“Space, it says, is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s peanuts to space” (Adams 76). The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is about the president of the universe, the two last people from Earth, and an alien hitchhiker trying to find the meaning of life without being killed by spaces trials and tribulations. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a fun-filled adventure that takes the mind away from what the human race perceives as life and reality in an episodic and hilarious fashion.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy starts out with the main character, Arthur Dent, and his best friend, Ford Prefect, going to a pub because his house was going to be destroyed for a bypass. Ford took him to the pub because the Earth was going to explode in minutes and they needed their muscles to relax so they can leave on the ship blowing up Earth. The reason the aliens blew up Earth was for an interstellar bypass. Having the Earth blow up right in the beginning of the story makes it so it opens up the story so that the author can do whatever he wants with the plot line.
The ship hat they hitched a ride from was not a very good ship, and they ended up being thrown off into space. The probability that they would be picked up by someone that was just around in that time in space is extremely rare. “However, it does go on to say that what with space being the mind-boggling size it is the chances of getting picked up by another ship within those thirty seconds are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and nine to one against” (Adams 77). They ended being picked up by a ship called the Heart of Gold.
The Heart of Gold uses infinite probability drive as an engine nd that is the only way Ford and Arthur could have been picked up. On this ship happens to be two people that Arthur had already met on Earth: a girl named Trinity and some alien that was on Earth for a short time named Zaphod Beeblebrox that took Trinity to explore the universe with him. In the middle of the story, Zaphod, is looking for a hidden planet called Magrathea. This is an ancient planet that was lost in the utter nothingness of space never to be found again.
This was a big deal because the people on this planet used to make and design other planets construction; they even created and designed Earth. This is important because at the end of the story the characters get the pleasure of meeting some Magratheans. Zaphod finds this mystical planet and with some trouble on the way down they land on it. Zaphod thinks he can find the meaning of life on this planet because way back when the Magratheans were living there they created the most powerful computer in the universe that could answer any question someone might have to ask. And to this end they built themselves a stupendous super computer which was so amazingly intelligent that even before its data banks had been onnected up it had started from I think therefore I am and got as far as deducing the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off” (Adams 166).
This super- computer however, did not help with Zaphod’s problem. The next situation that the characters come across was meeting an old Magrathean named Slartibartfast, who happened to be designing another Earth. Finally, the book comes down to earth -or, at any rate, to a replica of it being repopulated by detritus from another planet: ad-men, middle-management consultants, and the like” (Kemp). This fact that Earth was being built again made Arthur and Trinity both ecstatic so Slartibartfast offered to show them what they had so far built. Luckily they were mostly done with Earth so it was beautiful to see everything in its original natural state on Earth; Slartibartfast told Arthur that he even made his house.
When they go into his house however, they are tricked by a couple of people that were originally Magratheans because they thought that Arthur was the last human alive and they wanted to sell his brain. They did this because they thought they could find the meaning to life hrough the brain of a human. (Adams 185-204) At the end of the story they escape just barely out of harm’s way and it ends like an episode of a space adventure, with the Heart of Gold flying through space. This story was written to make people laugh while opening their minds and making them think of the deeper meaning of what is being read.
The author of this story explains in great detail what he wants to explain, leaving many other details of what and why out of the story. “Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again” (Adams 135). It is shown that in this quote he gives no detail into how or why this plant could even comprehend. It makes the reader think of the infinite possibilities that could have taken place to make a plant think on its own. Although, this quote can also prove the wit of Douglas Adam’s writing style because it makes the reader laugh out loud.
Douglas Adams wrote this book as a parody; it is not by any means supposed to be a viewed as traditional science fiction novel. He took an idea, such as the world ending, and put it into perspective on how irrelevant that would actually be ompared to what is happening in the universe and it is not really mentioned again until the end of the book. He takes the main character, Arthur Dent, and throws him into a world where he is expected to know what is happening and how the universe works like everyone else does. “You don’t need to. Just put this fish in your ear” ( Adams 56).
