The "3 Days in" Crisis

The method Pirsig chose to display further characteristics of the individuals intrigued me. Instead of just mentioning what one’s characteristics are, he demonstrates them through actions that occurred on the hard, tough, and long third day of travel.

            From the beginning, I could tell that Chris was going to be a pain in the ass this day. By complaining over and over again about every little detail he got me irritated about reading his multiple complaints to his dad. Before his mental illness was revealed that is. As I learned about his mental illness I could understand why he was making so many complaints. His stomach pains and his states of mind all come into play as he endures the third day of camping, given that it was one of the hardest days to endure so far.

            In addition to Chris’s character development, I also saw development within the narrator’s and John’s character. I agree with the narrator’s belief that there are different dimensions of thinking that are unique to every individual. In my opinion, the different ways everybody thinks is what shapes every individual to be unique and different form one another. In the narrator’s mind, it was the perfect solution to use the beer can as the shim, but for John, that just didn’t seem right, and that is completely ok. People think differently and therefore act differently in life.

            Also, I was glad to read that Phaedrus came back to the plot of the story. I am interested in how he will affect the narrator’s actions for the future of the trip. The way the narrator saw him during his semi-awake/ semi-sleep state through the corner of his eyes in the fog made Phaedrus look even more like a ghost, confirming my belief from the previous chapters that he has a good possibility of being a ghost.