Resumo de Caves Of Steel

Not since Detective Virgil

Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) and Police Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod

Steiger) in the movie In the Heat of the Night has a

detective duo been as well matched as Elijah Baley and R.

Daneel Olivaw. They appear in Caves of Steel, the second

book in Isaac Asimov?s robot series, published in 1953. Just

as in the movie, the subplot is prejudice. Here Asimov uses

a humanlike robot, the R in Daneel?s name stands for robot,

to examine prejudice. He shows the reader how prejudice is

created, manifested, and overcome.

Daneel has been sent from the planet Aurora to Earth as a

partner for Elijah, known as Lije, human detective, to solve

the murder that occurred on Aurora, but was most likely

committed by an Earthman. While conducting the

investigation, Lije has to try to overcome his prejudice

towards robots.

There is a delightful scene that rings true to my experience

of prejudice. The main mode of public transportation is

moving passenger conveyor belts, which go from one

destination to another. There are seats, but only those with

a certain rank are allowed to fill them. Most people must

stand. Lije, because of his rank as a detective has this

privilege. He assumes that Daneel does not. However, Daneel

has the same rank with the same privileges. Lije just

assumed that a robot could not be his equal just as the

police chief in In the Heat of the Night assumes that a

black detective could not be his equal.

Asimov creates two consistent universes with specific rules

that point the way to the murderer. Robots, for instance,

are programmed not to harm humans. Therefore, a robot
could not be the murderer. However, Earthmen are no

longer comfortable going outside the confines of their domed

city. So how could an earthman have walked on the outside

for many miles to reach the destination to commit the
murder?

On the way to the solution to the crime, the relationship

between the two detectives grows. Lije gradually, and with

difficulty, changes from an intolerant bigot and reluctant

partner to Daneel to a person who sees his partner not only

as his equal but also as his friend.

Caves of Steel is a fine novel that does, as Asimov boasted,

work both as a detective novel and a science-fiction novel.

Pay close attention to the rules of the two universes here

and you just might come up with the name of the murderer

before the detectives do.

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