2. Journal of Literature
and Art Studies
Volume 4, Number 6, June 2014 (Serial Number 31)
David Publishing Company
www.davidpublishing.com
PublishingDavid
4. Journal of Literature
and Art Studies
Volume 4, Number 6, June 2014 (Serial Number 31)
Contents
Literature Studies
Out of Absurdity—On the Ending of Catch-22 423
YE La-mei
Reading Dickens Romantically: “Night Walks” 436
Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury
On Equity Between Human and Nature 442
WU Xuan
Art Studies
Learning to Be a Tea Art Practitioner: An Anthropologist’s Self-Reflection 450
Shuenn-Der Yu
Three Academic Problems on Music Iconography in China: Direction, Position, and Path 466
LIU Yu-tong
The Scenes of the Obscene in Contemporary Turkish Art 475
Elif Çimen
Sharing Culture and Belonging Through Cross-Cultural Collaborative Painting 483
Vanessa Maree Barbay
Special Research
Enhancing Music Learning With Digital Tools: A Case Study of a Student Using iSCORE 489
Rena Upitis, Julia Brook, Philip C. Abrami
Homosexuality in the Context of the Evolution Theory 498
Constantinos Maritsas
5.
6. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836
June 2014, Vol. 4, No. 6, 423-435
Out of Absurdity—On the Ending of Catch-22
YE La-mei
Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
As one of the first and most original creations of literary postmodernism, published in the year 1961, Catch-22’s
(1961) position in American literature remains secure. Yet its ending has been held as unconvincing ever since its
publication. Taking the overall structure, tone, and the theme of the novel into consideration, this paper aims to
prove the credibility of this controversial part. It consists of five sections apart from an introduction and a
conclusion. Section One provides general information on the life and works of Joseph Heller. Section Two traces
the impact of existentialism and the generation of black humor to clarify the literary position of Catch-22. Section
Three brings out the disputative opinions on the ending part. Sections Four and Five, try to prove Yossarian’s final
desertion a natural and convincing ending from different perspectives: Section Four analyses how Yossarian gains
an entropic vision of the cosmos; section Five studies his existential vision of physical life and searches for the
immediate factors that propel Yossarian’s desertion. Section five also explains the ending’s change in tone and
structure. The conclusion summarizes the paper and points out the social significance of the novel.
Keywords: absurdity, Catch-22, the ending
Introduction
By the end of the 50s, America, as the most powerful nation rising up after the Second World War, carried
out “Police Action” in Vietnam and “Cold War” foreign policy; and domestically, it terrified the people with
McCarthyism and the investigations of Un-American activities. The American intellectual culture was seen as
oppressed and meanwhile restless. As the American historian Arthur Schlesinger put it, “ …There is evident a
widening restlessness, dangerous tendencies toward satire and idealisn1,a mounting dissatisfaction with the
official priorities, a deepening concern with our character and objectives as a nation” (Potts, 1989, p. 5).
In such an environment, Catch-22 (1961) came out in the first year of Kennedy presidency. It proved to be
an immediate success and its London edition was reprinted four times the first year. The book was successful
because it really appealed to the mood of the readers of Heller’s time. As the blurb inside the book jacket of the
first hard-cover edition notes:
Catch-22 is like no other novel we have ever read. It has its own style, its own rationale, its own extraordinary
character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. It is totally
original. (Heller, 1961)
However, the critics at that time disfavored the book for various reasons: the formless structure, the timeless
illogical chronology, the repetition and monotony in language, the lack of traditional plot and characterization,
YE La-mei, master in literature and literary studies, associate professor, Foreign Language Institute, Shenzhen University.
DAVID PUBLISHING
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7. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22424
etc.. Whiney Balliett, for example, commented that Catch-22 is “not really a book…. It gives the impression of
having been shouted onto paper” (Harris, 1971, p. 33). Indeed, few of Heller’s contemporary critics was able to
appreciate the valuable uniqueness of Catch-22. Not until the 1970s had the importance of the work been
gradually recognized. It was then generally accepted that the book lacks neither in craft nor in form. It actually
started a new genre in American literature—postmodernism. American critics agreed that the novel was not just
“fitting loosely within the black humor genre, but the advance guard of a whole new approach to the novel, a
movement now generally given the term ‘postmodernism’” (Potts, 1989, p. 7).
