The document provides an analysis of the short story "Billenium" by J.G. Ballard. It describes the characters including the protagonist John Ward and his friend Henry Rossiter. It discusses themes of overpopulation, lack of privacy and responsibility, and loss of beauty. Symbols mentioned include the wardrobe representing freedom and beauty from the past, and cubicles representing the lack of space and freedom under crowded conditions in the future setting of the story.

1. “BILLENIUM”
By: Mia R and Victoria R
Analysis

2. TOPICS
• Information about the
author
• Description of
characters
• Relevance of the title
• Tone
• Themes
• Symbolism

3. J.G Ballard
Shanghai, China
(November 15, 1930 - April 19, 2009)
He was an english novelist
and a key figure in the New
Wave Movement in science
fiction.
Among his most famous works are:
- “The Atrocity Exhibition”
- “Empire of the sun”
- “Crash”
Each of which was later adopted into a feature film.

4. CHARACTERS
John Ward
He is the protagonist, a
middle aged man, who
is not married. He works
as a librarian and he is
the one that found the
“secret room”.

5. Henry Rossiter
He is Ward’s closest friend, he works
in Insurance Department at City Hall
and he has access to census statics.
He is who urges Ward to let the girls
move in.
CHARACTERS

6. Judith and Helen Waring:
They are the gils who Henry
Rossiter and John Ward let
move into their room, these girls
seem to be nice at first, but end
up bringing practically their
whole family in, being really
disrespectful
CHARACTERS

7. The story describes a situation the future
where population of the world has grown so
much that there is no space for people to
live a normal life. The space that each
person can have is regulated by a city
council.
“Billenium” makes reference to a time in the
future where overpopulation will be the
biggest problem to human race.
RELEVANCE OF THE
TITLE
Hi, I’m the
City Council!

8. Pessimistic
When we read the story we can see that the characters
don´t have any type of hope for the future, because they
know that the situation is not going to change, the
characters, as well, maintain a passive role in the story
(they don´t do anything to revert the situation)
TONE
FUTURE
“ (…) and the ceaseless press of people jostling past the
window had reduced him to a state of exhaustion”

9. Overpopulation/Lack of Responsibility
In the story, the city is settled in the future, a future with
overpopulation, probably because of years of no birth
controls, non stop migration, and people don´t using
protection.
THEMES
Now they live crowded and with limited space. Everybody lives
in a small room, called “cubicle”, of 3,5 inches, which is owned
by a landlord.
“By 6.30, when he woke, hurrying to take his place in the bathroom
queue, the crowds already jammed it from sidewalk to sidewalk(…)”

10. Power and Loss of Privacy
Landlords had all the power, there was little privacy, because
they lived in small cubicles, one next to another.
When Ward found the room, he got the privacy and freedom
everybody wanted. When the girls moved in, as he became the
landlord, he also gained power, but when the girls´ family started
to move in, all the privacy they had went away.
THEMES
PRIVACY
“ The small rental he charged the
others paid for the little food that
needed”

11. Destruction of Beauty
The story shows how beauty is lost because of overpopulation.
Important places like cathedrals, churches, town halls, are
destroyed because they are used to keep people (for them to
live there), because of the lack of space.
The wardrobe represents, as it’s from Victorian
Times, the beauty form the past that Ward and
Rossiter don´t know about. When it´s
destroyed, the memories from the past are
destroyed.
THEMES
“ The great banqueting room in the former City Hall had been
split horizontally into four decks, each of these cut up into
hundreds of cubicles”

12. • The Wardrobe:
It symbolises freedom, because as now they have a bigger
room, they can decide what to put there. It also represents
beauty in the sense that, as it was a Victorian Wardrobe, it
comes, belongs, to the past that Ward and Rossiter didn´t
know much about.
SYMBOLISM
“ It had been a beautiful piece of furniture, in a way
symbolising this whole private world, and the
salesman at the store told him there were few like
it left”

13. SYMBOLISM
• The Cubicle:
The word “cubicle” symbolises the lack of
space, freedom, privacy and of power. They
have a limited size, and everyone has to respect
it and live with it. Landlords own and regulate
them.
“(…) in most single cubicles host and guest had to sit side
by side on the bed, conversing over their shoulders and
changing places periodically to avoid neck-strain”