“Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams is about Arthur dent a human from earth
that is awakened one morning by a construction team trying to tear down his
house to make way for a highway. Arthurs friend ford prefect comes and explains
that a race called the Vogons are going to demolish earth to ironically build a
space highway. The two escape on to a Vogon Ship and are then jettisoned in to
space where they are picked up by Zaphod Beeblebrox president of the Galaxy.
The group encounters dangers and hijinks. They eventually come to a
supercomputer called deep though which was asked the question to the meaning of
life to witch it calculated was 42. The answer was unsatisfactory therefore
deep thought constructed earth which would help calculate the question that
would give the answer some kind of meaning. Unfortunately just before the Earth
had completed its calculation it was blown up by the Vogons. A pair of mice
that escaped with Arthur when he first left reveals themselves to be sentient
beings and curious about the meaning of life offer to buy Arthurs brain. He
refuses which gets him in to trouble his friends rescue him in the nick of time.
The group then decides to go have lunch at “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”
to which the book ends and leads to the sequel. The theme is that the answers
were all seeking are right in front of us as long as were not so blinded to
look. Douglas’s tone is playful, serious, and whimsical as this is a crazy tale
of total mind F****.
Like many other authors and novels the author
approaches characterization in two ways direct and indirect the most common and
easiest of these to point out is when he describes physical attributes of the
characters like the fact that Arthur is British or Ford is Black. Then through
the characters actions we grow to know how their minds work and their personalities
which fill the rest of the characters profiles. The author’s syntax and diction
remain the same throughout regardless of what he is describing. No Arthur remains the same neurotic constantly
opposing and questioning persona that he is except for the fact that maybe he
is a little bit more accepting of change. There was something about this book
that just didn’t grab me so unfortunately after reading the characters just
remained words on a page that didn’t make me feel for them or grab me as a
reader.
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