Rocky Mountain States

The Rocky Mountain States (RMS) form a loosely banded, semi-autonomous region between the Pacific States of America (PSA) and the United States in the alternate history where the Axis powers won World War II. They are a buffer zone, a place of relative freedom and refuge, yet also a site of cultural and political tension, and the home of Hawthorne Abendsen, whose banned novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy becomes a focal point for the novel's exploration of truth and reality.

Geography and Political Status

The RMS are described as "loosely banded to the PSA," suggesting a degree of political autonomy but also a potential for extradition, as Frank Frink considers when he contemplates fleeing there after losing his job. The region is part of the broader geopolitical landscape of the former United States, which has been divided among the victorious Axis powers. The RMS serve as a borderland between the Japanese-dominated Pacific coast and the German-influenced eastern United States, a position that makes them a site of strategic and ideological contestation.

Refuge and Escape

For characters like Frank Frink, a Jew living in the PSA, the RMS represent a possible escape from the oppressive racial hierarchy of the Japanese-controlled coast. Frink considers slipping across into the RMS, though he worries about extradition. The region is also a destination for those seeking to evade the reach of the German Reich, as evidenced by the presence of Hawthorne Abendsen, who has chosen to live there despite the risks. The RMS thus function as a haven for dissidents and refugees, a place where the strictures of the Axis powers are less absolute.

Cultural and Social Dynamics

The RMS are depicted as a place where the "skin thing"—the racial hierarchy that pervades the PSA—is less pronounced, though not absent. Juliana Frink, who lives in Canon City, Colorado, within the RMS, notes that the region is "Protestant land," a contrast to the Japanese-influenced coast. The area is characterized by a slower pace of life, with small towns, truck stops, and a sense of being "out of the stream of events." Yet, it is also a place where the tensions of the wider world intrude, as seen in the encounter at Tasty Charley's Broiled Hamburgers, where a truck driver from the United States expresses anti-Japanese sentiment, and the fry cook defends the Japanese for not having built ovens.

The High Castle and The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

The RMS are most significantly the home of Hawthorne Abendsen, whose house, the High Castle, is located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Despite rumors of a fortress with charged barbed wire, the actual house is ordinary, with a tricycle in the driveway. Abendsen's novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which imagines an alternate world where the Allies won the war, is banned in German-controlled territories but circulates in the RMS and beyond. The book becomes a central artifact, and Juliana Frink's journey to Cheyenne to meet Abendsen culminates in a revelation about the nature of truth and the oracle. The RMS thus serve as the setting for the novel's climactic exploration of reality, where the boundaries between fiction and truth are blurred.

Narrative Significance

The Rocky Mountain States are more than a geographical backdrop; they embody the novel's themes of exile, resistance, and the search for meaning in a world shaped by totalitarian power. The region's relative freedom allows for the existence of dissident voices like Abendsen's, and its position as a borderland reflects the precariousness of life under the Axis hegemony. The RMS are a place where characters confront the consequences of history and the possibility of alternative futures, making them a crucial element in the novel's philosophical and political landscape.