By: Federico Berro and Francisco Cersosimo

1. Billenium
Francisco Cersósimo and Federico Berro

2. J. G. Ballard
James Graham "J. G." Ballard was an
English novelist, short story writer, and
essayist. James Graham Ballard was born
in November 15 of 1930 Shanghai
International Settlement, China. In his
writings, he used science fiction and
transgressive fiction. He died 19 April 2009,
aged 78, in London, England.

3. Themes

4. Power and Loss of Privacy
When the family of the girls started coming to the place
where Word and Rossiter were living, they started paying a
kind of rent for the stay, in that room. This gave power to
them, the consequence for this was that they became what they
hated at the beginning of the story, the cubicle owners, mad,
greedy and selfish. The other consequences for letting the
family stay in the room was that they lost all the space and
privacy that they were looking for.

5. Overpopulation / Lack of responsibility
The people of the story didn't had “Control”. Because they
know, if you had more children or more you can have a bigger
cubicle, so the people continued having children, they were
irresponsible, this was a consequence also for the
overpopulation.

6. Destruction of Beauty
This is shown in cities. As there is many people, important
buildings as cathedrals are replaced with cubicles for
people. Also we can see this in the secret room, when Ward
and Rossiter have to sell the furniture so that people could
go and live there.

7. Quotes
Power and loss of privacy: “The partition pressed against his
knees and he could hardly move”
Overpopulation / Lack of responsibility: “The world
population had reached plateau, leveling of at a 20.000
million”
Destruction of beauty: “Now, of course, the older buildings
torn down and replaced by the housing batteries or converted
into apartment blocks”

8. Tone

9. Pessimistic
The story has a pessimistic tone because the kind of life the
people have. Also we can see that the characters live in a
negative situation and they didn't tried to solve it, they
just accept that kind of “Bad” or “Negative” life. They
accept to live a crowded life without space or privacy.
“Over hundred people lived in the top of three floors of the
old rooming house”

10. Characterization

11. Characterization
John Ward: He is the protagonist, middle-aged and unmarried.
He worked as a librarian. He is the one that finds the secret
room. At the end of the story he became into the thing he
hates.
Henry Rossiter: Ward’s friend. More self-interested. He is
the one that make the girls move into the room.
The girls: The move to the room and then bring their family.

12. Relevance of the title

13. Billenium
The story describes a situation of a moment of the future
where the population of the world has grown so much that
there is not enough space for people to live in. The space
that people can occupy is regulated by the city council.
Billenium refers to a future time where overpopulation will
be the worst problem for human race.

14. Symbolism

15. The Wardrobe
The Victorian wardrobe that Ward and Rossiter bought was a
symbol of privacy and space for them. It’s size emphasizes
the emptiness of the place. But when they started to rent the
room to the girls and their relatives, they have to sell it.
Days after, they realised how beautiful it was and what it
meant to them, regretting their action.

16. The Cubicle
It was the only thing they could have and the small privacy
they had. However, in a way finally Ward loses it so he
couldn’t even have that. It also symbolises the amount of
people and the city overcrowded. As a conclusion, it
symbolises honor and a bit of privacy. Although Ward couldn’t
have that and he misses it.

17. Quote
The Wardrobe: “It was a beautiful wardrobe, without doubt,
but when it was gone it would make the room seem even
larger.”
The Cubicle: “’I hear they may reduce the allocation to three
and a half metres.’ Rossiter remarked.”