Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Themes

Robert M. Pirsig
This Study Guide consists of approximately 43 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Themes

Robert M. Pirsig
This Study Guide consists of approximately 43 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
This section contains 484 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Study Guide

The Necessity of Reconciling the Classic/Romantic Split:

This theme is reinforced at frequent intervals throughout the book in various direct and indirect ways. The Narrator directly deals with it often in his Chautauquas. It was the basis for the ghost of rationality that so plagued Phaedrus. The Narrator asserted that unless the split was healed, civilization was bound to continue in a downward spiral into more technological ugliness and increasingly brutal warfare. Objectivity gone wild, especially as represented by value-free scientific perspectives, would continue to move the world to ugliness and discord. Naive rejections of technology would not be viable, either. Blind action and reaction resultant from a lack of receptivity to the guiding urgings of Quality need to be replaced by right living cultivated through caring attentiveness.

The Importance of Spiritualizing Everyday Life:

The Narrator develops this theme in several ways. His Chautauquas directly speak of the...

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This section contains 484 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Study Guide
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