The Literary Evidence for 'The Man in the High Castle'

“So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe... Science fiction was a big help.” (Chapter 4)

Science fiction is often written as a commentary on our world. Events that may occur in the future, things that may have been invented, technology that has advanced further than our imaginations. Books like Fahrenheit 451 and the short story of Harrison Bergeron talk about how our society could be controlled by one larger being. In order to make everyone equal, happy, and clueless. Knowledge is the power to understand, in both books it tells us how to think about how much we truly understand our society and why is the truth hidden and silenced from us.

Science fiction is a genre that come from the author’s mind and is very imaginative as well as unlikely to occur in the present. Two well-known young adult science fiction books are The Giver and The City of Ember. These 2 books have something going wrong in society and people go through challenges. In The Giver and The City of ember, there are 3 main elements for comparison. They are the Exposition, Community, and Resolution.

In this essay I will compare two novels which deal with similar themes but in significantly different ways: “The Chrysalids”, a science fiction novel by John Wyndham published in 1955 and “Brave New World”, a novel by Aldous Huxley published in 1932.

In conclusion, science fiction is ultimately a genre of displaying humans present state of being and displaying how catastrophic the future can be if we neglect to point out the flaws and challenge each other. Science fiction of course contains information on aliens, futuristic-looking gadgets, distant worlds, and robots but in the core of it all, sci-fi is the ultimate genre of warning. Warning of hazardous technological advancements and utter carelessness to the craft of inventing. Be careful of what the future holds. The future started yesterday and we’re already

In these chapters, I mainly focused on the question that Phoebe asked Holden in which she asked him what did he actually like. I thought that this is a good question to consider because throughout the book, we clearly see that he does not like a lot of things, the main things being phonies. I think it’s interesting to note that he doesn’t actually say a real thing he likes. He spaces out and tries to think of something until he just blurts out whatever comes to his mind. I disregarded the death of James Castle because I don’t think it ties into the main point of the story and it is kind of just supporting details that have no purpose. From class discussion and from my own reading, the class and I said that Phoebe and Holden are pretty similar. Others disagreed in class, but I think that they are similar in which they smoke and they both are liars. I still do not understand the red hat symbol clearly. I’m still not sure if it’s just a reminder of Allie or if it is symbolic in any way.

[Thesis: The Space Race and it 's overall support from the general public can be credited to the prevalence of Science fiction in American pop-culture.]

As an individual who has does not study the history of literature "Fiction, 1950-1963" by Rob Latham takes the reader through an interesting back story of the rise and fall of science fiction through the span of a little more than a decade. "Fiction, 1950-1963" by Rob Latham largely focuses on the history of science fiction in writing and the path science fiction took to become a mainstream form of literature. It is a path filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, and a multitude of writers that attempt to make their mark on the emerging genre. Throughout the essay Latham agrees with the process of making science fiction more accepted in mainstream culture. Latham takes the position that through science fiction becoming a legitimately viewed genre the field has more freedom to expand and experiment artistically.

These events seemed tragic at the time, but they were the chain of circumstances that turned World War Two around and led to the defeat of the Axis Powers. Although the Soviet Union was on the brink of defeat, the overextended Germans could not sustain the level of fighting and were driven west. At the same time, the U.S. determined the only way to victory was via a swift, harsh military response. This came in the form of the attack on Normandy, bombings of German infrastructure, operations in North Africa and Italy, island hopping, and ultimately, nuclear warfare. It was a combined effort that brought World War Two to an end. These operations demonstrate the way to end tyranny is with a thought out plan of attack, teamwork, and prompt, committed action.

The Man in the High Castle Analysis The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick explained the afterman of World War II. Once the Allies lost, the Germans and Japanese were to rule the world. Slavery is legal and there is discrimination against the Jews. This novel provides the reader with a shocking reality of what it is like to live in the United States in 1962.

Writing science fiction allows the author to express their concerns and beliefs freely. H.G. Wells used a combination of symbolism and imagination to create a science fiction novel that readers are able to dive into as if it could be their own life. He created worlds based on: real locations, world problems, and possible future events. Brian Holmsten and Alex Lubertozzi described in the book The Complete War of the Worlds "The period between 1890 and 1910 was truly a golden age of scientific thought and science fiction writing." (87). Modern science fiction became popular because of the way the authors could symbolize their thoughts into their works. In her book Young Adult Science Fiction, Suzanne Elizabeth Reid describes science fiction

In a perfect world there is no war, no conflict, simply peace surrounding the human race, but humans don’t live in a perfect world. There is war, bloodshed, and acts of crime that no person should every have to go through. World War II is regarded as one of the worst things that could have ever happened on Earth. World War II is used enormously in literature especially in literature explaining the awful effects of war. Some examples of these pieces of literature are “The Lord of the Flies” and “The Coral Island”.

While many are seemingly unimportant, when taken together they make the world the novel is set in completely unbelievable. This naturally rolls over to making the plot unbelievable as well. The book would have you believe WW3's start, end, and a totalitarian worldwide dictatorship taking over will all happen in less than a decade. While I can believe the war will last less than a decade, it’s the last bit that ruffled my jimmies. The logistics alone would entail at least a decade of work before a single man could take over the world. This isn’t even taking into account governments and populations resisting. Furthermore, the areas listed as devastated by the war hold very little military or economic importance by and large while population and power centers seem unscathed. Along with other such details, I was thrown out of the world early on, and the book never recovered.

Thankfully, for almost the entire planet, the Nazis and Japan lost World War II. However, the literature I've read is on the exact opposite. It's an interpretation on what America might be like if the Nazis and Japan had won World War II. To gain a better view on this, I read The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick. After reading the book, the main theme is false realities. There are other smaller themes but the main one is above. Throughout the book, several characters seem to be living/providing a false reality to the public for their own benefit.

Many novels during this era helped develop our current popular genres such as fantasy and science fiction.