Assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt is the foundational counterfactual event of Philip K. Dick's alternate history novel, the point at which the real world's timeline diverges into the Axis-dominated present of the Pacific States of America. In this world, the 1933 attempt on Roosevelt's life by Joe Zangara succeeds, and the consequences ripple through the entire twentieth century, shaping the political landscape that every character inhabits. The assassination is not depicted directly but is instead referenced and debated by characters, who understand it as the crucial turning point that led to the defeat of the Allies and the rise of German and Japanese hegemony.
The Divergence and Its Immediate Consequences
The assassination is first mentioned in the novel during a conversation between Wyndam-Matson and his young mistress Rita, who explains the theory put forward in the banned novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. According to this theory, had Zangara missed, Roosevelt would have been a "terribly strong President," as strong as Lincoln, and would have pulled America out of the Depression and armed it for the coming conflict. Instead, the assassination led to the presidency of John Nance Garner, whom Rita describes as "a really awful President," blaming him for much of what followed. The novel's alternate history posits that Garner's weakness and isolationism allowed Germany and Japan to win the war, a view that Wyndam-Matson dismisses with a laugh, insisting that Japan would have won regardless.
The Alternate World of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy
Within the novel, the assassination is the hinge on which the counterfactual world of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy turns. In that book-within-a-book, Roosevelt survives, is reelected in 1936, and remains president until 1940, during the war. His successor, Rexford Tugwell, continues Roosevelt's anti-Nazi policies, so that Germany fears to honor its treaty with Japan in 1941. As Rita recounts, Tugwell is so prescient that he has the U.S. fleet at sea before Pearl Harbor, so the attack fails, and the U.S. is able to defeat Japan. The novel's alternate history also includes a British victory at Stalingrad, where the tide of the war turns, and the eventual defeat of the Axis. This counterfactual world is presented as a utopian alternative, where the U.S. and Britain divide the world and bring peace and prosperity, in stark contrast to the grim reality of the novel's present.
The Assassination as a Point of Debate
The assassination serves as a point of ideological contention among the characters. For Robert Childan, a white American living under Japanese rule, the thought of a world where the Allies won is a source of bitter resentment. He reflects that if the U.S. had won, "they would have crushed them out of existence. No Japan today, and the U.S.A. gleaming great sole power in entire wide world." He sees the assassination as a national tragedy that led to his own subjugation. In contrast, Joe Cinnadella, a German agent posing as an Italian truck driver, uses the assassination to argue that the Axis victory was inevitable, dismissing the counterfactual as fantasy. The debate over the assassination thus becomes a proxy for the characters' attitudes toward their own world and their hopes or fears for what might have been.
The Assassination's Role in the Novel's Structure
The assassination is not merely a historical footnote; it is the structural foundation of the novel's nested narrative. The real world of the novel is a direct consequence of the assassination, while the fictional world of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy imagines a world without it. This creates a complex layering of reality and fiction, where the characters themselves are aware of the counterfactual and debate its plausibility. The assassination also underscores the novel's central theme of historicity—the idea that the value of objects and events lies not in their intrinsic qualities but in the meaning assigned to them by history. Just as a Colt .44 revolver's authenticity is questioned, so too is the authenticity of the historical narrative itself. The assassination, as the point of divergence, is the ultimate example of how a single event can shape the entire course of history, and how the interpretation of that event can vary depending on one's perspective.
The Assassination and the Theme of Chance
The assassination also highlights the role of chance in history, a theme that runs throughout the novel. The I Ching, the ancient Chinese oracle that several characters consult, emphasizes the interconnectedness of all events and the randomness of the moment. Frank Frink, reflecting on the oracle's advice, thinks about how "every particle being connected with every other; you can't fart without changing the balance in the universe." The assassination is the ultimate example of this principle: a single, seemingly random act by a lone gunman changes the fate of the world. This theme is reinforced by the novel's own structure, which presents a world where the Axis won, and then imagines a world where they lost, suggesting that history is not inevitable but is the product of countless small accidents and choices.
The Assassination's Legacy in the Novel's World
In the novel's present, the assassination's legacy is visible in every aspect of society. The Pacific States of America are a Japanese puppet state, where white Americans like Robert Childan must bow to their conquerors and sell them artifacts of their own lost culture. The German Reich dominates Europe and Africa, and its rockets travel to Mars and Venus. The assassination is the reason why the characters live in a world where the Nazis have won, and it is the reason why the novel's characters are so preoccupied with the past, with historicity, and with the possibility of alternate outcomes. The assassination is thus not just a historical event but a living presence in the novel, shaping the characters' identities, their relationships, and their hopes for the future.
