Upon first reading of both The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Waiting for Godot, it is easy to conclude that Adams' writing was written better and meant more than Becketts' nonsense of nothing two act play simply because Hitchhiker's was easier to comprehend. But after digging deeper into the text, you will come to love and appreciate Beckett's work. In comparison to Waiting for Godot, Adams broke few norms in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book offers nothing refreshing to what is currently in media today. Most current day books and movies provide a humourous, out of the normal storyline with a greater meaning behind the silliness of it all. This is exactly what you will find in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. .
Waiting for Godot provides a surprisingly pleasing sense of vagueness within the entire play. So much is left to your interpretation, you can mold the symbolism throughout the play to make it mean what you choose to think it does. For example when Vladmir says, "We will be saved" (Beckett 60) in regards to Godot, you can shape this to shine Godot in the light of God. The play in itself is beautifully sardonic for the fact that it gives the reader an excess of freedom, while the characters are stuck in a prison of their own making. Lucky, the only character who is literally enslaved, is no more restricted than the others. In fact, he may be even more so free because he is at least aware of his imprisonment. Everyone else suffers from subconscious .
passivity and stagnancy stemming from their inability to act. Giving the reader more power of freedom than the characters while also making it relatable is an underappreciated way in which Beckett broke away from precedent literature. One of the more manifest things that the reader does have in common with the characters is uncertainty. The reader will never be capable of truly confirming their interpretation just as the characters were never be able to confirm their perpetual hopeless of waiting for something that will never show.
