Contact and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Analyses

According to Thoreau in Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, "You never get anything but that you lose something." (pg.387)

This is true of Ellie within Contact and the Narrator within Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. Both characters are on quests within themselves, and although they both gain something within their quests, they also lose something. This something is different for both characters. In Contact, although Ellie gains the knowledge that extra-terrestrial life does exist through the replica of her father, she also loses the world's belief in her and existing extra-terrestrial life, for she is not permitted to speak of what happened up on Vega. Elllie also experiences another loss concerning her quest for happiness within her family. Ellie gains the truth about her father, but only in exchange for her mother's death. In Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, the narrator is on a quest to reintegrate Phaedrus into himself, as well as relating to his son Chris. Therefore, although he gains his old personality of Phaedrus he slowly begins to lose his sanity, but he also gains the truth that Chris had actually been carrying him along on the entire quest. Furthermore, it is through the characters losses and gains within their quests that they come to realize the truths within their quests as well as within themselves.

Within Contact, Ellie the main character is on a quest within herself. However, within this quest she is also looking for extra-terrestrial life. While she was sent up to the planet Vega and actually gained the knowledge that there was indeed extra-terrestrial life, she was not permitted to share this knowledge with the world. She learned about this extra-terrestrial life along with her four other companions. All five of them were presented with a replica of the most important person to them on Earth. It was these replica's of their loved ones that proved to them that extra-terrestrial life did actually exist. Although, Ellie and her four other companions on the journey didn't actually meet with the superior beings face to face, they know that it was the superior beings who presented them with the replica's of their loved ones, which in turn proved to them that the superior beings actually did exist. However, there was no way to prove this to the rest of the world. Therefore, they were forced to remain quiet about their whole experience up on Vega, "Oh. After a little more debriefing you'll be free to leave. I don't think any of you will be foolish enough to tell this cock-and-bull story on the outside. But just to be safe, we're preparing some psychiatric dossiers on the five of you. Profiles. Low-key." (Pg. 390-391) Furthermore, although Ellie gained the knowledge that extra-terrestrial life actually did exist she lost the world's belief. It was an exchange for her, one thing for the other. However, this loss of the world's belief and the right to share her knowledge left Ellie confused and questioning,

"Over breakfast, she asked Xi if he was disappointed. "Disappointed? To go there"-he lifted his eyes skyward-"to see them, and to be disappointed? I am an orphan of the Long March. I survived the Cultural Revolution. I was trying to grow potatoes and sugar beets for six years in the shadow of the Great Wall. Upheaval has been my whole life. I know disappointment." (pg.404)

Therefore, although Ellie was not permitted to share her knowledge of the superior beings, this loss was the only way she was able to gain this knowledge herself, within her quest. This is because she gained the truth of the outer world and their existence. She knew the truth, that they did exist, and she knew that what she experienced was real, even if the rest of the world wouldn't know:

"Eventually, she said, it will be easy to convince ourselves this was only an illusion. Every morning when we wake up, our experience will be more distant, more dream-like. It would have been better for us all to stay together, to reinforce our memories. They understood this danger. That's why they took us to the seashore, something like our own planet, a reality we can grasp. I will not permit anyone to trivialize this experience. Remember. It really happened. It was not a dream. Ellie, don't forget." (Pg.406)

Therefore, although Ellie did have to sacrifice this gaining of knowledge for the loss of sharing it with the world, in a way it was worth it because at least she knew the truth herself. It was this truth within herself that completed her journey not only concerning the extra-terrestrial life but also about her beliefs.

Ellie was also withgoing a secondary quest within herself. This quest was for happiness within her family. Ever since her father's death she had resented her mother's remarrying, and had never felt as much a party of the family:

"That her mother could truly love him was inconceivable. She must have remarried out of loneliness, out of weakness. She needed someone to take care of her. Ellie vowed she would never accept a position of dependence. Ellie's father had died, her mother had grown distant, and Ellie felt herself exiled to the house of a tyrant. There was no one to call her Presh anymore. She longed to escape." (Pg.13)

Throughout her entire life, she had resented John Staughton's existence in their family. However, when her mother did die, she realized how much she had loved her, and it was through her mother's death that she realized that her birth father was actually John Staughton and not Theodore Arroway, "I know how much you loved Ted Arroway, and I want you to know I did, too. I still do. But he wasn't your real father. Your real father is John Staughton." (Pg.428) Therefore, it was through the loss of her mother that she discovered the truth about her father, but it was too late to forgive her mother or start over, and we'll never know what she did with the truth she discovered concerning her father.