With time passing by, Catch-22 has secured Joseph Heller a position in American literature. However, the
ending part of the novel remains disputative: Many critics held that the description of Yossarian’s desertion is a
distortion of the tone, structure, and theme of the novel and therefore unconvincing.
The author of the present paper maintains that Catch-22 has its own logic of writing, Yossarian’s final
desertion fortifies the theme of searching for a meaningful existence, and the novel’s structure and tone fully
comply with the development of is theme. The thesis is an attempt to do justice to the novel’s controversial ending.
Joseph Heller: Life and Works
Joseph Heller actually started his first novel Catch-22 in 1953 when the war had already been eight years
away from him. He wrote the first section and then spent a whole year planning and preparing himself, using a
unique system of note cards, which ran to an impressive amount of occupying the length of a shoe box. It took
him altogether eight years to finish the book. Among Joseph Heller’s other major works are: We Bombed in New
Haven, a play performed in 1967; Something Happened in 1974, which is about a business executive undergoing
pressures, fear, perplexities in peacetime; Good as Gold in 1979 about the Jewish family life; God Knows in 1984
about King David’s reviews of his lifespan as well as Western, Judaic and Christian history to present; No
Laughing Matter in 1986 (co-authored with Speed Vogel) telling of Heller’s ordeal with Guilain Barre; and
Picture This in 1988, focusing on Rembrandt’s Holland and Aristotle’s Athens.
Joseph Heller is modest in his aims as a wrier. He once observed in an interview originally carried on The
Paris Review (fifth series, 1981), “I don’t have a philosophy of life. …my books are not constructed to ‘say
anything’”. He is probably being elusive for Catch-22 is actually a book humorous on the surface yet
philosophical underneath. Heller simply gives the right of interpretation to his readers by such remarks. He is
realistic about his skills, “I can be funny—for one half page at a time … I can be humorous in several ways—with
irony, with dialogue, with farcical situations, and occasionally with a lucky epigram or an aphorism” (Bayley,
1992, p. 6). Before his death, Heller was a professor at University of Pennsylvania.
Catch-22, Existentialism and Black Humor
Catch-22 is regarded as “one of the first and most original creation in literary postmodernism” (Potts,1989,
p. 8). A survey of relationship with literary existentialism and black humor will help to clarify its significance in
American literary history.
A Summary of Catch-22
Catch-22 is set in the final summer of Italian campaign in the Second World War. It combines naturalistic
detail with surreal farce in style, and its time and space range throughout the lives of the characters.
8. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22 425
According to Potts (1989), the novel can be divided into five parts: Part one (sections 1-9) focuses on the
U.S. Air Force Base-Pianosa; part two (sections 10-18) tells of the Great Big Siege of Bologna; part three
(sections 19-25), bridging the midpoint of the novel, reflects different value systems: idealism, practical
survivalism, self-seeking egoism,etc.; part four (sections 26-27) deals with events occurring between Pianosa and
Rome; And part five (sections 38-42) is about Yosarian’s desertion.
Catch-22, Existentialism and Black Humor
When Catch-22 reached the British best-seller lists in its first year, critics still disfavored the book: They did
not like the confusing plot and surreal exaggeration. Early critics failed to realize that Catch-22 represented a new
direction in American literature—postmodernism.
