DePaul Cristo Rey High School
British Literature Summer Reading Project:
Summer 2013
Due Date: August 20, 2013 (The First Day of School)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
*Students can purchase The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at Barnes and Noble for $7.99
or check out a copy from the Cincinnati Public Library. If you have questions, please call
the school Main Office at 861-0600.
1) Satire Scavenger Hunt
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is oozing with examples of satire, a literary device that
uses a humorous exaggeration of reality to poke fun at the way things are. You have already
seen satire many times before and may not have realized it—it can be found in comedy shows
every day. Some examples include The Simpsons, South Park, The Daily Show, The Colbert
Report, Saturday Night Live, or MadTV. Think of all the times you’ve seen something funny
because it was just mocking a relatable aspect of life that you had experienced—this is often
satire.
Here is one example of satire from the beginning of the book with an explanation of the event
and an explanation of the part of life it is mocking. Following this example, find at least 5 other
examples of satire in the novel.
Example of satire from the novel
What is being mocked/satirized?
At the beginning of the book, Mr. Prosser
insists that the construction crew has to knock
down Arthur Dent’s house to make way for a
new bypass. He insists that Arthur is
unreasonable for refusing to let his house be
knocked down and explains that other people
(including himself) have already dealt with this
same fate; further, Mr. Prosser explains that
“the plans have been available in the local
planning office for the last nine months,” even
though Arthur argues that the notice was “on
display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet
stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the
door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’” (9-10).
The system of bureaucracy in government
offices can be extremely frustrating and
employees often just as sympathetic as Mr.
Prosser for others. People working there often
assume all of the citizens know the rules and
regulations of an office and blame them for not
knowing them. For example, I was once
kicked out of line in the Chicago Water Dept.
for bringing in a chair to wait in a line that took
about three hours to get through anyway
because of a “city ordinance against fire
hazards” that the security guard said I should
have known about. This is often as frustrating
for people as it is for Arthur at the beginning of
the book.
Example of satire from the novel
What is being mocked?
Example of satire from the novel
What is being mocked?
2) A Hitchhiker’s Guide entry
Ford Prefect’s job is to write entries for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the fictional book
from which this novel gets its name. Write your own entry for The Hitchhiker’s Guide about
something you think should be available to all travelers of the Universe. Don’t take the easy way
out and make one like the entry on Earth (that joke was already made!)—fill the space provided.
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3) The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Reread the part where the Deep Thought computes the Ultimate Question of
Life, the Universe, and Everything. After reading it, please write a response
in two parts: 1) What do you think this answer means? Why would an
author include this part? 2) If you could change this part of the book, what
would you rewrite it to say? Why would you choose that as the Answer to
the Ultimate Question?
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4) Designing Earth 2.0
Slartibartfast explains that he’s helping create an Earth Mark Two and
making some significant changes, including putting his famous fjords in
Africa. If you were one of the designers of Earth Mark Two, what part
would you want to design? Why? What would you change about the Earth’s
design? Why?
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EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY
If you find yourself laughing along and wanting to continue series, you might want to take
advantage of an opportunity for extra credit toward your first quarter grade. After The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, there are four more books officially in the series (as Adams
would say, it’s a “trilogy in five parts”) that are also enjoyable and, at times, side-splittingly
funny. They are The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything;
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. They are also available as one text:
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For every other book in the series that you read,
you have a chance at extra credit. For each one, write a response to the novel (2-3 pages, double
spaced) explaining how you think this book affected the story as a whole. To receive credit, you
must cite specific events from the book rather than generalizations in your explanation. You can
include personal responses to the text, but the text itself has to be the focus. You may want to
include a brief explanation of the meaning behind the title of the book to help get you started.
I, Mr. Brennan, will be reading the whole series this summer, so don’t try bluffing your way
through the assignment without reading them! However, I don’t want to scare anyone off with
the writing assignments. They’re only meant to be a way for you to show that you did put the
time into reading more of the series. I promise they’re good—I got through half the series in a
weekend!