Themes

People never really change-

                At the end of the book Pirsig reveals that he has been speaking about himself in third person, referring to Phaedrus throughout the whole novel. “Phaedrus”, Pirsig’s former personality was of a philosopher with a creative mind. He thought about anything and everything nonstop, until one day his mind became too much for him. In other words, his thoughts led him to a sort of realization about his life which caused him to go insane and enter a deep depression.  After undergoing electroshock therapy, he left his family and was considered cured because it was thought that he was a completely different person. However, as time went on, he started going back to his old ways, as we can throughout the book. The dreams he keeps having are about Phaedrus who is revealing himself to Pirsig little by little, indicating that he is coming back and eventually does. His constant rambling and ongoing thoughts about a single word seem to not only overtake his head, but make his readers as well as himself insane. The thoughts and ideas he has resemble those Phaedrus had before he went insane, in fact they were about the same topic. Not to mention, Pirsig almost loses his family again as his relationship with Chris diminishes. 

Life can’t be figured out through rational thinking-

In other words, Pirsig is showing us that the truth about life will never be found through rational thinking. Pirsig continually searched for a rational and logical explanation to every situation and scenario, but eventually realized that science and philosophy are merely gateways of the truth, but we use love or religion in order to try and understand life. You can’t explain everything in life through science and philosophy. For example, in class we spoke about space and its endless boundaries and how it just blows our mind; it does not make sense. We also spoke about how humans make rather stupid decisions that are damaging to one’s own health and considered irrational for the basic reason that we can; the actual truth behind it is unexplainable. Darwinism or creationism, there is no absolute truth. Yet, we use religion and give God the responsibility of being the answer to all the unknown questions. 

 Search for identity-

            Although this book has been repeatedly described as a guide for living, the book does not actually tell you what do or how to do something. Instead, Pirsig gives the readers a variety of ideas and even though Pirsig has his own preference, the book forces you as a reader to think about the ideas and come up with a conclusion on your own, your own personal idea. In essence, the book is encouraging one to pursue things for the sake of their own interest and avoiding fear as a motivation for your quest, rather than following the crowd. The book becomes a gateway to exploring new ideas and finding out how you feel about them, therefore, learning new things about yourself. Through my personal experience, I think I can say that I learned about myself because as Pirsig developed ideas, I thought about them and either agreed, disagreed or had my own opinion towards them which as a result causes you to think about other things in life through the eyes of those ideas.

Finding a bridge between classical and romantic thinking-

                Throughout the entire book, Pirsig clearly differentiated the differences between classical and romantic thinking as well as doing. John and Sylvia were perfect examples of romantic people while Pirsig was the face of classical reasoning. Although he had some obvious preference towards a classical way of being, he never belittled romantics and considered it as a wrong way of thinking. Yet, as the book goes on, one begins to realize Pirsig’s ulterior motive stating that a person can only handle the truths, frustrations, and problems of everyday life by accepting both the romantic and classical views. This means understanding irrational ideas as well as science and reason.  Pirsig suggests that a combination of both will bring a higher quality of life. Phaedrus’ purpose in the book is to be the bridge between classical and romantic views because he has found a common ground and comprehends both sides. If this split continues, according to Pirsig, then people will continue to go on a path to ultimate failure.