Heller’s reading ranged from the classic 19th century novelists Dickens and Dostoyevsky to modernist
William Faulkner, modern absurdist Nathanael West, and early postmodernist Vladimir Nabokov. The
picaresque caricature of Yossarian reminds us of Charles Dickens. Around the time of reading Nabokov’s blackly
humorous Laughter in the Dark he discovered the avant-garde French writer Louis-Ferdinand Celine. The novel’s
avant-garde method of plot must have been inspired by Celine. Celine was known for his masterpiece Journey to
the End of the Night (1990). The protagonist Ferdinand Bardamu in the novel is put in a wartime world with
chaos, absurdity, and meaninglessness; he is indifferent to anything except his own survival. Heller explained
that “Celine did things with time and structure, and colloquial speech I’d never experienced before”, that
“Journey to the End of the Night was the book that touched off” the conception of Catch-22 (Potts, 1989, p. 4).
When he mentioned his beginning of writing the novel, he said that he thought of the opening two sentences and
the overall tone and form of the book in an hour and a half:
I was lying in bed in my four-room apartment on the west side [of New York] when suddenly this line came to me:
“It was love at first sight. The first time he saw the chaplain, Someone fell madly in love with him”. …as soon as the
opening sentence was available, the book began to evolve clearly in my mind…. (Plimpton, 1981, p. 235)
Heller also insisted that its apparent chaotic plot was painstakingly constructed. Its abandoning of traditional
novelistic techniques pointed to a new trend.
Many American writers around Heller’s time “looked for guidance to Europe and French in particular,
where they found the existentialist novels of Camus and Sartre” (Potts, 1989, p. 13). The existential vision of
physical life that “Man is matter”, read from Snowden’s death by Yossarian in the novel, might be an evidence of
the impact of existentialism at that time.
Therefore, Catch-22 not only represents a new direction in literature—postmodernism, but also reflected the
influence of existentialism. A further expounding of the relationship between black humor and existentialism in
literature will clarify Catch-22’s position in literary history: “Black humor literature is similar to the literature of
existentialism in that it begins with the same assumption—that the world is absurd” (Pratt, 1993, p. 1).
The philosophy of existentialism enjoyed a short term of popularity in America in the late 1940s and early
1950s. It derived from phenomenology. Among the existentialists, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were two
of the most influential to the American literary men, because “both men were superb novelists and dramatists as
well as critics and philosophers… ” (Leitch, 1988, p. 153). In the English version of his Existentialism, Sartre
“outlined a handful of traits characteristic of the philosophy”, such as: “existence preceded essence”; “human
9. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22426
beings had no essence and were thus obliged continuously to define existence”; “God did not exist”; “man would
want but one thing freedom” (Leitch, 1988, p. 153). In The Wall, he expresses his idea that “the ridiculous and
arbitrary termination of human life makes life itself similarly ridiculous and arbitrary”(Harris, 1971, p. 76).
Existentialism best expressed the mood of French and European people after the serious wounding of the Second
World War. People became skeptical of the existence of God. The world was no longer the one described in
Robert Borrowing’s famous lines—“God’s in his heaven—Al’s right with the world!” On the contrary, the centre
of western religion was Godless. The appearance of existentialism could be regarded as an utterance of such a
crisis. As a novelist and critic, Sartre divided the problem of literature into three questions: What is writing? Why
write? For whom does one write? (Horton, 1974, p. 495). It is quite easy for one to sense the air of crisis in such
division. He also demanded that “literature be directed at changing the fundamental conditions of social
existence” (Horton, 1974, p. 495). William Barrett noted in his The End of Modern Literature: Existentialism and
Crisis (1990) that the crisis after the Second World War “places the writer in a precarious relation even to his craft”.
Guided by the philosophy of existentialism, Sartre produced his philosophical novel Nausea (1938), The
Wall (1939), etc.; Camus produced The Plague (1947) and The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). Both writers described
the contradiction of human existence. For example, Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus reflected the meaninglessness
of human existence through comparing it to the punishment of Sisyphus in having to roll a huge rock eternally up
a hill in Tartarus, only to see it plunge to the bottom again. However, Sisyphus is happy because “the struggle
itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart” (Horton, 1974, p. 510). This novel shows a reassertion
of the meaning of human life. Generally speaking, existentialists’ novels disclose the absurdity of the universe,
meanwhile tend to be moral preaching. Viewed from an existentialist perspective, Yossarian’ s final desertion
and his decision to collect the kid sister of Nately’s whore on his way could be regarded as an elevation from his
merely ego involvement to social involvement. In a sense, the ending of the novel conforms with the existentialist
idea of service and responsibility:
By the end of the fifties, the neo-realist spirit and existentialist anxieties that had dominated the first part of the
decade had already begun yielding to a new tone of black humor and absurdism,which was taking fiction away from
realism. (Pratt, 1993, p. 1)
Black humor was born in the shadow of the function of existentialism yet pointed to a new trend in literature.
