It can be argued that the 1960s began with the end of the Second World War. After all, after the war life was never the same for people around the world. A new world had emerged: a scary world where millions of people had just died from mechanized weapons that still have the potential to kill millions more. A world where the greatest acts of human cruelty known to man had just been committed. A world where so many families had been displaced, so many boys forced to become men by the horrors they had seen. In short, people felt lost in this new world, and very few people knew how to put into words their overwhelming disillusionment with the world. Philip K. Dick was one of those few. Through The Man in the High Castle, Dick was able to express the feelings that millions of Americans felt after the war and as the mentality of the 1960s began to form. Through the use of allegory, recurring motifs, and symbols, and through the structure of his novel, Dick captures the uncertainty and loss of control and direction felt by many after World War II in a thought-provoking, effective, masterful, and captivating way. fully the essence of the birth of the sixties. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The mentality of the American people is reflected in the actions and desires of the characters in The Man in the High Castle. Take, for example, Tagomi and Frank's almost obsessive need to consult the I Ching before any major event in their lives. The I Ching is an oracle of ancient Chinese origin that first appears when readers are introduced to Frank Frink in the first chapter. Frank is asking how he should approach his boss so he doesn't get fired from his job and receives Hexagram Fifteen, a favorable response. Immediately Frank explains that he “couldn't force [Wyndam-Matson] to take him back. All he could do was adopt the point of view of Hexagram Fifteen” (11). Thanks to the I Ching, Frank doesn't have to make his own decisions about the future; the oracle is telling him exactly how to behave and what will result from his behavior. The I Ching motif is ironic given the uncertainty surrounding the world in which Dick lives. The future is clouded and people have just witnessed atrocities they couldn't have even imagined. Given what has just happened, there is an overwhelming fear of what other horrors could potentially occur, especially with the looming threat of communism. The future, in the real world, is more unpredictable than it has ever been, and there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who would be able to achieve peace of mind if they had their own I Ching. This irony, as well as the pervasiveness of the motif throughout the novel (many of the novel's most suspenseful plots take place under the guidance of the oracle) make the I Ching a very effective tool for conveying the allegorical meaning of Dick's novel . The recurring image in The Man in the High Castle are American antiques, including Tagomi's revolver, the Mickey Mouse watch given to Baynes, and FDR's lighter. In the world depicted in Dick's novel, antiques are coveted objects, sought after by collectors or as diplomatic or congratulatory gifts. The value of antiques in Dick's fictional world is symbolic of the desire of some Americans to return to the way of life before World War II, when things were much simpler. Take family life for example. While duringthe Second World War women worked, in the 1960s there was a strong desire to return to traditional family values ​​of the father as breadwinner and the mother as housewife. Yet, there is more to Dick's metaphor, as he writes: “No one could estimate the percentage of fakes in circulation. And no one—especially the dealers and collectors themselves—wanted it” (44). The characters in the novel want something they cannot have, because there are no longer enough antiques in stock, just as the American people want something that is impossible to return to. Change is happening, and it's happening fast. What is needed is acceptance of the here and now, as there are positive aspects that have emerged as a result of the war's aftermath, including economic stability and a revitalized American Dream. This new American way of life is represented in Dick's novel by Edfrank's Jewelers, which Paul describes as “genuinely a new thing on the face of the world” (186). Furthermore, Paul states that “a whole new world is pointed out by this,” referring to the piece of Edfrank jewelry given to him by Childan (186). Dick's inclusion of these two heavily involved symbols to represent the two Americas he experienced is clever and masterful and further serves to draw parallels between the real world and his fictionalized America. Another aspect of post-World War II society in the real world is the awareness that the entire course of one's life can change due to changes completely outside one's control or, in some cases, one's sphere of understanding. For example, nuclear weapons could completely decimate an entire region without warning. Dick very skillfully describes this loss of control over his life through the structure of his novel, thus carrying forward the allegory of The Man in the High Castle as a whole. There are several main characters in the novel, including Frank, Juliana, Tagomi, Childan, and Baynes. Some of these characters in the novel interact with each other while others never even meet. However, even though some of them don't know each other, all the characters influence each other. For example, Frank and Tagomi never meet throughout the novel. However, when Frank is arrested for being Jewish, Tagomi refuses to sign Frank's extradition papers, an act that Frank later describes as a "miracle...a stroke of luck of some kind" (255). Likewise, a gun built by Frank will end up saving Baynes' life at the end of the novel, but Frank and Bayne will never meet. In Childan's case, he will never know that it was Frank who informed him that the vast majority of products in his store were fake. By choosing to adhere to this structure of the novel, Dick has perfectly encapsulated the idea that our lives are shaped largely by forces that are beyond our control and that many people will most likely never fully understand. While Dick is masterful in creating an allegory representative of the feelings felt by contemporary Americans, no novel is without its flaws. While the structure of the novel is perfect for furthering Dick's purpose, it seems to lack a clear direction narratively. From the reader's perspective, it is sometimes difficult to follow the plot, as the characters' thoughts tend to wander in a way that is distracting and misleading. For example, Tagomi's reaction towards the piece of jewelry Edfrank receives in chapter 14 is extremely prolonged. For eight pages, Dick focuses on the emotions the jewels make Tagomi feel, yet it is difficult to discern the meaning of some passages. For example, Dick writes: “Like a frog pulled out of the depths, he thought. Tight in.