The question of what it means to be human is central to Mickey7, as protagonist Mickey Barnes questions both his identity and humanity throughout. This search for identity and meaning also plays a key role in the development of his character. As an Expendable, Mickey frequently dies, and his consciousness is uploaded into a newly reprinted body. After each death, Mickey wrestles with his own self-awareness, wondering if he’s still the same person after he’s been reprinted. He sees a distinction between each manifestation of himself, even if others do not; when Mickey7 contemplates letting himself die in the crevice to wake up as Mickey8, he thinks he would know that he wasn’t the same person, even if others wouldn’t: “Nasha and Berto might not be able to tell the difference, but deep down on some level below reason, I’m pretty sure I’d know I was dead” (8). Mickey7’s self-awareness and his sense that when he is reprinted, he becomes a new person, causes him to struggle with the concept of himself as a clone who everyone else sees as identical to all the Mickeys that came before.

Everyone in Mickey7’s sphere has a distinct point of view on his humanity, but each of these perspectives causes Mickey7 to cling more firmly to the idea of his own individuality and personhood. Jemma, his Expendable trainer, tries to use a thought experiment to give Mickey a new perspective on his identity and individuality. She introduces the Ship of Theseus, or Theseus’s Paradox, a thought experiment that questions whether a ship is the same ship if every component has been replaced over time. To draw a parallel between the Ship of Theseus and Mickey’s own situation, she asks, “What difference does it make if he replaces every component one by one, or if he replaces them all at once?” (93). She tries to reinforce the idea that even if his entire body is changed in an instant, he’s still the same as any else, as all people’s bodies change over time through cellular regeneration. However, Mickey7 isn’t interested in being seen as the same Mickey—he believes that each Mickey is a distinct individual. 

In addition, many of the people in the colony have a complicated view of Expendables based on their religion, but even those who don’t see him as a reminder of their mortality. He notes that the Natalists avoid him, but “even most of the people who don’t think [he’s] a soulless monster don’t seem to want to associate with someone who’s under what amounts to a perpetual death sentence” (189). These perspectives, which depend on the idea that the true Mickey died the first time and those that followed were hollow replications, continue to deny Mickey7 his own distinct identity, separate from other past Mickeys. However, Mickey7 resists this idea; the idea that he is an individual distinct from other Mickeys is important to his identity and personhood. He yearns to be viewed by others as human in order to confirm his view of himself as a distinct person from the other Mickeys and as a real person. Throughout Mickey7, author Edward Ashton probes what gives us personhood and makes us individuals as Mickey7 struggles to define himself and explore what it means to be human through the lens of his own unique experience.