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
At the Reich’s Consul in San Francisco, ambassador Reiss is greeted with an unwelcome visitor: police chief vom Meere. Vom Meere informs Reiss that they have found Rudolph Wegener, the “Abwehr fellow”; his real name is Baynes, and he is posing as a Swedish industrialist. Vom Meere has also learned that Baynes is supposed to have an important meeting with a Japanese official, and Berlin wants the police to intercept this meeting.
In this conversation, vom Meere and Reiss confirm what the novel has long suggested: Baynes is actually Wegener, a German spy and dissident. Baynes’s meeting with Tagomi, though it initially appeared to be a matter of bureaucratic routine, is in fact a one of tremendous global importance.
Themes
Reiss worries that trying to capture Wegener before or during this meeting will upset the Japanese higher-ups. However, vom Meere tells Reiss that he already has a Kommando squad ready to capture Wegener; vom Meere is not worried about the Japanese, because he believes they are too polite to do anything. Vom Meere mocks the Japanese practice of bowing to guests.
As the two Reich officials contemplate how to stop the meeting, vom Meere’s prejudices cloud his thinking. His mocking stereotype of the Japanese as too polite and deferential causes him to be careless in his plans.
Themes
Reiss gets a phone call from an unknown source; it turns out to be Goebbels himself, calling to emphasize the necessity of capturing Wegener. Without any other option, Reiss gives vom Meere an authorization for Wegener’s capture. Vom Meere tells Reiss that when the Japanese call to complain about this German interference, Reiss should lie and say that Wegener was really “a homosexual or a forger.” Reiss agrees, but he is frustrated that vom Meere went over his head and he is shaken by having spoken to Goebbels himself.
The novel is primarily set in the PSA, away from the center of Nazi action and thus seemingly removed from most geopolitical drama. But now, Goebbels himself is involved in San Francisco life, suggesting the omnipresence of German forces—and the inevitability of conflict and strife in the post-war world. It is also ironic that one of the crimes vom Meere suggests as a cover is forgery, a form of deceit, since Wegener’s job as a spy is to deceive people about his identity.
Themes
Reiss thinks about ways that he could sabotage vom Meere. He considers telling the Japanese what flight Wegener will be departing on; he also considers trying to make the Japanese angry at the police force by convincing them that “the Reich is amused by them, doesn’t take little yellow men seriously.” Before Reiss can determine how to regain power, he gets a phone call from a schoolteacher hoping to get some “scenic posters of Austria for their class.”
The personal and the political again clash here, as Reiss prioritizes taking petty revenge on vom Meere over government strategy. He also continues to show his prejudice when he thinks of the Japanese as “little yellow men” (“yellow” is a derogatory term used to describe Asian people). The ridiculousness of the whole situation is underscored by the call from the schoolteacher, which lends humor and absurdity to the passage.
Themes
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At 11 o’clock, Childan heads over to Paul Kasoura’s office, which is just as well-decorated as the Kasouras’ home. Paul greets Childan with a trace of aloofness, though Childan is not sure if this is real or in his head. Since Betty has not yet called to thank Childan for his gift (the Edfrank pin), Childan assumes Betty did not like the gift, and he apologizes to Paul.
In this new encounter with Paul, Childan’s anxiety about navigating the racial hierarchy comes back with full force. Childan is constantly second-guessing himself and apologizing, and his nervousness testifies to the psychological and interpersonal harm of prejudice.
Themes
Paul surprises Childan, informing him that he never gave the pin to Betty at all—instead, he showed it to many of his colleagues. Initially, the colleagues all laughed at the piece; Paul reveals that his initial reaction to the piece was also laughter. However, after studying the piece for several days, Paul began to develop “a certain emotional fondness” for it.
Childan’s anxieties are borne out when Paul says he initially laughed at the Edfrank piece. However, Paul’s thoughtfulness and deep appreciation of art cause him to approach the piece with an open mind. Here and elsewhere, the novel suggests that art always deserves this kind of care and analysis.
Themes
Paul tells Childan that the piece has a special kind of spiritual balance. Though it does not have wabi, the Japanese word for good taste, it does have wu, a Chinese word for the tranquility associated with holy things. In fact, to Paul the piece has value “in opposition to historicity.” He tells Childan that wu is often found in “such trash as an old stick, or a rusty beer can by the side of the road.”
Paul’s compliments are a clearly mixed bag: he compares the jewelry, which two Americans labored over, to a “rusty beer can.” But he—like Childan—also understands that this object represents a break with the past. Not only does it not have the “problem of authenticity,” but its futuristic beauty is “in opposition” to history itself.
