Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Man in the High Castle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Power
History vs. Daily Life
Authenticity vs. Originality
Agency vs. Chance
Moral Ambiguity and Forgiveness
Art, Perspective, and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Robert Childan, the owner of the San Francisco antique shop American Artistic Handcrafts Inc., anxiously awaits an old Civil War poster he has ordered. When he receives a call from Mr. Tagomi, one of his most important clients, Childan must inform him that the poster has not yet come in. Mr. Tagomi explains that he needed the poster as a gift, and he demands that Childan present him with an alternative. Childan panics that he may have disappointed Mr. Tagomi—and he longingly recalls “the pre-war days, the other times. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the World’s Fair; the former better world.”
Though the specifics of the novel’s setting are not immediately clear, the sense of a fallen world is present even in these first pages. Childan works in an antiques shop, where he sells memorabilia from major events in American history. But Childan is not merely nostalgic for the 19th century—he also longs for a more recent past, for the “former better world” that he grew up in. Crucially, the “better” era Childan mourns was a time when the U.S. held great political and cultural power (as signified by the reference to the famous 1939 World’s Fair, hosted in New York).
Themes
A beautiful young couple (Mr. Kasoura and Mrs. Kasoura) enter Childan’s store; they admire his stock, recognizing that his displays are “the best of their kind on the Coast.” Childan is drawn to Mrs. Kasoura’s beauty—but he remembers that, given his own relatively low status, he could never pursue a woman like her. Childan asks about Mrs. Kasoura’s earrings, which he learns she has purchased “at home”; no one shows any interest anymore in contemporary American art, only the kinds of artifacts that Childan sells. After learning that the man works in government, Childan admires him for being one of the young, more open-minded “elite.”
This passage reveals several key plot points. First, Childan has the “best” antiques shop in the region—and his personal status is linked to the status of his store. Second, despite his shop’s prominence, Childan is still considered lower-class compared to the Kasouras. And most importantly, contemporary American art is no longer valuable, further emphasizing that the U.S.’ present can never compare with its past. Instead, all new art objects tend to come from Betty’s “home”—presumably Japan, given her Japanese surname.
Themes
The couple informs Childan that they are starting to decorate a new apartment—and Childan, sensing an opportunity, offers to help them furnish their home with objects from his store. Mr. Kasoura and Mrs. Kasoura agree, and Childan is elated at the opportunity to impress them, as he—a white American man—has never before gotten the chance to interact socially with a young Japanese couple. Reflecting on the society’s racial caste system (known as “place”), Childan hopes that the young generation will be more accepting and less hierarchical.
Here, the social hierarchy of “place” begins to become clear: the Japanese are in power, and so as a white man, Childan is considered a second-class citizen. Though Childan understands this reality, he is desperate to break from it, and he believes that a friendship with the Kasouras could help him rise above his station. He is also hopeful that he will be able to bond with this young couple over their shared appreciation of art.
Themes
Childan begins to fret that he will not know how to behave with the Kasouras. At the same time, he lets his mind wander to lustful thoughts of Betty Kasoura; then he remembers that it is almost unheard of for a yank (a white American) man to be with a Japanese woman. He feels anxious again, and to soothe himself, he lights a marijuana cigarette.
In realizing the potential danger of his sexual desire for Betty, Childan is again struggling to come to terms with the “place” system. And implicitly, the novel’s fictional ban against interracial sex recalls real U.S. legislation. Actual American laws banned mixed-race couples into the 1970s, and men of color who had sex with white women were frequently targets of violence.
Themes
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Across the city, Frank Frink tries to rouse himself from bed. He regrets his actions of the day before: he lost his temper with Mr. Wyndham-Matson, the owner of the factory where Frank works, and Wyndham-Matson may now fire him. Frank knows that Wyndham-Matson has close ties with the pinoc, the white puppet government in Sacramento, and he wonders what kind of relationship Wyndham-Matson has with the Japanese government. Since San Francisco is in the Pacific States of America—a Japanese colony of sorts that comprises California, Oregon, Washington and parts of Nevada—the Japanese government holds all the real power.
In this passage, the novel begins to explain its alternate reality: after World War II, the victorious Japanese colonized the entire west coast of the U.S. San Francisco, where Childan, Tagomi and Frank live, is now the capital of this new region. Though the Pacific States are nominally governed by white people (the pinoc), all meaningful political power belongs to the Japanese. As Frank considers the situation, it also becomes clear how deeply the political and the personal are intertwined. Though Frank has merely had a spat with his boss, even such a seemingly small interaction could have major repercussions for Frank given Mr. Wyndham-Matson’s political ties.
