Essay Questions

What does this novel tell us about the political climate at the time?

The novel tells us that at the time of its publication there was both fear and suspicion; the biggest threat that was perceived was Communism. It was the era of Senator McCarthy and his search for those in positions of power or influence who had left-wing or Marxist leanings. Sometimes, if a person had no such leanings themselves but were still in some way associated with a person who did, their lives would still be negatively impacted. Jack Hamilton, the novel's protagonist, is an example of this. Although there were no suspicions or beliefs about his political affiliations, his wife was said to be a Communist sympathizer, and because he worked in an area that would be of interest to our country's enemies, he was fired.

The novel also shows the realistic fear of Communist infiltration; we learn that the security officer who had pointed the finger so effectively at Marsha Hamilton was himself a Communist operative whose agenda was to use his position at the laboratory to further the left wing agenda he espoused. This type of infiltration was greatly feared at the time and there was an air of suspicion about everyone who worked within companies like this one in case they released secrets to the Russians, or other Communist nations.

The end of the novel is quite ambiguous. Why?

Although the characters all believe that they have returned to the real world, the author prefers to keep their real-world status up in the air. After all, perhaps they only think that they have returned to their own reality. Perhaps they are actually living within someone else's reality and just don't realize it yet. This ambiguity is designed to challenge the reader with philosophical questions about our existence; can we ever really be sure that we are living our own reality and not someone else's?

The book is based predominantly on the philosophical principle of solipsism which states that only one's mind is sure to exist and that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind can be questioned. The external world might be a figment of our own mind's imagination and therefore might not exist at all. By leaving the ending of the novel ambiguous, Dick is asking if any of the realities outside the minds of the characters exist at all, and suggests that perhaps their return to the real world is all in their mind.