A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
a review of literary theme
At first glance, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy seems nothing more than an irreverent, whimsical, and purposefully frivolous tale of space-travelling nonsense--science fiction�s own equivalent of Jabberwocky--meant only to entertain and pose no further burden upon the reader. However, when one reads the book with an open and perceptive mind and dares to look beyond what is presented at face value, it becomes clear that Douglas Adams wrote this forwardly simple book with the intention of using satirical humor and wit to convey his views on life, universe, and the nature of philosophy itself.
The prominent theme underlying the whole of the book, and probably the heart of what Douglas Adams wants to convey to the readers, is what he sees as the general absurdity of life and the fruitless but interminable pursuit of intellectuals to understand and comprehend it, as well as the �common man� to just learn to cope with and make sense of it.
The main protagonist of this story, Arthur Dent, represents the �common man.� His life is simple and wholly unexciting, but he prefers it that way. He lives in his �comfort zone�, which consists of following a set daily routine, and going to the pub to socialise with his best friend--excitement enough for him. But, just as what often occurs real life, Arthur�s life takes an unexpected and upsetting turn when a chain of events beyond his control turn his world on end. First, his comfort zone and sense of normality is shattered when his house is demolished to make way for a bypass; then, Arthur is robbed of any sort of comprehendible reality or familiarity when he is abruptly whisked away into space by his long-time friend Ford Perfect, who happens to be a galactic field researcher for the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica, because the Earth is minutes away from being demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.
Adams seems to be saying that one might as well go along for �the ride that is life� and handle situations as they come about in lieu of agonising over the future and how one may control their own destiny--for the nature of life itself is that it is highly unpredictable and chaotic, and one�s situation and fortunes may change at the drop of a hat. Put simply, one should learn to go with the flow because one has no control over the curves that life might throw at them.
This message is epitomised by the spaceship Heart of Gold, which features the first-ever �improbability drive�--literally, the higher force that changes the fortunes and destiny of the story�s main protagonists. Only by amazing coincidence and change of circumstances do our characters Ford Perfect, Arthur Dent, former Galactic President turned cosmic rogue wanderer Zaphod Beeblebrox and his female companion Trillian meet, go on a space venture which pits them against many perilous situations, and manage, against all possible odds, to come out of it unscathed.
The intellectuals in this story, represented most poignantly by several groups of futuristic philosophers, actually create a supercomputer--appropriately dubbed �Deep Thought�--for the sole purpose of generating answers to the most pressing and yet unanswerable questions of the universe. The first two philosophers to utilise this great thinking machine, which they make the mistake of calling �the greatest of all time�, decide to ask it the fundamentally vague but monumental question that has been plaguing men�s minds since the dawn of time--�What is the meaning of life?� After grovelling on for some time about its own technical supremacy relative to that of its contemporaries and the even more powerful computers that will supersede it, the computer replies that it can generate an answer, but that doing so will take �some time�--more specifically, several thousand years. As if this great wait was not already trying enough, the answer it finally generates--simply, �forty-two�--is a grossly specific answer which proves absolutely meaningless in the context of their progenitors� woefully broad philosophical question. Here Adams seems to be openly criticising the actual merit of philosophers and other such intellectuals, who are never able to come up with a reasonably succinct or specific answer to anything because they are either overanalysing and complicating a fundamentally simple matter, or searching for a specific and definitive answer to a question that is fundamentally broad, subjective, or, in realistic terms, simply unanswerable.
Along these same lines, Adams dares to take a satirical spin on that of the person who sets out on a quest to discover some illusive element in their lives which they believe will somehow make it more meaningful of fulfilling--yet who are often doomed to failure because they, themselves cannot specifically define what it is for which they are searching. Adams seems to be sending the message that one cannot find contentment or achieve anything else in life if they cannot first define their goal, their motivation behind wanting to reach it, and the means by which they can arrive at it.
Zaphod Beeblebrox, a former rogue hippie, became Galactic President for the sole purpose of hijacking the state-of-the-art Heart of Gold spaceship and using it in his own personal quest to explore the cosmos--even though he was unable to recall what, exactly, he was actually searching for. Only through intense introspection does Zaphod discover that he, himself was responsible for sabotaging part of his own memory so that his plans could not be detected on the mind scan given to all prospective presidents. As a result of Zaphod�s own inability to define his �quest� in life or what would bring him true contentment, he is doomed to meander about the galaxy aimlessly until he re-evaluates his life and the true motivations behind his actions.
A secondary theme running throughout the book is that of the universal desire to have some kind of purpose or significance in life and in the greater scheme of things. People strive to feel important and hope that their efforts will somehow lead to something that is bigger and better, or greater than themselves.
The metalloid robot Marvin was programmed with the capability to �feel� and convey human emotions, as he was designed to function as a highly intelligent companion to the human crew aboard the Heart of Gold spaceship. However, his designers did not foresee that this combination of superior intelligence and human emotion would ultimately result in the creation of a chronically depressed being. Marvin is literally too self-aware and intelligent for his own good. He knows that his mental capabilities far exceed that which is ever required of him, and he lacks any ability to find pleasure in just �being�. As a result, his life seems invariably boring and devoid of any meaning or true purposefulness.
Conversely, when Arthur Dent and Ford Perfect have the misfortune to be caught stowing away aboard a Vogon cargo ship, they are confronted by unpleasant beings who seem terribly inept at considering concepts outside their own narrow scope of life, or even at connecting with their own inner feelings. Because of their inability to do so (even though they may not realise it), Vogons often take out their frustrations out on others. In the end, Arthur�s and Ford�s attempts to help the Vogons recognise their shortcomings only serve to fluster the wretched creatures even more.
In regard to the broad satire on intellectualism and the nature of philosophy, I imagine that Adams may have developed his attitudes towards these schools of thought while attaining a liberal arts degree at Cambridge University in England in the early 1970�s. Cambridge is world-renowned for its great amassment of intellectuals, and the pomposity of some of these individuals surely did not go unnoticed by Adams. He undoubtedly also witnessed his fair share of philosophers who could carry on a debate ad infinitum, yet in the end be no closer to finding an answer than they were when they began. It was in these years that Adams probably found himself questioning the very purpose of the �fruitless pursuit�, eventually coming to the conclusion that it was really all quite ridiculous. It should be noted that Douglas Adams was a great admirer of the wild social satire featured on Monty Python at the time, which also happened to have been written by men with prestigious Cambridge and Oxford educations. (He even made a cameo in the last season.)
Adams was only twenty-six years of age when he wrote The Hitchhiker�s Guide--an age when many people are still struggling to find their own identity, purpose, and place in the world. His characters reflect this sentiment, as well as the sentiment of a generation that had become disillusioned with both conservatism and the counterculture movement that they had pinned all their hopes and dreams on--a movement which ultimately failed to accomplish what they had, in all their naivety, hoped it would accomplish.
Overall, I would say that Adams did succeed in writing a novel that satirically reflected life, although, oddly enough, the author�s purpose seems to have been lost on great many people who fail to realise that he�s actually saying something relevant.