1/28/2019 3 Comments Douglas AdamsDouglas Adams 1952 - 2001 Cambridge, UK
Major Works: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (1996) The Long Dark Tea- Time of the Soul (1989) Last Chance to See (1991) The Salmon of Doubt (2002) Major Themes: Alienation, Purpose of Life Novel Choice Plot Summary: Arthur is a normal human on the normal planet Earth, that is, until it is destroyed to make room for an intergalactic highway. Arthur manages to escape the planet, due to a man named Ford, who seemed like he was from Earth, but was really a space hitchhiker working of the “Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”. Arthur and Ford eventually meet up with the “Was” president of the universe, Zaphod, who stole a spacecraft capable of insane travel distances, faster than light. The gang ends up on an alien planet, which had been abandoned by an ancient race which had pretty much ruled the economy before they fell into a state of depression. Arthur meets one of these people, who tells him that the aliens asked a computer to find the meaning of life for them. The computer said it would take 7 million years to do so, so most of the race froze themselves until the computer had the answer. After that time, the computer had the answer “42”. It claimed that the race had asked the wrong question, and needed a bigger computer to find out what the question was. The race had built planet Earth, a gigantic supercomputer, to figure out the question, but since it had been destroyed, the aliens fell into a bigger state of depression. Then the gang leaves the and goes to a restaurant. Yeah, the ending is like ramming into a brick wall Analysis of Main Characters: Arthur is a normal human being to us. When forced to adapt to space life however, when Earth is blown up, he’s some stupid primitive being who happens to hold the question for the answer of the meaning of life, so he also looks like an object to many space faring races. Arthur has pretty much become dehumanized throughout the entire book. People speak to him like we would to a dog. He’s excluded from conversations. Other intelligent life have straight up requested for his brain. Arthur also keeps many of his negative feelings suppressed inside, which can sort of show in some scenes in the book, where he comes pretty close to snapping and losing his mind. To summarize it all up, Arthur wants to be a part of all of this cool space stuff, but because of his human heritage, is seen as a dumb, primitive being that people will take advantage of for their own gain. Theme: The book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy explores themes of alienation through the main character, Arthur. He is the last remaining Earthling after his homeworld was destroyed and is now thrown into a chaotic space age filled with super-intelligent life. Arthur is seen as a primitive being by many, and even given the label “Mostly Harmless”. There is also a theme of the purpose of life, because this race of aliens becomes depressed and wants to know what it means to be alive, so they ask a computer, which takes millions of years to find an answer, but it makes no sense to the aliens, so they fall into an even deeper depression. This could mean Douglas wants the reader to define their meaning of life, and not let other things decide it for you. How did the author’s life influence his writing in this novel? (2-3 paragraphs) Douglas Adams had always loved reading and science when he was young, and his passion for these topics would stay with him for the rest of his life. Douglas then come to Hitchhike across Europe from Western Europe to Istanbul, Turkey for raise funds for school. He took many odd jobs while doing so. One job that he stuck with for a while was being a writer for the British TV show, Doctor Who. He wrote the plot and scripts for a couple of episodes, and after he left the team, he started a radio show with someone named Simon Brett called The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Europe is a very diverse place. It’s filled with many different types of people, ethnic groups, languages, architecture, religion, etc. While hitchhiking, Douglas must have felt like he stood out to everyone as an outsider, or an alien. I feel like Douglas took his experience of hitchhiking and made it into a book. The book has many different types of races, who are all very technologically advanced, and the main character, Arthur, just came off of Earth and feels like an outsider to these space age peoples. There’s also a character in the book, Ford, who acts sort of like a friend to Arthur. Although he hauls from space, he was stuck on earth for 15 years, and is able to explain to Arthur what goes on and is like a personal guide. This Ford character could represent Simon Brett, who was a friend of Douglas’. Works Cited: https://www.famousauthors.org/douglas-adams (for various books he’s written) “Douglas Adams.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams. (Information on his life and works) “Douglas Adams.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/name/nm0010930/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. (Information on his life) **NOTICE THAT I did not use any quotes from sources. I may have used information from some pages for research and use some in my article, but I did not copy anything word for word, and my thoughts are my own. If this seems like an excuse to get out of doing citations because I’m bad at doing quotes, it is not (although i am bad at doing quotes :D) By: Alex W.
3 Comments
Ian McNulty
1/31/2019 09:59:50 am
Do you think the aliens depression was related to experiences and witnessings Douglas saw while hitchhiking across europe?
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Alex Wagner
1/31/2019 10:09:39 am
I don't think the book goes too deeply into that, but I think they were dissatisfied with their life because they had stayed on that one planet for millions of years, doing the same task, over and over. The book said that these aliens were pretty much the center of the space economy, but that was lost when the aliens lost satisfaction in their work. They pretty much became machines and only built planets (Don't ask), and had nothing else in life. This probably sparked the question "What even is the purpose of life?" I think Douglas was trying to show what happens to people when they don't have variety in their life. As a hitchhiker, Douglas was always on the move, meeting new people, seeing new cultures, etc. He probably wants to encourage people to add some spice to their life, and have some variety.
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Tyler Berendsohn
2/3/2019 07:25:44 pm
How did Arthur escape earth before it was destroyed?
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