It was conceived by modernism and gave birth to postmodernism.
As a new genre of literature, black humor was generated in an era when John F. Kennedy was elected
president in 1960, when the Second World War was at a distance, when cold war was around between the US and
Soviet competition in space exploration. “The writings of the sixties show a clear ret urn to politics and history,
but not expressed in the form of a clear ideology nor in a devotion to social or proletarian realism” (Bradbury,
1987, p. 198). At the time when Joseph Heller started to compose the novel, the war had been eight years away.
The mood of the time being Americans underwent a sharp change. Catch-22 should not be simply viewed as a
war novel Heller himself observed in interviews that his novel was not intended as a criticism of World Wars, or
initially even of war in general; that is, satire was aimed at the cold war of the 50s.
Black Humor involves the humorous treatment of what is grotesque, morbid, or terrifying. And while it bitterly
ridicules institutions, value systems and traditions, black humor offers neither explicit nor implicit proposals for
improving, reforming or changing the painful realties on which it focuses. (Pratt, 1993, p. 3)
10. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22 427
During eight years’ composition, Heller adopted avant-garde literary techniques to best express the themes.
as well as to construct the novel.
Heller’s voice is a direct response to a world dominated by military institutions and systems, which cold war
American had become. This is a world where sanity is madness, madness sanity, where the human is mechanical and the
mechanical human, and such absurd formulae provide both the black humor and the structure of the book. (Bradbury,
1987, p. 212)
Another thing to be noted is that the term “black humor” was first coined by the French surrealist poet and
critic Andre Breton in the late 1930s as “humor noir”, the present term superseding “black humor” is
“postmodernism”; “black humor “was only widely used in the 1960s. The term “postmodernism” tells us two
things: “That modernism is over, and that the late modern arts still function in is shadow… ” (Bradbury, 1987,
p. 198). It describs a general tendency that in fiction “techniques grew random, styles mixed or merged, methods
became increasingly provisional!” ( Bradbury, 1987, p. 198).
Heller’s Catch-22 bears signs of existentialism in that it perceives the world as absurd and tries to reassert
the meaning of human existence, but it is decidedly a work of black humor or postmodernism because its
treatment of such serious themes is humorous and its anti-traditional novelistic techniques point to a new
tendency in American literature.
Disputative Opinions on the Ending
One reason for the stature of Catch-22 remaining secure is that many of the attacks it received upon
publication have been settled. Its value in literary postmodernism has been widely recognized. In spite of this,
critical essays continue to be turned out, attempting to interpret the novel in various respects.
The critical essays on the novel mainly revolves around is technique or its message—the novel’s tortured
chronology or the satirical targets and theme. In 1967, Jan Solomon wrote an essay “The Structure of Joseph
Heller’s Catch-22”, arguing that the novel has two opposing time lines: One is the cyclical line showing
Yossarian’s psychological perception of events and the existential vision of the universe; the other is the linear
time line reflecting Milo’s rising from a mess hall officer to the controller of an international cartel. Mio’s linear
time line cut randomly across Yossarian’s cyclical line and explains the apparent formlessness of the novel’s
structure. Other critics defended its formlessness on the ground that is lack of a traditional chronological plot is
consistent with the chaotic cosmos and lunatic logic of the story. In 1971, an essay entitled “Catch-22: A Radical
Protest against Absurdity”, carried on Contemporary Novelists of the Absurd, argued that “both the prose and the
structure are carefully controlled,not only to reinforce the novel’s theme of absurdity but to create their own
dimension of absurdity as well” (Harris, 1971, p. 34). In 1974, Daniel Walden produced an essay proposing the
interpretation of the novel in traditional Jewish terms. However, “the most frequent complaint made by
supporters and detractors is the sudden twist in the last part of the novel” (Potts, 1989, p. 10). Waldmeir criticized
the novel as flawed in is superficial complexity, real repetitiveness, and unconvincing ending. Many other critics
who had come to appreciate the cosmos of Catch-22 meticulously constructed by Heller are also bothered by the
apparent inconsistency of the ending part as com pared to the foregoing parts. They complained the last part was
a distortion of the novel’s tone and structure as well as the personality of Yossarian.
