Term Paper Part 1

Quality surrounds each and every individual in this world; yet, many of them do not know what quality is. Actually, many of them may think that they understand quality, however, truth is, nobody knows for sure since quality may take many different shapes and forms. This aspect is pursued in detail throughout Pirsig’s novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as the protagonist battles constantly with the pressure of figuring out the definition of quality himself.

            Before attempting to begin the journey to define quality, one must understand that it will be one of the hardest terms to define in one’s life. Pirsig demonstrates this difficulty by clearly portraying in his novel’s protagonist the difficulty and frustration he encounters while attempting to define it. The protagonist and narrator is nameless throughout the novel, and he pursues his past self by going on a motorcycle road trip across the U.S. as he does so, he finds himself in various situations where he fids himself having memories of the past and the frustration he felt when trying to define quality. Having been a philosophy professor, he had once suffered such great difficulties in defining quality that he was unable to provide his students with a definition, instead, he assigned an essay where they could brainstorm their own and provide help to the entire class the next day. The assignment shows how the professor was ashamed, and maybe even embarrassed in not being able to provide the students with a definition to such a common word, “quality”.

            The narrator’s past self was called Phaedrus. At the end of the novel the reader is given the understanding that the narrator changed his life completely to leave the soul of Phaedrus and become something else. Some factor in Phaedrus’ life was not allowing it to be enjoyable, which caused the separation between Phaedrus and the narrator. That factor was the presence of the mysterious “quality” in his life. On the narrator’s road trip, however, he finds himself pursuing that definition again, attempting to explain it to others, and debating on whether or not they understand it or if even he understands it for himself. Once when the protagonist and his son, Chris, were staying in Montana at a friend’s house, he was asked to talk about “quality” and he show he was studying it. Pirsig provided a myriad of the protagonist’s inner thoughts at this point, displaying the narrator’s difficulty and uncertainty of whether or not to try to explain as he was not sure of the definition himself and the others wouldn’t be able to understand it either. The difficulty of quality always shined through the protagonist’s actions, and the pressure of its understanding affected everyone surrounding him.

            Quality in real life is given the impression that it is common and widely known. Yet has everybody stopped to think what quality fully entails? Is quality applied in the same manner to all aspects of the real world? What does it mean to have a quality life? A quality meal? A quality workout?