The Man in the High Castle is an intriguing look at Phillip K. Dick’s vision of what that world would look like if the Axis powers had been victorious in World War II. The world, including most of the United States, has been carved up between The Reich and the Empire of Japan, with a limited area of relative freedom in the form of a no man’s land in the center of the continent.

Much of the action of this book takes place in the Pacific United States, which is ruled by Japan, and as a result, Japanese culture is explored heavily. Phillip Dick examines the cultural differences by using the internal dialogue of both American and Japanese characters. This switch of perspective within the story, and the viewing of events through different social lenses, enhances the feeling of foreignness in this alternate history setting.

The major characters in this book, the ones who serve as alternating focal points, seem sympathetic and to have good and noble goals when the reader is enjoying their portion of the story, even if they are working at cross-purposes to another character with whom the reader has been previously sympathetic. This ability of the author to paint major character in a light shade of gray makes the book a thought-provoking read.

As with many of Phillip Dick’s works, readers may find the action moves at a slow pace, but the joy of reading this book really is found in the journey. That journey is well worth the time spent reading this book.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  40 religious exclamations; 24 mild obscenities; 12 religious profanities; 59 derogatory names; 1 scatological word; 2 anatomical terms.

Note: Many of the derogatory names are an assortment of racist slurs which are no longer in common use.

Violence/Gore:  Report of an execution; mention of eating brain from a person’s skull; rape (mention), robbery (mention); a few reports of past military battles/events; suicide is considered a few times; lobotomy (report); a few reports of past war atrocities; a few reports or considerations of assassinations; two reports of a murder; report of a car accident involving animals; report of terrorism; a few reports of death of a public figure; statement that people ought to be gassed; report of people killed for reading banned literature; character grabs another by the ears; character threatens to maim another; report of mass forced sterilizations; report of violence contained in a book; threat to use cyanide gas; nuclear war is considered; characters have a scuffle involving a wound to an arm and the use a gun to threaten; character threatens to kill another; character slashes another’s throat and leaves him for dead; character threatens military action against another; two men are shot, with blood and bone described.

Sex/Nudity:  Men notice beautiful women with nice figures a few times; a few instances of verbal flirting; report of nude women advertising bawdy shows in public; homosexuality (mention); rape (mention); brief (1 paragraph) discussion of inbreeding and incest; word “queens” used to refer to effeminate men; mention of characters having mistresses; a married man has a rendezvous with a lingerie-clad woman who is not his wife; a man is lying in bed naked, and it is clear that he and a woman had sex the night before; a woman watches a man dress; characters caress each other in areas not normally covered by a bathing suit; discussion of a character’s sexual skill; report of mass forced sterilization; report that some people have “questionable sexual mores” and have orgies; recount of man stroking a woman’s bosom (not graphic); character states that men are “ruled by the testicles”; character imagines a former lover in tight clothing and wonders if she is with another man; a couple is in bed after sex, and they flirt and kiss; description of nude photos; mention of “sex instinct” and “couples in coitus”; a man contemplates whether another man will think he is trying to seduce the other man’s wife; report that a man prefers a certain type of woman; a woman wanders around naked and disoriented; prostitutes line a street; woman debates how to wear a revealing dress and which bra style and size she needs. 

Mature Subject Matter:

Racial discrimination; aftermath of war (World War II); human experimentation; various religions figure prominently in the story, including Judaism and Confucianism; forgery; blackmail; homosexuality (mention); slavery; genocide; rape (mention); Nazism; suicide (considered); mental illness; chemical warfare; literary censorship; prostitution; necessity of taking life.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults smoke marijuana and cigarettes and drink alcohol; various drugs are used medicinally for things such as motion sickness and pain relief; report of gas used to poison people; phenobarbital (mention).