The Man in the High Castle Chapters 5 & 6 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 5 & 6

Summary: Chapter 5

Wyndam-Matson receives a call from Ray Calvin, who’s angry that the fake guns he bought are lousy fakes. Wyndam-Matson’s mind races, and he begins to suspect that Frink and McCarthy are retaliating against him. He considers blackmailing Frink, whom he knows is Jewish, but he decides it’s easier to just pay him off. Wyndam-Matson shows his girlfriend, Rita, two lighters, one previously owned by Franklin D. Roosevelt and one not. Since no one can tell the difference, he believes authenticity doesn’t matter. Rita spots a book titled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy that describes an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt was not assassinated and instead led the world to defeat Nazi Germany. Wyndam-Matson derides the book as junk and insists that way things turned out was the only way they could have.

Tagomi and Baynes meet at Tagomi’s home. Baynes says that a retired elderly Japanese man, Shinjiro Yatabe, will join them in a few days to finish their negotiations. Baynes asks that Tagomi not report this meeting, however, for tax purposes, since the elderly man is on a fixed income. Tagomi casually mentions the German policy of exterminating the elderly. The comment rouses Baynes’ suspicions, and he wonders if Tagomi somehow knows of his outburst with Lotze on his flight earlier. Tagomi arranges a driver for Baynes, a student who is learning Swedish. Baynes, however, is not fluent in Swedish, which is strange since he’s supposed to be a Swedish businessman.

Summary: Chapter 6

Joe Cinnadella, the Italian truck driver, is at Juliana’s home. She notices his tattoo of the letter C, which he says stands for Cairo, where he was stationed during the war. Juliana also notices a military award among his possessions. She finds the man strange and moody. During breakfast, they hear the news that the German Reich leader, Chancellor Bormann, has died. A discussion about his possible successor sparks an argument between them. Joe sympathizes with the Nazis and believes they have empowered the common people against wealthy corporations. Juliana finds them pure evil. During their discussion, Joe mentions the book The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and says that the author lives in a fortified home he calls the High Castle in a remote area in Cheyenne.

Back at Tagomi’s office, Tagomi’s student driver reports that Baynes doesn’t speak Swedish, confirming Tagomi’s suspicions about Baynes. News of Chancellor Bormann’s death sends Tagomi to the Foreign Office, where members discuss who will succeed him. As Tagomi listens to information about each candidate, the enormity of the Reich’s evil washes over him, and he rushes out, feeling ill. Tagomi receives a call from Baynes, who is frantic that the elderly man has not arrived yet. Their meeting is on hold until he arrives.

Frink consults with the I Ching once again about getting money from Wyndam-Matson. The result isn’t promising, so Frink is surprised when a messenger shows up with a check for $2,000 from Wyndam-Matson. Frink and McCarthy decide to call their new business Edfrank Jewelers.

Analysis: Chapters 5 & 6

In Chapters 5 and 6, another key theme of the book emerges around authenticity and its value. The ability to tell what is real from what is fake is an important matter in many of the characters’ lives. First, it is an important prerequisite of Childan’s job as an antique dealer. Without it, his credibility is tarnished and he’s in danger of losing place, or status, something deeply important to him. This is exactly what happens when Admiral Harusha comes into his store. A Japanese man trying to buy twelve authentic American artifacts from an American dealer ends up being the person to notify Childan that his stock is fake. Childan is extremely embarrassed and horrified: The Japanese have found him out. He’s lost his place and now feels personally valueless.

Wyndam-Matson and Ray Calvin know the business of telling real from fake very well as they are in the business of making fakes. They are, in fact, the ones who have sold Childan his fake guns. Unlike Childan, however, their interest in telling real from fake is purely financial rather than a result of personal ambition and self-importance. If they can’t sell good fakes, their bankroll goes down and they lose financial, not personal, value. Calvin isn’t even bothered that Wyndam-Matson has sold him fakes, he’s only concerned they’re poor-quality fakes. Their goal is profit, whatever world they live in. They are adaptable to the economies they live in and don’t tie their identity to the socio-economic structure they exist in.

Interestingly, it is Frank Frink who has the most economically viable situation since he possesses the skills to make a high-quality fake. A Jew trying to keep his ethnicity under the radar, Frink has worked in Wyndam-Matson’s factory making fake guns, and he’s become very skilled at doing it. Like Juliana, he exists in a sort of nowhere, middle state of existence, behind the scenes. Both Juliana and Frink see their lives as the only thing they need to worry about while the larger world moves on. Frink is free to live his life without the pressures of trying to fit in or make money, at least on a large scale. This all changes, of course, when he challenges Wyndam-Matson and loses his job. At this moment Frink sets himself on a new path of even higher value, but what isn’t known yet is if he can make it in the world on his own.

Wyndam-Matson’s episode with the two lighters encapsulates a key view on historicity and the quality of an object that the novel explores. Wyndam-Matson is a materialist—for him if you can’t see it, touch it, smell it, or taste it, then it isn’t real. According to him, the two lighters are just that—two lighters and neither has a special quality inherent in it. Wyndam-Matson is trying to prove the point that the Japanese reverence for the historicity of an object is bunk and that value is subjective to the person viewing the item.

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