Possible Term Paper Topics

1.  The first topic I was thinking about writing about was the way in which I think Pirsig displays Phaedrus. I wanted to possible talk about how he is described and portrayed in a God-like fashion and  how eventually Pirsig leads us to believe that reason is more important than belief. I think I could support this topic because most of the time that Phaedrus is being mentioned, it is done in a very ambiguous matter. We do not really know much about him, even when the book is over. The main character seems to take everything that Phaedrus says/does as a devout Christian does with the word of God in the Bible.

2. The other topic I wanted to possible write about was how similar this novel was to The Stranger and Notes From the Underground. My main support for this topic would be Phaedrus and possibly the main character, though I am not too sure how well he could support the argument. I think that the three novels are heavily related because of the fact that Phaedrus is such an intellectual individual. Phaedrus seems to have the same level of intellect as the underground man and Meaursault from The Stranger. His intellect is what separates him from society and renders him partially inactive. I don't want to call Phaedrus a completely inactive man though, seeing as that he IS able to teach and function partial in society. I think that so many of Phaedrus' ideas and ideologies or very in tune with that of the underground man's.

3.  The third topic I wanted to write about was the irony behind our current school system. The main support for this would be the entire premise of the Church of Reason speech in the novel. I think that the main character criticizes our school system through Phaedrus' experiences heavily in the book. He reveals how truly limiting the way in which we "learn" is. He shows us that our schools system is not really about learning, it is more about memorizing what someone else does and doing our best to mimic it a little bit later. He also shows us how inept we are of accepting change when he talks of Phaedrus' teaching skills.

4.  The last topic I want to write about is the novel being a sort of critique on the way society functions. I think that Pirsig touches lightly, but still thoroughly on the fact that we can not get past the wall that the underground man speaks of because of the way in which our society is set up. I think  that Pirsig believes that the fact that we have to create everything around us is preventing us from going past our wall. He says that quality is the stimulus that causes us to create everything. However, I believe that quality is this idea we can't really get rid of so our wall is unbreakable.