The Man in the High Castle is a novel written by Philip K. Dick in 1963 (Dick). It belongs to the genre of alternative history that is not very common (Kellogg par. 5). Author describes the sequence of events after the end of the World War II that has resulted in the victory of Nazi (David par.8). The book tells about collaboration and competition of Germany and Japan that belong to the number of the most powerful countries that rule the world (Gray par.1). Germany has turned into colonial empire and it continues to annihilate people who do not have right skin and eye color. As for Japan, it has extended the sphere of influence by capturing the territory of the Western United States (Chan par. 2). The relationships between two winners remain strained as they both have their own vision of our world’s future (Dunn par.17).
There are many characters in this book and their interaction is shown in quite a detailed way. The seventh chapter of the book describes the dinner in the house of Paul and Betty Kasoura, and there are a few times when uneasy silence occurs; it is not easy for Childan and his Japanese friends to understand each other as they notice that he strongly supports the idea of racial inequality. Childan owns a shop selling antiques from America to Japanese collectors. Mr Tagomi who works in San-Francisco as a commercial secretary is one of Mr Childan’s standing customers.
Robert Childan is considered to be one of the key characters of The Man in the High Castle as he makes a significant contribution into the unraveling of the plot. Being a supporter of the idea of Europeans’ prevalence over other people, he experiences a certain inner conflict. The majority of his clients are Japanese, and in course of communication, he gradually starts picking up their character traits. The ambiguousness of his opinion seems to increase as he visits the house of Paul and Betty Kasoura. He pays attention to Betty’s beauty and felinity; he notices that Paul and Betty really care about him as they cook a special dish and treat him with respect. Having noticed that, Childan comes to the conclusion that Europeans should look up to Asians. He sees Japanese as people who are able to notice and create beauty everywhere they go.
Mr. Tagomi is a Japanese man who holds a senior position in the government of the Western States that belong to Japan in Philip Dick’s alternative history book. Being very rich, Tagomi spends big sums of money on antique items from the Childan’s shop. The doubleness of his personality seems to be obvious as we consider the reasons why he is fascinated by bric-a-brac. On the one hand, he has quite a developed aesthetic sensitivity; being surrounded with various beautiful things that have their own stories makes him feel good. On the other hand, the items that he buys from Robert Childan’s shop often help him to establish successful partnerships buying his colleagues over with a valuable gift. At the same time, Tagomi can be called a man who loves having arguments concerning various moral issues. For instance, he tries to reveal the real nature of evil and comes to the conclusion that evil is essential part of a human society and it can never be estranged. In his mind, evil remains the primary power and the real basis of the society and this is why there is no way to tussle with it and conquer it.
Works Cited
Chan, L. What If The Nazis Won? Amazon Series ‘The Man In The High Castle’ Shows Alternative History Based On Philip K. Dick Novel. 2015. Web.
David, D.Philip K. Dick. 2014. Web.
Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1965. Print.
Dunn, J.R. Philip K. Dick and Our Predicament. 2013. Web.
Gray, J. John Gray on Philip K Dick: Lost in the Multiverse of History. 2016. Web.
Kellogg, C. Philip K. Dick: Tackling a prolific author’s work. 2012. Web.