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
Having been invited to the Kasouras’ house for dinner, Childan takes a pedicab to their “exclusive” neighborhood. No white people live in this district, so Childan attracts stares from the various prominent Japanese residents. As he approaches the Kasouras’ apartment, Childan is overcome with social anxiety. “I do not belong here,” he frets, “on this land that white men cleared […] I am an outsider in my own country.”
Throughout the novel, the PSA’s racial hierarchy has been a source of stress and frustration to Childan. But here, he clarifies this feeling—he is angry at the Japanese colonization but proud of white men’s colonialism, reflecting that “this land that white men cleared.” Childan does not pick up on the irony of describing the U.S., which white settlers took from Native Americans, as his “own country.”
Themes
Mrs. Kasoura greets Childan at the door, dressed in a Japanese kimono. Childan admires the tasteful décor of the apartment, which he feels possesses wabi—an untranslatable Japanese word about finding beauty in simplicity. As they sit down to drinks, Paul and Betty Kasoura instruct Childan to call them by their first names. Betty explains that they will be eating a typically American meal: steak and baked potato.
The Kasouras are clearly people of great taste and elegance. They have also gone out of their way to make Childan feel comfortable and casual, using informal first names with each other and serving him his own cuisine.
Themes
Childan presents Paul and Betty with a scrimshaw from an old U.S. whaling ship, and the couple is deeply appreciative of the gift. Childan thinks that he has made a successful libation, “as the I Ching put it.” For the first time since he found out about the fake gun, Childan feels at some kind of peace. He reflects that the Kasouras are “balance[d]” people, in possession of the spiritual “proportion” known as Tao.
It is a coincidence that Childan is thinking about the same passage from the I Ching that Frank was in the previous chapter (when the oracle instructed him to give “offerings and libations”). This is yet another way in which the novel suggests that its various characters are inextricably linked despite their racial and political differences.
Themes
Paul Kasoura discusses the news of Bormann’s death. Today, von Schirach has been placed under house arrest. When Paul criticizes the other possible replacements, Childan defends them, and Betty has to step in to alleviate the tension. Childan regrets having mis-stepped so immediately. “They’re so graceful and polite,” Childan thinks, “and I—the white barbarian. It is true.”
Bormann’s death is all anyone can talk about, and Childan has very different political opinions than the Kasouras (he is more sympathetic to the Nazis than they are). Even as he applauds the Nazis’ white supremacy, however, Childan’s sense of self-loathing (“I—the white barbarian”) suggests that he has internalized the PSA’s hierarchy.
Themes
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Once again, Childan notices Betty’s beauty and feels lust for her. To distract himself from these illicit thoughts, he brings up The Grasshopper Lies Heavy—he has a noticed that the Kasouras have a copy. Paul offers to lend the book to Childan (whom he calls “Robert”) and suggests that they could get lunch one day and discuss it. Childan fantasizes about going to a fashionable restaurant with a prominent young Japanese man, as it would do wonders for his social status.
The fact that the Kasouras own the Grasshopper book—which imagines a world in which the Japanese lost—suggests that they are open-minded and willing to be challenged by art. This tolerance is also evident in Paul’s offer to get lunch with Childan, which everyone at the table understands would dramatically raise Childan’s social status.
Themes
The conversation turns to music, as Paul is a big fan of jazz. Childan explains that he does not listen to “Negro music” because he prefers the classical “European masters.” The Kasouras seem a little upset by this comment. Childan is frustrated, feeling that Paul only likes jazz because it is the “most authentic American folk music.”
Again, Childan’s white supremacy comes out, and the Kasouras do not approve. At the same time, Childan resents the Kasouras’ desire to constantly have the most “authentic” view of American culture, as Childan feels it is appropriative.
Themes
Once dinner is served, Childan notices that Betty has set the table with a combination of antique American and contemporary Japanese flatware. As Childan appreciates the food (“thank God they had not presented him with a Japanese meal”), he announces that—contrary to the Grasshopper book—he is glad Germany and Japan have won the war, because otherwise Russian communists would have taken over the world.
