The Wild Robot Protects

In book one, Roz adopts an orphan gosling named Brightbill, and they live together in a nest Roz builds, but RECCO robots take Roz from the island, separating her from her son. Book two details Roz’s journey in escaping Hilltop Farm and reuniting with Brightbill. Brightbill has matured in this third book of the series and leaves the island for the annual migration. When he returns, he isn’t alone and introduces his mother to his mate, Glimmer. Until now, Brightbill and her island animal friends have represented Roz’s whole world, but when the poison tide threatens their environment, Roz must leave the comfort of home to protect her family and friends. Just before she leaves, Brightbill announces that he and Glimmer will soon have goslings. The text describes Roz’s reaction: “[O]ur robot felt something like joy to learn that she was a grandmother and that her son was a father” (208). Brightbill becomes a catalyst for Roz to understand the concept of motherhood, and caring for Brightbill teaches Roz about nurture, sacrifice, and the subtleties of love.

Brightbill, a gosling nurtured by a robot, represents the connection between nature and technology. His capacity to bond to a robot yet maintain his natural goose instincts represents the peaceful merging of nature and technology. While Roz is gone from the island, Brightbill takes her place as a leader amongst the other creatures. Brightbill’s development from a helpless gosling to a mature bird represents the cyclical nature of life and its potential for growth and rejuvenation, even under challenging circumstances. The story begins with Brightbill’s return from the migration and ends with him leaving for the subsequent migration, this time with a family. This full-circle moment exemplifies Brightbill’s development and highlights the novel’s themes of the creature’s natural “programming” and the importance of family. Brightbill’s goslings represent the future for whom nature must be protected.

Gurry, called the “Ancient Shark” by all the creatures, is a mythical shark who lives in the Arctic region and is reported to have knowledge that will help Roz solve the problem of poison tide. The existence of the Ancient Shark is the catalyst for Roz’s journey as she decides to leave the island in search of the shark for help when she feels helpless to defend her friends and family from the oncoming disaster. When her modern databases fail to give her a solution, Roz searches for an ancient wisdom that will set the world right again. The Ancient Shark guards the aquatic world’s history and secrets and has spent ages in the ocean depths, imparting timelessness and wisdom. Its primordial character represents a profound comprehension of the universe and its complexities. Once Roz meets the shark, she learns its real name is Gurry, and it’s blind. Using the familiar trope of the seer who can’t physically see, Gurry’s blindness doesn’t prevent him from understanding the way the world works. The narrator states that “[s]he was blind, but she had other ways of seeing” (146). The shark has lived long enough to witness profound evolution and environmental change. Gurry’s battered body shows that the shark has seen a lot and survived, causing it to become a leader amongst the ocean creatures. Like Roz, Gurry embodies female energy, yet Gurry’s energy is more of a warrior and protective spirit than Roz’s peaceful, nurturing demeanor. Their partnership proves that in life, both forces are needed.

Roz’s meeting with Gurry marks a turning point in her journey as she learns why the poison tide is a human mining operation that extracts minerals from the earth to make robots. For Gurry, the mining operation marks an unforgivable sin, and the shark has amassed animal armies to bring the mining operation to a halt and avenge the deaths of their fellow creatures. Gurry also teaches Roz more about her new body. As a shark and top predator, Gurry embodies a wildness and capacity for violence Roz has never encountered in the animal world. Gurry wants Roz to join their army and harness her robotic strength and intellect to overtake the mining station, but Roz protests and suggests diplomacy instead. Gurry provokes Roz to violence, shouting, “Fight back!” (153), and she responds instinctually by punching the shark and knocking out one of its few remaining teeth. Gurry agrees to her plan, but when the shark learns the humans have captured Roz, it enacts its battle plan and lays siege to the mining station, toppling it into the ocean, and many creatures are killed in the battle. When Roz can’t defeat Crusher, the mining robot, Gurry, sends another army to destroy Crusher with the sunken station, almost destroying Roz in the process. Gurry is an ally to Roz and helps her understand the bigger picture of defending the environment from human destruction. The Ancient Shark’s centuries-long life in the harsh undersea environment represents the wildness and resilience of nature and its willingness to sacrifice parts of itself to protect the natural world for future generations.

Akiko is the mining station manager, but she is also a partner to Leo Larson and a mother. Roz first encounters Akiko when the robot hides inside the station’s control room and assumes she is the cause of the poison tide. However, after Roz overhears Akiko having a video call with Leo and her daughter, she softens her view of the manager. Roz empathizes with Akiko’s separation from her family as she, too, has experienced being separated from Brightbill. When BOSUN 10 captures Roz, she speaks with Akiko and her co-worker George, and the humans have the stereotypical distrustful response to a robot they believe has gone rogue. Roz has experienced this before, and she tries to explain herself to the humans, but they don’t believe her. For Akiko, robots exist to carry out the wishes of humans, and she is just taking orders from other humans in positions of power above her.

Akiko’s excuses for her lack of knowledge about the mining operation’s destruction exemplify how most humans don’t see a problem until it directly affects them. Akiko says, “[W]e do what it takes to get what we need” (186). Additionally, Akiko is just doing a job, and her situation at home distracts her. Ironically, it takes a robot to alert the humans to the problem. Despite the humans’ resistance to listening to her, Roz still extends compassion to them by rescuing them after Gurry’s army destroys the mining station. In response, Akiko promises to employ robots to clean up the poison tide. In a story populated by animals and machines, Akiko represents the human side of the narrative and embodies the necessity of humans to use and manage technology responsibly.