Billenium
- 1. Billenium Francisco Cersósimo and Federico Berro
- 2. J. G. Ballard James Graham "J. G." Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. James Graham Ballard was born in November 15 of 1930 Shanghai International Settlement, China. In his writings, he used science fiction and transgressive fiction. He died 19 April 2009, aged 78, in London, England.
- 3. Themes
- 4. Power and Loss of Privacy When the family of the girls started coming to the place where Word and Rossiter were living, they started paying a kind of rent for the stay, in that room. This gave power to them, the consequence for this was that they became what they hated at the beginning of the story, the cubicle owners, mad, greedy and selfish. The other consequences for letting the family stay in the room was that they lost all the space and privacy that they were looking for.
- 5. Overpopulation / Lack of responsibility The people of the story didn't had “Control”. Because they know, if you had more children or more you can have a bigger cubicle, so the people continued having children, they were irresponsible, this was a consequence also for the overpopulation.
- 6. Destruction of Beauty This is shown in cities. As there is many people, important buildings as cathedrals are replaced with cubicles for people. Also we can see this in the secret room, when Ward and Rossiter have to sell the furniture so that people could go and live there.
- 7. Quotes Power and loss of privacy: “The partition pressed against his knees and he could hardly move” Overpopulation / Lack of responsibility: “The world population had reached plateau, leveling of at a 20.000 million” Destruction of beauty: “Now, of course, the older buildings torn down and replaced by the housing batteries or converted into apartment blocks”
- 8. Tone
- 9. Pessimistic The story has a pessimistic tone because the kind of life the people have. Also we can see that the characters live in a negative situation and they didn't tried to solve it, they just accept that kind of “Bad” or “Negative” life. They accept to live a crowded life without space or privacy. “Over hundred people lived in the top of three floors of the old rooming house”
- 10. Characterization
- 11. Characterization John Ward: He is the protagonist, middle-aged and unmarried. He worked as a librarian. He is the one that finds the secret room. At the end of the story he became into the thing he hates. Henry Rossiter: Ward’s friend. More self-interested. He is the one that make the girls move into the room. The girls: The move to the room and then bring their family.
- 12. Relevance of the title
- 13. Billenium The story describes a situation of a moment of the future where the population of the world has grown so much that there is not enough space for people to live in. The space that people can occupy is regulated by the city council. Billenium refers to a future time where overpopulation will be the worst problem for human race.
- 14. Symbolism
- 15. The Wardrobe The Victorian wardrobe that Ward and Rossiter bought was a symbol of privacy and space for them. It’s size emphasizes the emptiness of the place. But when they started to rent the room to the girls and their relatives, they have to sell it. Days after, they realised how beautiful it was and what it meant to them, regretting their action.
- 16. The Cubicle It was the only thing they could have and the small privacy they had. However, in a way finally Ward loses it so he couldn’t even have that. It also symbolises the amount of people and the city overcrowded. As a conclusion, it symbolises honor and a bit of privacy. Although Ward couldn’t have that and he misses it.
- 17. Quote The Wardrobe: “It was a beautiful wardrobe, without doubt, but when it was gone it would make the room seem even larger.” The Cubicle: “’I hear they may reduce the allocation to three and a half metres.’ Rossiter remarked.”