Man In the High Castle

The setting of this novel consists of two locations. First is San Francisco, California in the Pacific States of America. This San Francisco is unlike the one most readers might be know because it is a San Francisco that exists after the United States has lost the Second World War. San Francisco has been bombed and burned to the ground and now is rebuilt. The population of San Francisco is a high concentration of Japanese, as the Japanese government now governs the pacific coast. With this new government come many aspects of the Japanese culture, including the use of the oracle among Caucasian Americans. The second setting of this novel is Colorado, where Juliana Frink lives. This area of the United States has not changed as much as San Francisco and the Pacific States. However, there are differences here, including the appearance of autobahns and a shift in the types of goods for sale in local stores.

The setting of this novel is important because it helps to underscore the changes that have taken place in the United States since the end of the war. This novel seeks to present what might have happened in the United States if Germany and Japan had won the war. The author predicts that the two countries would have split the United States in half, with one government taking control over one part and the other the other part. As a result, the cities and states that the reader knows are no longer the same, instead taking on new cultures and appearances in response to the government running them.