The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Character Analysis

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a peculiar story about the universe and aliens. It starts out with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect on Earth however, Earth soon gets destroyed by aliens and they have to catch a ride on a spaceship. Arthur and Ford experience many adventures together such as arriving the the Heart of Gold. Adams brings up many deeper meanings and questions while using comedy in order to describe his characters. He uses many different techniques to make the reader laugh yet question ideas from the book. The characters have different personalities and thoughts that make them unique.

Marvin is a one-of-a-kind character in the story. His personality is very bland and there really isn 't that much to him. Marvin

First of all, Ford was dropped off on earth and ended up staying there for 15 years. He gave himself the name, Ford Prefect and named himself after a car. Obviously trying to make it less noticable that he wasn 't from earth. Douglas Adam describes Ford as someone who if they were given the choice to save the entire universe or go to a party, Ford would choose to go to the party. Ford is suppose to be a guide or mentor but is not very effective. Instead of helping Arthur along the way, he gives him a book that he is suppose to read through and understand. Ford always wants to be the “cool” one. He is always trying to remain relaxed during problematic times. Adams makes Ford out to be a very ironic character which makes him funny. For example, Ford Prefect’s name looks so close to “perfect” that it reminds us just how Ford is far from being perfect. Also the definition of a prefect is someone who has control of certain space. This emphasizes how Ford, infact has no power and also so no particular area to call his own. He is a hitchhiker, therefore the complete opposite of a

Douglas Adams uses many different techniques to make this character comedic and absurd at the same time. Many readers would think that Arthur Dent becomes the hero in the end and saves the universe. This however is the complete opposite of what he accomplishes. Arthur is not the type of character who would do something to benefit others. He is very blunt about difficult situations. For example, on page 117, paragraph 7, Arthur says “ So this is it, we 're going to die”. This is an example of how Arthur does not go out of his way for others or himself and is willing to accept fate. Arthur likes to use humor to deflect difficult or scary situations. He says "Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?" (24.45). He makes lots of jokes when he doesn 't know how to deal with challenges. Trillian is the peace-maker. While Marvin wants to bring everyone down and Zaphod is trying to blow everything