59 pages • 1 hour read
Robert M. PirsigZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1974A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part III
Chapter 19 Summary
The narrator dreams that he is standing in a room with white walls and that a glass door separates him from his two sons and wife. It is a recurring dream, and every time, Chris has a pained smile on his face. He asks his father to open the door, but the narrator always turns and walks away. The narrator admits that the dream signifies Chris’ fear of being unable to relate to him. When they awake the next morning, Chris tells the narrator that he had been talking in his sleep about the trip and the hike. He had been talking about meeting Chris on the mountaintop and that they would be able to see everything from there.
In another recollection, the English faculty asked Phaedrus whether Quality is a subjective or objective phenomenon. Phaedrus was smart enough to know that he could not answer hastily. The question was meant to put an end to all of his speculation by positing two impossible outcomes, a logical dilemma. If he said Quality was objective, he would admit that it must be subject to scientific rules of identification to be a truth. If he said it was subjective, he was saying that Quality was whatever he wanted it to be, discrediting it as a whimsical, irrational thought. After researching all possible outcomes, including illogical outcomes separate from the two main possibilities, he rejected both main possibilities. He said that Quality was neither objective nor subjective. Instead, Quality was part of a trinity with mind and matter.
Though Phaedrus was thrilled at his conclusion, and could have even left it there for a time, he dived deeper into his conclusion to find that Quality was actually the cause of the subjective/objective split. Instead of Quality being defined and a result of one or the other side, as everyone assumed, Quality was actually what matter and mind were derived from.
Chris’s egotistical behavior returns when the two reach the summit. Chris rushes to the summit, outpacing his father, and declares himself the winner. This ego-fulfillment act angers the narrator.
Chapter 20 Summary
Waking up on the summit, the narrator realizes that Chris is asleep and must have dozed off. He hears some rockslides, which cause him to think more about the strange things he said to Chris about the mountaintop during his sleep. As the two prepare to look for water, more rockslides are heard and the narrator recounts a time to Chris that an avalanche not far from them buried nineteen tourists. The narrator finally becomes afraid of the noises, not knowing exactly might be waiting for him and Chris on the mountaintop. He reasons it will be Phaedrus in some form, and so decides to abandon their ascent to the top of the mountain. Though Chris is visibly disappointed, the two begin a quick descent down the mountain.
Dealing with Quality itself having been cleaved in two and placed on both sides of the dichotomy, Phaedrus finally comes to the conclusion that Quality as the origin of objective and subjective is actually “pre-intellectual reality.” It is the pause before recognition of an object. Phaedrus explains that the reason for their being so many explanations of the concept is that people view it differently and approach it with different experiences. Someone with no formal education will approach it differently than an intellectual. This then takes a turn that Phaedrus had not expected. Quality ends up becoming an absolute monism instead of the trinity he had previously imagined it to be. This revelation is shattering, and as he writes down his thoughts, Phaedrus notices something within him slip. He then begins reading the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu and realizes that his concept of Quality corresponds to the Tao exactly. He is overtaken by this epiphany, and the awareness of this overwhelms him completely, like a rockslide.
Chapter 21 Summary
The narrator and Chris continue descending the mountain. The narrator realizes that he cannot evaluate the truth that the Tao and Phaedrus’s Quality are one and the same. He does concede that what Phaedrus’ musings really accomplished was an expansion if reason itself. Due to Phaedrus’ explorations, reason can now encompass that which would have previously seemed irrational.
The narrator and Chris finally complete their descent and get a ride from a group of hikers into Bozeman. As it is late, they decide not to bother the DeWeeses.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
Phaedrus reveals Quality to be the cause of both mind and matter, effectively putting an end to defining the concept as subjective or objective. As such, it does not take sides in the object/subject, classic/romantic split. Quality is actually the source of all these things, and as a source, cannot be defined so readily by what it produces. This places Quality in a trinity with mind and matter, and also places it closer to the concept of an original source. In fact, Quality becomes an absolute monism, which places more import on it as a concept needed for full awareness. This realization is hard to understand or accept however, made symbolic by Phaedrus’s mind beginning to slip once he unlocks this revelation.
The narrator’s dreams about a glass door separating him from Chris and the rest of his family are symbolic of his two identities. There is a visible split in his personality, though Phaedrus is supposedly no more. Chris can see this, and the narrator understands it as well. The dreams are unnerving because they seem to highlight the duality within the narrator just as he is describing the need to do away with dualistic thinking.