Furthermore, within Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance the narrator was not only on a quest for himself but also on a quest to relate to his son Chris. The narrator is on a quest for Phaedrus, his other personality that was eliminated with twenty-eight electric shock treatments. However, it is during this quest with his son Chris that the narrator is trying to recapture Phaedrus. When the narrator realizes that Phaedrus is indeed returning again, he realizes that he is losing the ability to care for himself and his son Chris, but to him the quest was mainly to integrate Phaedrus into himself again:

"I don't sleep.

The dreamer isn't me at all.

It's Phaedrus.

He's waking up.

A mind divided against itself...me...I'm the evil figure in the shadows. I'm the loathsome one...

I always knew he would come back...

It's a matter now of preparing for it...

The sky under the trees looks so grey and so hopeless.

Poor Chris." (Pg.339)

Therefore, it is with Phaedrus's return that the narrator believes that he is no longer a fit father and can no longer care for Chris. He believes he can't take care of himself let alone his son, "I think what I'll do is head down for San Francisco, and put Chris on a bus for home, and then sell the cycle and check in at a hospital...or that last seems so pointless...I don't know what I'll do." (Pg.341) However, it is at the end of the book that the narrator comes to the biggest realization and truth about gains and losses within himself. Although, Phaedrus does return, which in reality is what the narrator was searching for throughout his quest, he also realizes that throughout his quest and journey it was actually Chris who was carrying him, not the other way around. The narrator was also searching for a way in which to relate to his son and he found it through Phaedrus. Therefore, although Phaedrus returns and he slowly begins to lose his sanity again, he gains the knowledge of his son Chris and how he kept him going all this time:

"We're related to each other in ways we never fully understand, maybe hardly understand at all. He was always the real reason for coming out of the hospital. To have let him grow up alone would have been really wrong. In the dream too he was the one who was always trying to open the door. I haven't been carrying him at all. He's been carrying me!" (Pg.420-421)

The narrator realizes that Chris is a resourceful boy, and it has been him that has been carrying the weight, instead of the way it should have been with the father carrying the son. Therefore, although the narrator was mainly on a quest within himself for the chance to reintegrate Phaedrus into himself, it was his son Chris that changed this. Chris made him realize the truth within himself. Chris showed him that father and son were actually a lot closer than the narrator initially thought, and he realized this by Chris carrying him along this entire time and by believing that he actually hadn't been insane:

"Were you really insane?

Why should he ask that?

No!

Astonishment hits. But Chris's eyes sparkle.

I knew it, he says.

Then he climbs on the cycle and we are off." (Pg.419)

Furthermore, when the narrator realized that he had actually become quite close to Chris, and that they were more alike than he realized, he knew he could overcome Phaedrus. Therefore, although the narrator was actually searching for Phaedrus on his quest, with the knowledge of Chris's love and respect came the belief that he could get rid of Phaedrus:

"Trials never end, of course. Unhappiness and misfortune are bound to occur as long as people live, but there is a feeling now, that was not here before, and is not just on the surface of things, but penetrates all the way through: We've won it. It's going to get better now. You can sort of tell these things." (Pg.423)

Although, this was a loss to him as he had been searching for a way to reintegrate Phaedrus into himself, it was also a gain. He was gaining his son back as well as his life. He knew he could be happy again, and it was Chris who made him realize this. Therefore, although it was for the sacrifice of Phaedrus, he realized that this loss for worth gaining his life back through the truth of his son.

In conclusion, Thoreau's quote "You never get anything but that you lose something," (Pg.387) is indeed true concerning Ellie in Contact, and the narrator within Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. Both Ellie and the narrator went through huge losses and gains within their quests, and it was these losses and gains that allowed them to discover themselves as well as their truths.