A Different World After War
It’s been over a decade since World War II has ended and the
world is a different place now that Germany and Japan has won the war. Very little remains of what was the United
States of America, with the east coast now German Territory and the west
belonging to Japan. Most of the Jewish population has been terminated with
those surviving living behind plastic surgery and false names. Since most of
the world is now under German or Japanese control, rulers are looking to
colonize other planets like Mars. But in the midst of all this change, life
still continues. And with all this change someone has written a book, that has
been banned in Germany and all its territories, about what the world would have
been like if the United States and Britain had won the war.
The Man in the High Castle introduced
quite a few different characters, from an American antiques dealer, a Jewish
man in hiding, a leading German officer governing in Japanese Territory, and a
Japanese official just to name a few. The author was very thorough in
introducing different characters representing altering points of views and
situations. The novel was almost hostile with fear, racism and cultural
awareness being constant ideas throughout the book. All of the characters are
under a certain amount of pressure in this new environment to present
themselves a certain way in order to prevent being mistreated by others. Image
in this new world is all that matters.
Now I
found the idea of having this novel incorporate itself into the story line to
be brilliant. The idea that some of these characters are reading a novel that
is the alternative reality of their own is intriguing because its exactly what
I’m doing. When I opened this book, I entered into an alternate reality, which
is theirs, and they were doing the exact same thing. It was a little unnerving
at first, simply because of the reaction some of the characters were having to this world where the US and Britain won but it was realistic.
I, for
the most part, enjoyed this novel. I can appreciate why it received the acclaim
that it did upon its release. I personally found the story, in its beginning,
very hard to connect with. Phillip K Dick definitely dived right in to a
situation that you were not at all familiar with. Each character introduced a
different ideal and understanding and it wasn't until you observed all these
different characters that you truly started to grasp the severity of these new
situations. I would recommend this to readers who simply want to read an
interesting book about how different life could have been. People ask
themselves “what if” questions all the time and this answers one: What would
life be like if Germany and Japan had won the second World War?
Comments
Post a Comment