Summary Of The R Document By Irving Wallace

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The R Document is written by famous the 20th century American author Irving Wallace. This book is set in a dystopian era of the US sometime after 1975, following the death of the first director of FBI, Edgar Hoover. In the book, the United States is in the grip of the worst violence it has ever seen, and is rapidly heading towards complete chaos. This is evidenced by organized gangs staging an attack on the White House killing many government employees, and tourists. A new amendment to the constitution is being proposed, the 35th Amendment. The 35th Amendment is meant to supersede the Bill of Rights in an event of extreme internal emergency, stripping citizens of their basic human rights and the FBI wants it in enacted supposedly to control crime. Some parallels can be drawn with India in 1971 when the prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, imposed national emergency for 21 months and imprisoned political opponents. In the book, the 35th Amendment passes through various states and the government is close to getting the three-fourths state majority needed to approve the amendment. . Recently appointed Attorney General, Christopher Collins.s supports the 35th Amendment . Soon he realizes that the 35th Amendment has deadly …show more content…

As a majority of the political elites support this, Collins is a key figure who vows to fight the 35th Amendment, showing the theme of nonconformity in this novel. Only few people in this story are against the 35th Amendment, while majority of those in power have voted in its favor. With the clock ticking, Collins has to find evidence of conspiracy behind the amendment and stop it from being voted in California, the last state left to vote on the amendment. Collins’ main goal is to make sure that the 35th Amendment does not