What’s in the ending then? Are these critics doing it justice?
11. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22428
The ending part covers five sections: section 38 “Kid Sister”—Yossarian breaks the news of Nately’ s death
to Natly’s whore and is furiously attacked by the latter; section 39 “The Eternal City”—Learning that Rome is in
ruins and the brothel has been raided, Yossarian gets worried about Nately’ s whore and her kid sister and returns
to Rome, only to find the degradation of human civilization; section 40 “Catch-22”—Back in Pianosa, Yossarian
is tricked into signing an odious deal; section 41 “Snowden”—Injured by Nately’s whore, Yossarian is sent to
hospital recalling Snowden’s death; and section 42 “Yossarian”—Yossarian explains his decision to break the
deal and deserts after learning about Orr’s reappearance in Sweden. In this part, Yossarian witnesses the
misfortunes of children and women, feeling a compulsion to stop the chain of victim and culprit; he is morally
woken up by the attack of Nately’s whore, recalling the scene of Snowden’s death; he starts a most serious talk
with the idealist—Major Danby on the military system before the desertion.
Superficially at least, the ending represents a sharp change: The tone turns quite serious as Yossarian
struggles over his final decision; the narrative becomes chronological except for the flashback of the section on
Snowden; and Yossarian appears a totally new person as he begins to concern himself with social responsibilities,
which is in sharp contrast to his original practical survivalism.
A critical and careful study of the novel, however, reveals that Yossarian’s final desertion is just an
apocalyptic choice owing to three factors (first, Snowden’s death enables Yossarian to gain an existential vision
of physical life; second, frequently confronted with the trap of Catch-22, he is woken up by the attack of Nately’s
whore before his totally falling into the tricky deal; third, Orr’s persistence in fighting against the military system
and his arrival at Sweden make a good example for Yossarian); the narrative tone has been darkening throughout
the novel; and that the ending’s turning chronological is decided by the need of thematic progression. Simply put,
the ending represents a logical development of Yossarian’ s personality and a proper change in tone and structure.
The Logic of Catch-22
There are more than 70 characters in the novel, who are more or less related with the
protagonist—Yossarian. Each of them represents an epitome of perspective on life and death. Many of their ideas
clash with each other yet pivot around the logic of Catch-22. Witnessing his fellow airmen’s responses to the rule
of Catch-22, Yossarian gradually realizes the absurdity of military bureaucracy embodied in the “verbal trick” of
Catch-22 and comes to a deep understanding of the absurd world in which the traditional values are inverted.
Yossarian’s entropic vision of the world of Catch-22 serves as a springboard for his decision to desert.
“Catch-22” as a term has come into the American daily speech since the novel’s publication. It refers to the
absurdity of any conditions in which choices are meaningless. In the novel, Catch-22 is itself “a verbal trick”
(Bayley, 1992, p. 60), it shows up in many forms throughout the novel.
The term first appears when Yossarian decides to “go crazy” (Heller, 1961, p. 46). Yossarian goes to Doc
Daneeka asking to be grounded, telling the latter he is crazy. The principle Doc Daneeka observes in life is “you
scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”, and “you do a favor for me, I’1l do one for you” (Heller, 1961, p. 34).
