PART 1: Pages 176 ("And now") to page 180 ("invitation.")
INSTRUCTIONS: The final scenes at the Magic Theater are, in my opinion, what make the book extraordinary. They're also intentionally confusing, for Harry as well as for us readers. As a group, let's help each other find meaning in these scenes.
Both of your two posts need the following:
- One quote from the pages indicated above with a connection you explore to something else from the book or from another book we've read.
- One quote from the pages indicated that seems interesting but confuses you. Explain why it interests you and why it confuses you. Ask a question that your peers can explore.
- Respond to at least one other post on this section. (First person to post gets a break.)
Publish your posts in reply to this one.
"the mournful image in the glass gave a final convulsion and vanished"
ReplyDelete"'Well laughed, Harry,' cried Pablo. 'You will learn to laugh like the immortals yet."
The first quote shows us the culmination of what we were all expected through the themes. We have hypothesized earlier that laughter has an effect of transcendence on individuals, and we literally see laughter stop the fight between Harry's two selves. The second Quote is a little more confusing because it relates laughter to immortality, however it makes sense if you analyze, since the fight between Harry's two selves caused him a lot of grief, and mortals are lesser than immortals, so it makes sense that being able to make yourself immune to the battle, and causing it to stop makes you better, or immortal.
I like your response to the second quote, and I agree that laughter cures his problems. I relate the quote to how the treatise and Hermine tell Harry to laugh so that he can cure his problems. And when he sees Goethe, an immortal, in his dream, he is laughing....
DeleteMy earlier comment included both quotes.
ReplyDeleteThe second quote's analyzing is included in that post as well...
"A second, a third, a tenth, a twentieth figure sprang from it till the whole gigantic mirror was full of nothing but Harrys or bits of him" (179).
ReplyDeleteThis quote talks about the multiple souls that exist within Harry. It relates directly back to the treatise, which stated that Harry possesses thousands of souls. It also connects to the theme of the flowers which represent his soul. This recurs multiple times throughout the novel.
"One who particularly pleased me, a good looking and charming boy of sixteen or seventeen years, sprang like lightning into the corridor and began reading the notices on the doors"
This quote interests me because it describes one of his souls. It also confuses me for two reasons; I wonder why he is intrigued by this character and I wonder what part of Harry's personality this person represents. So... Why is Harry intrigued by this character and what part of Harry's personality does this person represent?
The second quote interests me. I think this character represents the part of Harry that is confident, which he has trouble accessing most of the time. He's a part of Harry that he might wish he could be like more of the time. He is the part that Harry feels in situations like the end of the masked ball.
DeleteI think the reason Harry admires that part of him is because it represents him as young boy when there were so many more possibilites in life and before he started to lose all hope that things could go right for him life. He wants to go back to those times where he was happier and he had hope that life could become better instead of going downhill.
Delete"This little theater of mine has as many doors into as many boxes as you please, ten or a hundred or a thousand, and behind each door exactly what you seek awaits you," (176).
ReplyDeleteThis scene reminds me of the many different parts of Steppenwolf's soul. It makes me wonder if the theater is a symbol of his soul and if all parts of the theater are parts of his soul. The part about boxes confuses me a little bit because I see boxes as confining. Are the parts of Steppenwolf's soul confining? It could be that they are separated from each other, which is part of the division of his soul, and shows how Steppenwolf acts as one part of his soul at a time. It interests me that Pablo refers to the doors being as many as Harry chooses. Could this mean that he can choose how many parts of his soul exist? It seems more likely to me that he can choose how many parts to see, or to be aware of. There are different parts of Harry, but it also seems like there are different things that he wants. What is he looking for besides suffering?
"You will learn to laugh like the immortals yet. You have done with the Steppenwolf at last. It's no good with a razor. Take care that he stays dead," (178)
This confuses me because I don't entirely understand the connection between laughter and the death of the Steppenwolf. I guess it has to do with the roughness, isolation, and seriousness of the Steppenwolf. This is opposed by the emotions that come with laughter. The mention of the razor also seems kind of random. Does this mean that the part of Harry that wanted to kill himself was the Steppenwolf? Or that this part of him couldn't be killed with a physical razor? It seems like his evolution in laughter is the only thing that can save him from the Steppenwolf and from his constant negativity.
I like what you said about the different parts of Steppenwolfs soul. In response to what you said about the quote you were confused about, I think you could take the razor thing to mean that normally, when harry's steppenwolf personality breaks through, he suppresses it but doesn't get rid of it, much like shaving with a razor on his wolfs face. It'll eventually come back. However, here it's implied that instead of merely suppressing it he has completely destoryed it and is making sure it stays dead.
Delete"You are therefore requested to lay these spectacles asideand to be so kind as to leave your highly esteemed personality here in the cloakroom where you will find it again when you wish" (176)This quote reminds me of Harry putting up his coat at the professor's house in the beginning and also at the masquerade ball the night before. Each time he takes note of the location of his coat in case he needs to make a hasty exit. Finding out that Hermine has overcome his fleeing attempt at the ball and taken over his fate intrigues him, making him fall in love with her completely. In class, we talked about the coat representing Harry's facade or his outer layer of protection. Why does Pablo chose to make this comment about the cloakroom? What is the significance of it?
