Monday, April 21, 2014

Part 3 of Term Paper

As the title of the novel clearly depicts, Pirsig makes use of a motorcycle in order to convey his message to his readers. The actions that occur on the motorcycle trip with the main character and his son exist as a sort of parallel for the story that is being told about Phaedrus. The vehicle itself is symbolic of the ideas that Phaedrus fails to explain to the general public, which inevitably drives him insane. 
There is no doubt that Pirsig most likely selected "the art of motorcycle maintenance" because of its simplistic nature. The motorcycle itself is a vehicle that can be broken apart and put together in an extremely mechanical nature. With or without a set of instructions, one may "destroy" and "repair" the machine almost instinctively. It goes without saying that the simplistic nature of putting together a broken motorcycle or simply maintaing a good one is much like the act of an individual trying to explain a new concept to people. An idea, just like a motorcycle, can be picked apart and put together once again. The only conceivable difference between the two "objects" is that the motorcycle in concrete while the idea is not. Despite the simplistic nature of the motorcycle and the idea, it is not something that is simple to all. In theory, both should be able to be understood by anyone. Nevertheless, in practice not everyone is able to grasp the concept. Pirsig uses the motorcycle as a symbol for Phaedrus' ideas in a way that they both seem like a puzzle. While Phaedrus and a select amount of people seem to comprehend the idea, many others do not. Going along with the "pieces of a puzzle" concept, it seems that Phaedrus and those that understand have all the pieces, while those that do not are missing a large portion of the pieces. Ironically so, Phaedrus ends up incapacitated because no one else can comprehend. Despite the fact that he is the one with the "finished puzzle" he can do nothing because the others lag so desperately behind him. 
If one takes a look into specifics, Phaedrus and Dostoyevsky's "underground man" seem to share a few ideologies. Neither of the two characters seem to thing that they are wrong in what they are saying. In other words, neither Phaedrus nor the underground man seem to think that the response they receive to their "ideas" is due to the fact that his idea could be wrong. The determination and fixation on what they believe them inevitably drives both characters insane. Nevertheless, when Notes from the Underground  begins the underground man has already reached his point of insanity and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance displays Phaedrus' progression towards insanity. 

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