He would have liked to help because Yossarian has helped him in avoiding routine flying missions by putting his
name on flying records. But “there is the catch, the best one” (Heller, 1961, p. 46). It specifies “that a concern for
one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind” (Heller,
1961, p. 47). In other words, “if he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane
12. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22 429
and had to” (Heller, 1961, p. 47). Doc Daneeka is helpless confronting the law of Catch-22, so is Yossarian.
Another scene focusing on the law of Catch-22 is in Rome. Rome is in ruins. The brothel is reduced to a
shambles. “The girls were gone, the only one there was the old woman” (Heller, 1961, p. 415). It is the Military
Policemen (M. P. s) who chase the girls away. When Yossarian questions why the M. P. s have the right to do so,
the old woman answers that it is the rule of Catch-22 that allows them. Yossarian further demands whether the
woman asks the M. p. s to read and show the law to them, the old woman replies that “they don’t have to show us
Catch-22. The law says they don’t have to” (Heller, 1961, p. 416). Catch-22 seems to be a big trap lurking
everywhere. The powerless have no hope of escaping from it. Everyone thinks the law is the supreme power and
never doubts its existence. Yossarian, however, discovers “there was no such thing, Catch-22 did not exist, he
was positive of that… ”, since “there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend,
hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds,trample upon or burn up” (Heller, 1961, p. 418). The law of Catch-22 is actually
an operation principle of the whole bureaucratic system. It serves only those commanders’ needs: their fame,
profits, climbing up, dehumanized appetites … It is not an established law. Yet it is the logic operating the whole
military world. The immensity of its power also derives from the various forms which it is capable of carrying on.
In the Avignon action, when Yossarian tries to find morphine in the first-aid kit, he finds a note instead, which
says, “What’s good for M & M Enterprises is good for the country. Milo Minderbinder”. The medicine for saving
lives in emergency has been taken away by Milo to make profits. The law Milo observes here is capitalism, the
profit principle. It works fairly well within the logic of Catch-22 because every superior commander is ready to
yield for profits at the expenses of the country’s labors, properties, even the lives of those insignificant people.
Thus, Catch-22 is superficially a “verbal trick”, while substantially a profit principle and an interest
principle.
In the novel, there are three missions which Yossarian confronts with. Each leads him to a deeper
understanding of war and mortality. He starts as an innocent, courageous bombardier at the debacle of Ferrara;
then he changes into a “coward” continuously refusing to fly missions around the time of the Great Big Siege of
Bologna, finally Snowden’s death at Avignon mission leads him to an existential realization of human existence.
Such changes of Yossarian’s attitude toward war and death lay a good foundation for his final desertion.
Yossarian, who has already realized the pointlessness in continuing an ending war, publicly rebels after
Nately’s death. His rebellion annoys Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn, who plan to get rid of him eventually
through a tricky deal. This part aims to prove that his choice of desertion is not unconvincing: Firstly, the attacks
from Nately’s whore are just like a koan in Zen which wakes him up to break the deal and brings him to a dead
end; secondly, Orr’s arrival at Sweden encourages Yossarian to desert since the idea of desertion has long been
lingering on his mind before the Bologna mission. The action is delayed only because Yossarian has not had it
planned out Orr’s miraculous arrival at Sweden provides a good example for desertion.
After Nately’s death, Yossarian refuses to fly any more missions. Colonel Cathcart wants to disappear him
the way they disappear Dunbar. Colonel Korn suggests that he be sent to Rome and soothed with women and
alcohol. In Rome, Yossarian breaks the news of Nately’s death to Nately’s whore, who is heartbroken and tries to
stab him to death. Yossarian has to escape back to Pianosa. As he returns to the base, Captain Black tells him that
Nately’s whore has gone and M. P. s have raided the brothel Yossarian becomes worried about Nately’s whore
and her kid sister and returns to the city of Rome, expecting to save them. Rome is then in ruins. Yossarian
13. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22430
experiences a night walk in the rain, witnessing the degradation of the city, where the logic of Catch-22 like an
evil serpent is perishing everything.