Themes
Frank wonders if he could leave the Pacific States of America (the PSA) and start a new life somewhere else. He considers escaping to the Rocky Mountain States, but he reflects that they might extradite him back to the PSA. He briefly thinks about going to the South, but then he remembers that the South is a haven for white supremacists. Moreover, the South has ties to the Nazi Reich government on the east coast, and Frank Frink—born Frank Fink—is secretly Jewish.
The three other regions of post-war America now come into focus. The first is the Rocky Mountains, a neutral buffer zone not under Japanese or German rule. The second region is the South, which—as the worst perpetrator of the U.S.’s own racial hierarchy—has prospered in an era of Nazi racism. The third region is the East Coast, a German colony now known (confusingly) as “the United States.” Since Frank is Jewish, and the Nazis’ core goal is to exterminate all Jews, the further he can be from the east coast, the better.
Themes
Frank recalls his time as a soldier for the U.S. in World War II. After the United States surrendered to the German and the Japanese, Frank was filled with violent rage against all the Japanese victors. However, as time passes, he no longer feels any animosity toward the Japanese people with whom he interacts every day; the desire for violence “was just not relevant anymore.” In fact, he now admires the Japanese for their strict but just system of laws.
Having just reflected on the racial politics of the various American regions, Frank now considers the pointlessness of such racial groupings. His largely symbolic hatred of the Japanese dissipated when he actually dealt with individual people on a daily basis; Frank’s racist stereotypes could not hold up against his own lived experience. For the first time, then, the novel begins to suggest the importance of small, everyday moments in shaping people’s perceptions.
Themes
Frank listens to a radio report about the Germans, who have recently landed on Mars. He reflects that the Japanese, busy trying to colonize South America, have not yet made any progress in space exploration. In the “quaint old history-book days,” the Germans lagged behind the other colonial powers of Europe, but now they are colonizing even outer space.
Though the Germans and the Japanese were allies in World War II, there is clearly some tension between the two victorious powers. Having divided up the U.S., the Germans and the Japanese now compete to gain even more territory.
Themes
With horror, Frank remembers the “Nazi experiment” in Africa—which has now become a “huge empty ruin.” In Africa, the Nazis committed large-scale genocide and cannibalism, murdering people and then “eating them out of their own skull[s].” On the radio, Frank hears a Japanese announcer denounce such vicious Nazi violence. Pulled back into his own thoughts, Frank realizes that he must stay in the PSA—there is no other safe place for him. He therefore needs to make amends with Wyndham-Matson.
Through Frank’s eyes, the book reveals the most horrific thing that has occurred since the Nazis won the war: driven by Hitler’s racist, eugenicist ideas, the Germans launched a massive genocide against Black Africans. Though the Nazis claim to be agents of progress and modernity, Frank understands that they are actually brutally violent—even cannibalistic. Frank’s desire to stay in the PSA is thus borne primarily out of fear—and from a realistic assessment of the Nazis’ barbarism.
Themes
Frank pulls out his copy of the I Ching (a traditional Chinese divination text popular in the new Pacific States of America) and he asks the book how he should approach Wyndham-Matson. To obtain his answer, Frank throws the yarrow stalks that come with the book; the stalks reveal a pattern, known as a hexagram, that then corresponds with a brief message. This time, the hexagram is about modesty—so accordingly, Frank decides to plead with Wydham-Matson for forgiveness.
The I Ching is a recurring motif throughout the novel, as many characters will consult the ancient book as both prophecy and spiritual guide. To the people who trust this oracle, the randomness of the stalk-throwing reflects the randomness of fate.
Themes
Frank then asks the I Ching if he will ever see Juliana, his ex-wife, again. As he does so, he reflects on the power of the I Ching: it is “random, and yet rooted in the moment in which he lived, in which his life was bound up with all other lives and particles in the universe.” Frank gets Hexagram 44, which is about a mismatched couple; Frank is disappointed, as he knows Juliana was wrong for him but loves her anyway.
Here and elsewhere, the I Ching testifies to the importance of human interconnectivity—Frank muses that “his life was bound up with all other lives,” meaning that people are inextricably linked to one another. This idea is part and parcel of Japanese culture but completely antithetical to Nazi ideology, which emphasizes individual agency.
Themes
Frank reminisces about Juliana’s great beauty and her particular spacey, “screwball expression.” Even when they fought, Frank was madly in love with Juliana, viewing her as a gift from god. He wonders “who else in this complicated city of San Francisco was at this same moment consulting the Oracle,” and he hopes that the others using the book are getting less gloomy advice.
As Frank dwells on his ex-wife, his great love for her becomes clear. Throughout the novel, Frank’s primary motivation is his desire to win Juliana back—and this love drives him even in situations that have nothing to do with Juliana. This passage also shows Frank again thinking about himself as one small part of a larger unit; here, he positions himself as just one of many people turning to the Oracle “in this complicated city of San Francisco.”
Themes