The legacies of colonialism are evident in even the tableware—the flatware reflects both Japanese style and the Japanese penchant for American antiques. Though Childan has previously been at odds politically with the Kasouras, he here tries to ally himself to them by declaring that he is happy Japan won the war.
Themes
Betty counters that no one people can truly take over the world, and the table falls silent. Childan berates himself for again creating political tension—but then he realizes that it is “impossible to avoid the topic. Because it’s everywhere, in a book I happen to pick up or a record collection.” Childan grows angry, and privately, he resents the Japanese for stealing American artifacts and traditions. “Only the white races endowed with creativity,” he fumes, “and yet I, blood member of same, must bump head to floor for these two.”
Betty has a more nuanced worldview—she does not see people purely in terms of racial groups and ideologies. But rather than accepting Betty’s more tolerant perspective, Childan slides into racist resentment. This passage touches on the idea that politics are completely inescapable in every realm of life (“it’s everywhere”). Moreover, the Japanese emphasis on authenticity now feels to Childan like theft, which again suggests that originality and creativity may be more important than authenticity and “historicity.”
Themes
Paul asks Childan about another American book he is reading, Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts. West’s book is largely about the Judeo-Christian concept of original sin, and Paul wonders aloud if the book’s author—who was Jewish—was impacted by his sense of being an outsider. Childan states that if the U.S. had won, “the Jews would be running the world today.” This comment horrifies Paul and Betty, who “descend into themselves.” As the table falls silent, Childan realizes he has permanently damaged his new relationship with this couple.
The concept of original sin (essentially, the idea that humans are inherently flawed) will recur throughout the novel. Here, though, Childan’s anti-Semitism prevents him from taking in the substance of what Paul is saying. Far more than his race, it is Childan’s biases that prevent him from becoming close to the Kasouras.
Themes
Disgusted, Childan concludes that “these people are not exactly human…they’re like monkeys dolled up in the circus. They’re clever and can learn, but that is all.” He is angry that, because the Japanese have won the war, he must “cater to them.” Invigorated by these new thoughts, Childan begins to eat heartily for the first time all meal.
Childan dehumanizes the Kasouras by thinking of them in animal terms. (Notably, the Nazis used a similar technique to dehumanize Jewish people and other minorities, often describing them as vermin.) Indulging in this bias gives Childan a new sense of power (evidenced by his suddenly hearty appetite). The novel is therefore demonstrating the dangerous appeal of prejudice, as Childan runs from his own vulnerability by engaging in racial hatred.
Themes
With a newfound sense of confidence, Childan takes a pedicab back from the Kasouras. A pinoc (white government employee) is sitting in Childan’s apartment upon his return. The pinoc wants to talk about the impostor who visited Childan’s shop, pretending to work on the ship Syokaku. The impostor, Childan learns, is Jewish—his name is Frank Frink, though he was born Frank Fink. Childan is disappointed in himself that he could not recognize the “racial characteristics” of a Jew, but he is grateful for the orderly legal system.
Just as the novel suggested that Baynes might (or might not) be Jewish, Frank’s Judaism is equally difficult to discern. In addition to painting identity as unstable, the text also reveals the futility to make lists of “racial characteristics,” as nobody can be defined or confined by their appearance.
Themes
After the pinoc leaves, Childan decides to buy The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. His mind drifts to thoughts of the new Nazi leadership, and he hopes Doctor Seyss-Inquart will be chosen as chancellor. He dreams that one day he will have enough money to travel to Nazi leadership, as he feels that in the PSA, “history is passing us by.”
If Childan’s bias wasn’t already clear, the extent of his Nazi sympathies really comes through here. Seyss-Inquart is one of the most vicious Nazis, yet Childan hopes he will take over. And similarly, he longs to be under Nazi control and to feel like he is part of “history,” putting him in line with the Nazi’s focus on agency.
Themes
