Hawthorne Abendsen
Hawthorne Abendsen is the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, the banned alternate-history novel that circulates secretly throughout the Pacific States and the Reich. His book imagines a world where the Axis lost World War II, and it provokes both fascination and fear among its readers. Abendsen's life and work become the focal point of the novel's climax when Juliana Frink, a reader who has killed an SD assassin sent to murder him, confronts him with the revelation that his book is not fiction but truth.
Identity and Background
Abendsen is described as an ex-serviceman who was in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, wounded in England by a Nazi Tiger tank, and held the rank of sergeant. He lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in a place he calls the High Castle, which he has fortified with guns and charged barbed wire, set in the mountains and hard to reach. His reputation as a paranoid recluse is widespread; Juliana Frink hears that he is "almost a sort of paranoid" and that he has barricaded himself in his fortress. The book jacket of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy notes that he has "practically a fortress that he writes in, guns all over the place." Despite these precautions, when Juliana actually visits him, she finds him living in an ordinary single-story stucco house with a child's tricycle in the driveway, having abandoned the High Castle due to a phobia about the elevator that led him to believe the cable was being hauled up by Jesus Christ.
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and Its Reception
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is banned throughout the United States and Europe, yet it is widely read in secret. It is popular in the Pacific States and even in the Home Islands, where it has stirred up considerable talk. The novel depicts an alternate world where the Allies won the war: Roosevelt survives the assassination attempt in Miami, is reelected in 1936, and is followed by Rexford Tugwell as President in 1940. In this imagined history, the U.S. fleet is not destroyed at Pearl Harbor, and the Allies, led by a long-ruling Churchill, defeat the Axis. The book's reception is polarized: Wyndam-Matson dismisses it as a fad, while his companion Rita finds it deeply compelling. Freiherr Hugo Reiss, the Reichs Consul in San Francisco, reads it and is disturbed by its power, noting that "the death of Adolf Hitler, the defeat and destruction of Hitler, the Partei, and Germany itself, as depicted in Abendsen's book... it all was somehow grander, more in the old spirit than the actual world." Reiss considers having Abendsen killed, but ultimately decides against it, fearing the consequences.
The Oracle and the Writing Process
Abendsen reveals that he wrote The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by consulting the I Ching, the ancient Chinese oracle. Caroline Abendsen explains to Juliana that "one by one Hawth made the choices. Thousands of them. By means of the lines. Historic period. Subject. Characters. Plot. It took years." Abendsen even asked the oracle what sort of success the book would be, and it told him it would be a very great success, the first real one of his career. When Juliana asks him directly if the oracle wrote the book, he initially deflects, saying the oracle was "sound asleep all through the writing of the book," but Caroline confirms the truth. Abendsen uses three Chinese brass coins with holes in the center for his consultations, as he cannot manage the yarrow stalks.
Juliana's Visit and the Revelation
Juliana Frink drives from Canon City, Colorado, to Cheyenne to warn Abendsen about the SD assassin she has killed. She arrives at his house during a party and confronts him with her belief that his book is true. When she asks the oracle why it wrote The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, she throws the coins and obtains Hexagram Sixty-one, Inner Truth. She tells Abendsen that the hexagram means his book is true, that Germany and Japan lost the war. Abendsen reacts with anger and denial, saying "I'm not sure of anything," but Juliana insists, "Believe." He refuses to accept her revelation, and she leaves, feeling that she has disrupted the evening. Caroline Abendsen calls her "terribly, terribly disruptive," to which Hawthorne replies, "So is reality." Before she leaves, he thanks her for what she did in Denver, acknowledging her act of violence on his behalf.
Narrative Role and Significance
Abendsen serves as the novel's ultimate enigma, the creator of a text that mirrors the reader's own world and challenges the characters' understanding of reality. His book is a story-within-a-story that offers a glimpse of an alternate present, and his refusal to accept the oracle's revelation underscores the novel's central theme of the difficulty of facing truth. Abendsen's character embodies the tension between the desire for safety and the inevitability of fate, as he has abandoned his fortress and resigned himself to the possibility of assassination. His final exchange with Juliana, in which he declines to carry a weapon, reflects his fatalistic acceptance of his own destruction. Through Abendsen, the novel explores the power of fiction to reveal hidden truths and the human resistance to acknowledging them.
