which has been programmed to learn human language: “I am part of
the Multivac-complex and am connected with other parts all over the world. I know
everything. Almost everything.” (ll. 2-4); “I am Milton's private program. (...) I
am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other computer
can.” (ll. 5-7)
Inner characterization
Joe’s inner characterization is built by using its perspective on the events as a
narrator and through its thoughts and actions.
Although Joe is a computer program, it has a number of human traits. Firstly, Joe
claims that it knows almost everything (l. 4) and speaks better than other
computers (l. 7), suggesting that Joe has some sense of self-pride and self-
importance. …
...
Milton
Milton is the second main character in the short story, who is depicted from Joe’s
perspective. Milton’s outer characterization tells us that he is an unmarried
computer programmer who is “nearly forty years old” (l. 13) and who has designed
the intelligent computer program named Joe.
Inner characterization
Milton’s inner characterization presents him as a very skilled computer programmer
as he was able to design Joe, a computer with the capacity of speech and powerful
data-processing: “He understands more about programming than anyone in the world,
and I am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other
computer can.” (ll. 5-7)
However, he is lonely because he “has never found the right woman” (ll. 13-14). The
fact that he decides to use Joe to he…