Phillip K Dick attempts to ‘undermine’ Nazism as a motif of ‘The Man in the High Castle’ by suggesting that “Nazism is the absolute culmination, the logical fulfilment of all that is German” (Dick, P.K. 1995. pg3). He attempts to rid the world of the memories of the dark side of the Nazis. His intention is to make the reader see that all that Germans, (Mostly those who were Nazi) were no different to the rest of the world in their fear, although he states that it was their fear which lead them to persecute the Jews. They were not the only ones to carry out such drastic action in history.
Philip K. Dick (pp.112-117). New York: Vintage.
Another action which he brings out as an argument against the dark side of Nazism is that, the world has always seen incidents in which one race or group of people have victimized another race throughout history and continued to do so. Ironically the Jews treated the Arabs in much the same way when Israel was formed and they chased the Arabs out of their homeland where they lived for over 2,000 years. He tries bring about the awareness of a sympathetic side in them, especially in the character (and real-life person featured in the novel) Heinrich Himmler who could not bear to see Jews being killed and other acts of humanity performed by the average German. He attempts to raise the theme that atrocities such as the Nazi’s actions continue to be carried out by members of other races or religions. These include the 1994 conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi people of Uganda, something which was immortalized in the film ‘Hotel Rwanda’ (2004), the Darfur crisis, the Somalian tribal conflict, the 1995 Srebrenica genocide and of course the German holocaust which inspired a non-fictional book and later a film, Schindler’s List
Phillip K. Dick elicits that it is not only the Germans who are guilty, every human being who harbours disrespect towards another human or group of humans just because they are different in terms of race, religion, culture/tradition etc is as guilty as the Germans.
References
Dick, P.K. (1995). Nazism andthe High Castle. In Sutin, L.(Ed.), The Shifting Realities ofPhilip K. Dick (pp.112-117). New York: Vintage.
Thoughtful response Vikram. My only comment is that you could have introduced aspects of the primary text 'tMitHC' to support your discussion. For example how did Dick portray his beliefs (as you descibe) through his novel. The final scenes of the book would have been a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to see specific example from the book that support this view or this interpretation. I agree with the point you make that it is not only the Germans who are guilty of the persecution of another race.
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