ReplyDelete"He laughed aloudas he spoke, a short laugh, but it went through me like a shot. It was the same bright and peculiar laugh that I had heard before from below." (176). This interests me because it is confusing and I am not really sure what it means. The "bright and peculiar" reminds me of his golden, bright, and flaming eternity. Why does it go through him like a shot? Why did they add in Pablo's laugh while Harry and Hermine were down below at the ball? What does it symbolize? Does it have to do with the laughing of the eternals?
REPLY TO JOANNA'S BLOG: I like Joanna's first quote because it confused me too. I think that through these exercizes that Pablo is putting Harry through he is meant to be able to open all of the bozes and release all the aprts of his soul like when he looks into the mirror and too be able to accept them all. I think that besides suffering he is looking for self-acceptance and peace and humor which come along with self acceptance.
ReplyDelete"You have no doubt guessed long since that the conquest of time and the escape from reality , or however else it may be that you choose to describe your longing, means simply the wish to be relieved of your so-called personality. That is the prison where you lie." (176)
ReplyDeleteAlthough it may mean something slightly different in context, this quote reminds me quite a bit of our dystopian novels, 1984 and We. There is this whole idea of personality being a prison, something that keeps you from living a full life and supposedly keeps you in chains. In both of those novels, the governments do anything and everything to stamp out the existence of any sort of personality, and they tell the people that this will make everything better for them, that conformity is the safest and most efficient way to live. With Harry on the other hand, stamping out his OTHER personality, his Steppenwolf personality, will, in his eyes, make his life easier for him to live. So in some ways it actually proves what those dystopian societies are saying, but at the same time it doesn't because he still has his human personality. Getting rid of the wolf is freedom. Getting rid of the human is to be doomed.
"A second, a third, a twentieth figure sprang from it till the whole gigantic mirror was full of nothing but Harrys or bits of him, each of which I saw only for the instant of recognition." (179)
This quote is very interesting even if I don't really understand it. I suppose that all of these figures represent every aspect of Harry's personality, and that is quite interesting because up until now, we've only known harry as having two personalities: the man and the wolf. This introduction of all these smaller parts of his mind is much different and makes for some interesting thinking. A question I could pose about this would be...Are all of these sides of him he's seeing really parts of him that he is reflecting on, or is he in fact looking at all the things he could have been, all the personalities he could have had?
I don't really get the first quote-it seams to me that a person should be trying to find comfort in their personality, embrace themselves, rather than running from it or trying to hide from it. In my mind, a person shouldn't want to be "relieved" of their personality, they should have to learn to accept it and find others who do as well.
Delete"You are therefore requested to lay these spectacles aside and to be so kind as to leave your highly esteemed personality here in the cloakroom where you will find it again when you wish" (176).
ReplyDeleteThis quote reminds me of how Harry took his coat off and left it at the masquerade. In Harry's case, his coat is his personality, what he has known himself as for his whole life. Leaving his spectacles is also interesting because it will change the way he sees things. Pablo uses material articles to represent more important feelings that Harry has.
"For naturally, your suicide is not a final one. We are in a magic theatre; a world of pictures, not realities" (178).
I don't really get how a suicide is not final. Normally whether it be the actual act of killing yourself, or social suicide, or whatever its always final. Even if they are in a magical theatre, how could suicide not be final?
"You will now, without fear and with unfeigned pleasure enter our visionary world. You will introduce yourself to it by means of a trifling suicide, since this is the custom." (177)
ReplyDeleteThis "suicide" he is talking about is obviously metaphorical, but I do not understand how he can expect someone to "kill" part of himself so easily and without it causing any fear. Also with Harry being a special case, he would not feel very trifled about leaving the Steppenwolf part of himself behind, but he does not realize that he only thinks that he has temporarily killed it. He is still both Harry Haller, the man, and Harry Haller, the Steppenwolf when he goes into the Theatre.Since he thinks he killed it and is not heartbroken about it, then I think that he does not have any fear because of it.
Do you think that Harry Haller temperaly killed the Steppenwolf part of himself when he went into the Magic THeatre and is why he can bring himself to go in without any fear? Why or why not?
THis part also amde me think of the part on the many types of suicides in "Treatise of the Steppenwolf".
Delete"You have no doubt guessed long since that the conquest of time and the escape from reality, or however else it may be that you choose to describe your longing, means simply the wish to be relieved of your so-called personality. That is the prison where you lie," (176).
DeleteI do not understand why someone would want to relieved of their personality. It is who they are and their essence. Without it they are nothing. At times one might resent themselves for how they are, but without it then there would be no reality or not even anything else.Like in all typical dystopian novels, such as "We" and "1984" Pablo (like the governemnts) seems to be saying that you don't really need your personality and is why for the moment you can elave it behind and jsut simply be. In my opinion though, you can never jsut simply do that, let alone live like that. Life would then completely lose what little meaning it does have.