The ‘‘true’’ identity of the narrator of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the novel to understand. The novel depicts two personalities: the now-dead Phaedrus and the lonely, empty man who remained after undergoing shock therapy. The actual storyteller, it may be argued, is neither…
Tag: Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Setting
Conservative Reactions to Communist Fears in the 1950s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was published in 1974, but it takes place in two different time periods. The Phaedrus phase of the narrator’s life occurs in the 1950s. The real-life motorcycle trip Pirsig writes about in the novel took place in 1968, several years…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Literary Devices
First-Person Narrative Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is written as a first-person narrative describing the cross-country motorcycle trip of the narrator and his companions. The unnamed narrator refers to himself as ‘‘I.’’ The sections of the book in which the account of the narrator’s travels with his son are being directly related are…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Themes
Classicism versus Romanticism In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the narrator discusses two schools of thought— classicism and romanticism—and explores the reasons these branches of thinking have been set in opposition to one another throughout history. He advocates for a unification of these two ways of approaching the world, stating that ‘‘classic and…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Characters
Jack Barsness Jack Barsness and his wife Wylla visit the DeWeeses on the evening of the same day that the narrator, Chris, and the Sutherlands arrive. The narrator seems to recall that Barsness is a writer and English instructor at the University (where Phaedrus taught). An unnamed sculptor arrives at the DeWeeses after the Barsnesses…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Chapter Summaries
Part One CHAPTER ONE Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance opens with the narrator riding his motorcycle through the Central Plains. His thoughts are interwoven with his conversation with his young son, Chris, who is on the motorcycle with him. The narrator explains his intention to use the westward journey from their home in…