Themes
Paul celebrates the Edfrank jewelry as “authentically a new thing on the face of the world.” He explains to Childan that his colleagues, after some discussion, agreed that the strange jewelry possessed wu. Paul concludes that, having persuaded his colleagues of this fact, he is “exhausted”; he returns the pin to Childan, who is baffled.
Paul’s use of the word “authentically” here is particularly striking. Throughout the novel, authenticity has referred to an object’s verifiable history. But now, authenticity means something artistic, more along the lines of “wu.” Now, authenticity is about creation and the future, not the past.
Themes
Surprisingly, Paul tells Childan that he must “meditate” and figure out what to do with this radically novel jewelry. Paul believes that these pieces can have a massive impact on Childan’s life and the world. Childan resents this advice, “and the worst of it was that Paul certainly spoke with authority, right out of dead center of Japanese culture and tradition.” Childan once again begins to think racist thoughts about Japanese inferiority.
Though Paul and Childan have had similar thoughts about the jewelry, Childan resents having to do the work to convince other Japanese people of its worth. Once again, he fumes that Americans have lost the war and must therefore defer to “culture and tradition” that he has no real interest in.
Themes
Before Childan can leave, Paul tells him one last thing: one of Paul’s colleagues, an importer/exporter who works mostly in South America, is interested in the jewelry. Specifically, he hopes to mass-produce these pieces, “either in base metal or plastic”; he would then sell the pieces as good-luck charms for “relatively poor people” in Latin America and Asia. Childan understands that there would be a great deal of money for him in this transaction—and that Paul, having shown the jewelry to his superior, no longer has any agency in the situation.
Though Paul has just heralded the jewelry as somehow special and “authentic,” he now suggests mass-producing it in plastic. Throughout the novel, plastic has been a symbol of both deception and impermanence, whereas the jewelry seems to stand for truth and a more promising future. The contrast between the original metal jewelry and the mass-produced plastic replicas therefore represents an ideological conflict between respecting genuine art and earning a profit.
Themes
Childan asks Paul for advice. Paul explains that while he himself cannot get pleasure from anything mass-produced—he wants “something rare […] something truly authentic”—the same is not true for the uneducated masses. Childan wonders if Paul is implying that there are fakes even among the valuable antiques Childan carries in his shop.
Paul seems to be struggling with this contradiction between artistry and profit, metal and plastic. As Childan thinks about potential fake Edfrank pieces, he recalls the fake Colt .44s—which depresses him, given that the Edfrank line initially seemed like a solution to the forgery problem.
Themes
After going back and forth, Childan tells Paul that he will meet with the importer. But to Childan’s surprise, Paul does not seem pleased by this decision. Before Childan leaves, Paul asks if the American artisans who made these pieces—by hand, with the “labor of their personal bodies”—will accept such a fate for them. Childan thinks the artisans can be persuaded, but something in Paul’s tone makes him hesitate.
Paul has displayed great dignity for much of the book, but here his strength of character is particularly clear. Though he stands to gain money and status from this transaction, Paul remains committed to the artwork in its original form (handmade and “personal”).
Themes
Childan has an epiphany: the whole thing has been “a cruel dismissal of American efforts,” Paul’s tactful way of proving that American art is “worthless.” Childan reflects that this is how the Japanese rule—“not crudely but with subtlety, ingenuity, timeless cunning.” Childan feels a great deal of shame for himself and for all Americans; he sees himself through Japanese eyes, as a helpless “barbarian.”
Childan often suspects the worst, so he sees Paul’s plea for the art as one more way in which the Japanese are asserting their superiority. His prejudiced resentment of only moments before now slides back into internalized racism. But in his shame, Childan also begins to accept that Ed and Frank have brought truly original American art back to life.
Themes
His voice cracking, Childan tells Paul that he is “humiliated” by the whole ordeal. Childan explains that he is proud of this work and does not want to see it made into “trashy good-luck charms.” Though he cannot tell how Paul is reacting to all of this, Childan demands an apology. After a long silence, Paul apologizes for his “arrogant imposition.” Childan feels calmer, and as he leaves Paul’s office, he reflects that life is short but “art, or something not life, is long.”
This moment of apology and forgiveness, which breaks down the boundaries of racial caste, is striking—and for the remainder of the novel, forgiveness will be an important means of navigating a complex, colonized world. This passage is also important because of its association of art with permanence and the future. Childan realizes that art can lost beyond life—and if the Nazis try to leave legacies of destruction and conquest, Childan sees that art can leave a legacy of creation.
Themes
