Story Metaphors...

I've been thinking about metaphors for the story....

The machine that takes over the brains of its victims is a metaphor for personality disorder, addiction and demonic possession. I was describing the story to someone yesterday, who asked me if the movie was about robots. I said it has robots in it, but the story is about people, characters, and personality disorders. The person I was describing to was intrigued. I used the metaphor "personality disorder" to simplify my description, but that seemed more interesting to him than my subsequent description about the computer program taking over the brains of its victims.

I think I'll dive more into and examination of personality flaws of all the characters, and the ultimate personality flaw- the mind being lost or taken over by a controlling power.

Demonic possession-
In my story, the crazy neighbor, Ren, injects microscopic nanobots into the brains of his victims in order to take over their bodies. The computer program that Ren made then takes over and controls the victims. In a way, the people being controlled are "possessed" by the computer program.

It used to be that people with personality disorders were assumed to be possessed by demons. Multiple personality disorders were mistaken for demonic entities. The characters in my story struggle with the computer program taking over, and a dual personality emerges. The computer program becomes the dominant personality, while the real person's memories are intact, yet their real personality becomes dormant, or subservient to the computer.

Addiction-
People who struggle with addiction often feel controlled by the addiction. The characters in my story are controlled by the computer. In my story, the characters are literally injected with a syringe full of the nanobots. The nanobots are like a drug- they alter and take over the brains of the victims. When they encounter other people, they act very strange and may appear to be on drugs.