People in high power, such as government officials, have a power to control whatever and whoever they want. In Time Out of Joint, by Philip Dick, Dick demonstrates this power, in which the United States government creates a world and brainwashes hundreds of people into preserving a town to seem like it is in 1959, in order to gain military advantage. In the novel, the government takes advantage of the illusions Ragle Gumm is experiencing and Dick demonstrates how by using organized narrative structure and strong characterization with the help of third person omniscient point of view to keep the reader in the dark about what is actually real.
First, Dick uses third person omniscient to divulge the power that the government has in an organized narrative structure. The government’s power and influence is evident in the delusions some of the characters have because they are fighting between reality and fiction. The first sense of power happens with Vic, “I wasn’t groping around randomly. As I would in a strange bathroom. I was hunting for a light cord I had pulled many times. Pulled enough to set up a reflex response in my involuntary nervous system,” (Vic, 24). This first incident gives a hint to the reader that something is not right. The reader and Vic do not understand what is going on because Dick is building up to the climax of the novel. Vic later on shares this experience with Ragle, which reassures Ragle that he is not delusional. Dick is slowly giving hints to the reader that something is wrong, such as, “The soft-drink stand fell into bits. Molecules… In its place was a slip of paper. He reached out his hand and took hold of the slip of paper. On it was printing block letters. SOFT-DRINK STAND,” (Ragle, 35). What does this ...
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...t, such as the radio, is not normal and causes him to freak out and become paranoid. The government did everything in their power and beyond to ensure that Ragle did not gain his memory back, so that they could use him as a military defense unit despite the severe psychological problems it was causing to Ragle.
Overall, by using third person omniscient, Dick develops the novel so that the reader only knows what Ragle, the protagonist, knows. He uses organized narrative structure and strong characterization to demonstrate the power that the government has and how far they are willing to extend that power. One of numerous purposes of the novel is to show how corrupt the government can be and how far they are willing to attack civil liberties in order to protect the nation as a whole.
Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. Time out of Joint. New York: Vintage, 2002. Print.
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