The Man in The High Castle Essay
First 2 pages of the 1 chapter.
In the first two pages of the book “The Man in the High Castle”, the author utilizes a variety of literary devices that allow him to depict the necessary background information to understand and describe the storyline. The use of direct speech, as well as multiple cases of imagery can be seen throughout these pages.
In the second page, an interaction between Mr. Tagomy and Childan is encountered in order to set implicit information for the reader to acquire. The use of direct speech when Mr Tagomi is speaking is intended to start shaping the characters traits and personality, especially his arbitrary use of broken English. When Tagomi says “I can wait no furthermore”, he clearly intends to say, “I can’t wait anymore”.
This sets Tagomi´s character as someone who is clearly not a native speaker, with a rough character and impatient personality. This interaction is intended to develop the character´s traits and speech impediments as a clear Japanese immigrant with inherent Japanese traditions. Furthermore, his interaction with Childan follows this pattern, where the author starts constructing Tagomi´s personality around the direct speech he uses throughout the conversation. Given the Japanese background and its cultural norms, pronouncing Childans name inappropriately is considered as rude and an insult within their community. This portrays Tagomi as vengeful and petty, and Childan as a conservative and proper individual within its cultural standards and background.
The author uses several demonstrations of imagery along these two pages. One of the most important literary devices used in this excerpt is “Childan gazed morosely through the store window at the warm bright day and the San Francisco office buildings.” This imagery has a plurality of purposes: first of all, it is described in this manner to create a mental image in the readers head: the primordial purpose of imagery. The second one is more tangential and implicit within the sentence. It intends to provide background information to the reader, in order for him to understand the setting and establish basic information of the place where the story is developed; information that will be relevant in further chapters given the consolidation of Asian immigration into the west coast as a vital characteristic of the book. This imagery also intends to deepen into Childan´s character, by portraying and describing its reaction to the interaction with Tagomi. He uses “morosely” to depict the mental image of the annoyance he is feeling by conversing with Tagomi, and how he evidently wants to finish the conversation as soon as possible, releasing key components of the individual´s personality and behavior. Furthermore, it determines the specific setting where Childan is at and depicts a small portion of his life as a 9-5 blue collar employee attempting to accommodate to the American system and its workforce.
Since this extract is from the beginning of the book, every piece of information provided by the author is intended to be used as background information or establishment of the setting, context, time, weather, etc. of the storyline, in order to consolidate both the character´s as unique and complex individuals, and the setting as a relevant element within the storyline. The effect it has is inform and contextualize the reader without telling them the information expressly. This intends to create a more complex and literarily consistent piece of work, which does not rely on providing information directly, but rather using literary devices to transmit it in a more enticing way.