This quote can stylistically show how the author takes one of Earth life’s daily troubles and implements them into a much larger universe. “While Zaphod teases Arthur about his ignorance of the ways of the universe, he does help to save Arthur from the mice” (Woodford). This is an example from the view of critical writer that can prove the point above. There are a few ways this story can be read, yet all of them give the same kind of message. When it comes to who is telling the story, the main part of The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy is told from the perspective of Arthur Dent, the main character.
However, getting into the nitty gritty details there is an all-knowing narrator that explains ideas so that they are clear to the reader. This all-knowing narrator tells the reader facts and is happening around the main character that he may not realize is happening. Creatively enough, though, a third voice can also be heard when reading this book, and that voice comes from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book itself. The kind of style this book was told in, however, is very episodic; the plot moves from one area of the plot to the next with exciting jumps of action.
The action had to reach a peak every so often, raising the curiosity of listeners who would not be able to simply turn the page to find out what would happen next” (Stanley). This story was originally a screenplay for a twelve-part radio show and the reader can tell because of the action. Throughout this whole story, the main character comes across new and exciting lands. The first part of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy starts on Earth but that only lasts very short time. It takes place in modern time; there is no real time that is set.
When the Earth goes away, the next setting the main characters are put on a massive alien ship. This ship alien is like a big factory floating in space. The only reason they are in this ship is because the Vogons blew up Earth and the two main characters hitched a ride with them. This ship, however, is run by the most npleasant kind of aliens, Vogons, that anyone were to encounter on a normal basis. “Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the Universe” (Adams 64). This point is important because the Vogons use poetry as torture for the two main characters.
After the poetry reading, however, the Vogons cause the next setting change because they thro into open space with no gear to survive only because they did not like the poetry. “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy says the main characters that if you hold a lungful of air you can survive in the total vacuum of space for about thirty seconds” (Adams 77). Luckily, gainst all probability, they survive by being picked up by the next setting. The next setting is a small ship compared to the Vogon ship and is called The Heart of Gold.
The Heart of Gold is a stolen ship that uses an engine called the infinite probability drive. This engine makes it so whoever is operating the ship can go everywhere in the universe in fractions of a second. “The Infinite Improbability Drive is a wonderful new method of crossing vast interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking around in hyperspace” (Adams 86). The last setting that moves the whole lot would be Magrathea. This is a legendary hidden planet were the people on it used to make planets for money.
One of the four main characters wants to find the answer to life and he thinks it is on this planet. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first character the reader meets and most important character is Arthur Dent. Arthur Dent is a very real human person; he has a balance between good and bad traits. Arthur is a character that would like nothing more than to sit down and have a cup of tea. He does not live on the edge, which in this story that seems to be all he is doing. Arthur can easily be pushed around and belittled by others.
The author made such a blank and simple human being because he can put any situation in front of him and he would handle it the way that only someone from Earth would handle it. It also makes it so the author can put crazy characters in the story without overwhelming the reader. The next character of importance would be Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod’s main goal was to become president of the universe so that he had a chance to find the meaning of life. His only chance of doing this was to steal the Heart of Gold and go looking for it.
If searching for meaning seems pointless, the decision not to search seems pathetic. Furthermore, while the meaning of life is elusive, life is not portrayed as worthless” (Woodford). Zaphod came to this realization of what Woodford said in the quote later on in the book. Zaphod has three arms and two heads; he uses this to boost his chance at becoming president. He definitely is the most fun and witty person of the story, but this causes him to get in more and more danger with his seek of the thrill. “ Second by second the image of the missiles on the screen grew larger.
As a matter of interest, said Trillian, what are we going to do? Just keep cool, said Zaphod” (Adams 127). This quote shows how much Zaphod cares about going into a situation without thinking about it. In the final analysis, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy tells a hilarious and meaningful story that can open the minds of the closed minded. And although none of the ideas told in this story are true, it can bring a person to think who they really are and what they are doing here. This books episodic plot and attention to detail can keep any reader engaged in the story throughout the whole book.
