Through the depection of The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick (PKD) it explores ‘little people living in small lives with honor and confusion’ (Brown, 2001). It examines the conflicting ideas of totalitarinism and Eastern philosophy as the story is set in San Francisco, post World War Two and asks What if the Allies had lost the war? How would this effect the ordinary citizen? PKD uses themes of imlipcit evil, the claustrophobic sense of being impriosined in a world, seemingly without hope and individuals trapped in circumstances beyond their control (according to Brown, 2001). These themes and concerns are explored throughout the novel, and are also displayed in the novel that is within the novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy a science fiction piece of work penned by Hawthorn Abendsen. These themes are unwound from the stories core as you follow various characheters and how they live in a world dominated by boundraies and how the Eastern philosophes of the I Ching help to come to terms with their lives. The element of the novel that conforms to the wider generic features of science fiction is the novels ‘glimpse of another world, a reality we are invted to compare to our own” (Brown, 2001). An easy comparison in The Man in the High Castle as it is a place and time that is known to the reader, but with an alternate lifestyle.
References
Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K, The Man in the High Castle (p.v-xii). London: Penguin
Dick, P.K. (2001;1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin
A wel-written and succinct summary of the central themes in tMitHC, as identified by Brown. Perhaps it could be useful to bring in more explicit reference to the primary text to support your discussion e.g ". . .and how the Eastern philosophes of the I Ching help to come to terms with their lives, For example, Nobusuke Tagomi use the i-ching when . . ." Also don't forget to include your own views - do you agree with Brown?? - is there anything you would include??
ReplyDeleteHey catherine - don't forget to include the Question Week in your blog title please. Week 7
ReplyDeleteI liked whole you structured this post, well written and easy to read :)do you agree with what Brown says on the themes and concerns of the novel?
ReplyDeleteReading "The Man in the High Castle" I couldn't help but get the feeling that if you replaced the Japanese and Germans with generic rich people and the little characters with generically poor people the novel would still be relevant to the world we live in today. If the Axis powers had won the war I don't think the world would be much different.
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