When I read the back cover of The Man in the High Castle, I assumed I would be reading a story about how different the United States would be if the Axis Powers had won World War II. But you know happens when you assume… About halfway through the book, I realized this constructed society was actually quite similar to the society we live in today. The facts and details of the US in The Man in the High Castle are certainly different, but elements of the “fictional” US continue to remind me of elements of our own world.
First, I cannot help but notice the similarities in class structure between the fictional and real US. Class in the fictional US is structured with much more emphasis on race and ethnicity, but the idea of strong class structure is certainly a concept well-known to Americans today. Currently, America is facing one of the biggest socioeconomic class inequalities in history. The rich keep getting richer, while the poor get poorer, and the middle class slowly disappears. In our society, similar to the society in the fictional US, class is a large determinant of social status. Those at the top of the food chain in the fictional US can get away with murder, (probably literally), and our Wall Street businessmen can receive quite controversial bonuses, despite our failing economy. Class, though formed in different ways, plays a key role in both the fictional and the real US.
Second, a major focal point in The Man in the High Castle is the relationship between the real and the fake. Often, in our society, we deal with the same problems of distinguishing between what to believe and what not to believe. In particular, both societies contain very fake human relationships. In the fictional US, people hide their true thoughts and feelings out of fear from not meeting the demands of their predetermined class. On a similar note, people in the real US forge superficial friendships and act fake in order to attain certain benefits for themselves, whether it be to move up in status, to attain a significant other or to get a certain grade. I am faced with the realization that regardless of the events that occur in society, human nature does not change; people will often act fake to avoid repercussions or to reap benefits.
The final similarity I noticed between the fictional society and our own society was that some people are always power-hungry. Even though both fictional Japan and Germany have immense power, the governments are still not at peace with each other and often clash. Additionally, officials at the top of each government encourage the degrading classification of citizens based upon race. This determination of inferiority automatically renders those at the top of the system to be superior. These government officials place so much emphasis on being superior so they can stay in power. Similarly, we deal with many power struggles in the US. The main struggle that comes to mind is the struggle in Congress between parties to pass only bills that abide by a particular ideology. We sometimes need to give up on the power struggle and focus on other, more important agendas, like ensuring the well-being of citizens by restructuring our social security or healthcare systems. Both governments neglect many important tasks, because each are too caught up in a struggle for power.
For two societies that should be so different, it is awfully scary to notice so many similarities between them.
You are right that you can find a lot of similarities between the society in The Man in the High Castle and our own. However, I would say that a lot of the cases you cite are much more extreme in the book then in reality. In our society, class is not based on race and we have not attempted to completely exterminate an entire ethnicity. We do not lose face if we are not rude to another class. The current power struggle is not so potentially fatal.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense though. Dick is basing this alternate society on the real society of his time. And you are right, no matter who won the war, human nature does not change.
Perhaps Dick is exaggerating certain negative points of society in order to point out to readers those faults in our society.
Fiction often takes a situation and plays jumprope with the familiar and unfamiliar.
ReplyDeleteWhen we start off in Childan's store in Man and The High Castle, it is familiar in many ways -- the process of the market, the preparations for the day -- and yet the very existence of his store (a store for unique American products of the past) is indicative of an alternate reality.
On the other hand, when you realize that this is an alternate reality, you can't help but draw comparisons to what you know, as you do in this blog post.
Making the familiar unfamiliar and the unfamiliar familiar is central to storytelling and intimately related to the relationship between truth and lies, I think. Lies all contain an element of the truth -- they are just truth with a spin, something to make you take note, something to make the reader pay attention and rethink what they might have assumed. "Lies" can be used as a tool of reexamination of the "truth", because it makes you look twice when you were about to walk onward.
By switching up what is familiar and unfamiliar, the reader is similarly forced to look at certain concepts in a light that they wouldn't normally be able to, and to realize that they never did have the full "truth" about what that concept was.
So it might be unsettling to see how the "real" U.S. is different from the U.S. in the story, but think about it -- would you know your U.S. as well if you'd had no reason to think about it?