Billenium final
- 1. “BILLENIUM” By: Mia R and Victoria R Analysis
- 2. TOPICS • Information about the author • Description of characters • Relevance of the title • Tone • Themes • Symbolism
- 3. J.G Ballard Shanghai, China (November 15, 1930 - April 19, 2009) He was an english novelist and a key figure in the New Wave Movement in science fiction. Among his most famous works are: - “The Atrocity Exhibition” - “Empire of the sun” - “Crash” Each of which was later adopted into a feature film.
- 4. CHARACTERS John Ward He is the protagonist, a middle aged man, who is not married. He works as a librarian and he is the one that found the “secret room”.
- 5. Henry Rossiter He is Ward’s closest friend, he works in Insurance Department at City Hall and he has access to census statics. He is who urges Ward to let the girls move in. CHARACTERS
- 6. Judith and Helen Waring: They are the gils who Henry Rossiter and John Ward let move into their room, these girls seem to be nice at first, but end up bringing practically their whole family in, being really disrespectful CHARACTERS
- 7. The story describes a situation the future where population of the world has grown so much that there is no space for people to live a normal life. The space that each person can have is regulated by a city council. “Billenium” makes reference to a time in the future where overpopulation will be the biggest problem to human race. RELEVANCE OF THE TITLE Hi, I’m the City Council!
- 8. Pessimistic When we read the story we can see that the characters don´t have any type of hope for the future, because they know that the situation is not going to change, the characters, as well, maintain a passive role in the story (they don´t do anything to revert the situation) TONE FUTURE “ (…) and the ceaseless press of people jostling past the window had reduced him to a state of exhaustion”
- 9. Overpopulation/Lack of Responsibility In the story, the city is settled in the future, a future with overpopulation, probably because of years of no birth controls, non stop migration, and people don´t using protection. THEMES Now they live crowded and with limited space. Everybody lives in a small room, called “cubicle”, of 3,5 inches, which is owned by a landlord. “By 6.30, when he woke, hurrying to take his place in the bathroom queue, the crowds already jammed it from sidewalk to sidewalk(…)”
- 10. Power and Loss of Privacy Landlords had all the power, there was little privacy, because they lived in small cubicles, one next to another. When Ward found the room, he got the privacy and freedom everybody wanted. When the girls moved in, as he became the landlord, he also gained power, but when the girls´ family started to move in, all the privacy they had went away. THEMES PRIVACY “ The small rental he charged the others paid for the little food that needed”
- 11. Destruction of Beauty The story shows how beauty is lost because of overpopulation. Important places like cathedrals, churches, town halls, are destroyed because they are used to keep people (for them to live there), because of the lack of space. The wardrobe represents, as it’s from Victorian Times, the beauty form the past that Ward and Rossiter don´t know about. When it´s destroyed, the memories from the past are destroyed. THEMES “ The great banqueting room in the former City Hall had been split horizontally into four decks, each of these cut up into hundreds of cubicles”
- 12. • The Wardrobe: It symbolises freedom, because as now they have a bigger room, they can decide what to put there. It also represents beauty in the sense that, as it was a Victorian Wardrobe, it comes, belongs, to the past that Ward and Rossiter didn´t know much about. SYMBOLISM “ It had been a beautiful piece of furniture, in a way symbolising this whole private world, and the salesman at the store told him there were few like it left”
- 13. SYMBOLISM • The Cubicle: The word “cubicle” symbolises the lack of space, freedom, privacy and of power. They have a limited size, and everyone has to respect it and live with it. Landlords own and regulate them. “(…) in most single cubicles host and guest had to sit side by side on the bed, conversing over their shoulders and changing places periodically to avoid neck-strain”