Nately’s whore was on his mind … Snowden and Nately’s whore’s kid sister were on his conscience … Yossarian
thought he knew why Nately’s whore held him responsible for Nately’s death and wanted to kill him. Why the hel
shouldn’t she? It was a man’s world, and she and everyone younger has every right to blame him and everyone older for
every unnatural tragedy that befell them…. (Heller, 1961, p. 414)
In the long night walk, Yossarian begins to think about his responsibility for women and children, especially
for Nately’s whore and her kid sister. This change can be regarded as an existentialist moral strengthening.
Yossarian starts to care about other people besides his own survival.
In chapter 40 “Catch-22”, Yossarian gets involved in an odious catch. As is mentioned before, Yossarian is
ordered to contract a deal with Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn. If he accepts the deal, he will be sent home
yet suffer from a guilty con science; if not, he will have a clean conscience yet run the risk of being
court-martialed. He decides to break the agreement after Nately’s whore’s attack, which, like a koan in Zen,
brings him to a sudden realization of his responsibility. The existentialist responsibility, existentialist vision of
human existence, together with the existentialist vision of the Universe—the world of Catch-22, bring Yossarian
to a final decision of desertion. Nietzsche said, all the gods are dead, then man must become mature enough to
assume the role. Man must be responsible for himself as well as women, children, and, finally, the whole society.
Survival and responsibility, Yossarian embraces both.
Catch-22 is not a comic farce. It has a serious theme embodied not only in Yossarian’s entropic vision of the
cosmos but also in his final desertion. The description of the absurd world of Catch-22 is actually a preparation
for the thematic progression in the ending part. Yossarian’s final action is a natural and convincing development
of his personality, a light of hope for his continuous quest for a meaningful existence.
Yossarian is to escape to Sweden, a neutral country covered with snow. Sweden seems “like the Paradise:
sane people, plenty of good sex, a benevolent government, jolly drunkenness” (Karl, 1964, p. 138). Yossarian has
been dreaming of this land for a long time, especially in the period before the Bologna mission is flown. He
“waited for the piece of flak that would knock out one engine over the Italian Alps and provide him with the
excuse for heading for Switzerland” (Heller, 1961, p. 318). He wants to scheme with a trusted pilot. Had it been
possible he would have “preferred Sweden” (Heller, 1961, p. 318) because Sweden is the country “where the
level of intelligence was high and where he could swim nude with beautiful girls… ” and “have illegitimate
Yossarians… launched into life without stigma” (Heller, 1961, p. 318) with the aid of the state. Here, Sweden is
merely an imagination, a state of mind rather than a real place. Itis often wondered whether there is another trap
of Catch-22 awaiting Yossarian in Sweden. Some critics are sure that “when Yossarian reaches Sweden, he will
be disappointed, even frustrated. Not all the tall, blonde women will capitulate, not all the people will be sane,the
government will even expect him to work,and liquor will be expensive” (Karl, 1964, p. 138). Yet still Sweden
remains valid as an idea, just as the mythical Byzantium is for William Butler Yeats. What is important is that it
represents a hope, an alternative to falling victim to the rule of Catch-22. Yossarian may have desired a false
Eden, but his deserting the hell for the paradise is certainly to be approved.
14. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22 431
Tone and Structure
For many critics who discredit Yossarian’s final decision of desertion, the ending part represents too much
of a change in tone and structure. The picaresque Yossarian, who has been whoring, lying and dodging flying
missions in the interest of self-preservation throughout the story, suddenly becomes serious, straightforward and
decent, with none of the cynical snideness left. The narrative also ceases to be confusing and becomes
chronological. To these critics, such changes are too abrupt and not convincing.
Yet, given that Yossarian’s desertion has been adequately prepared for and therefore represents a
convincing development of his personality, as explained in previous sections, it would be safe to say that the
critics failed to appreciate the change in tone and structure which actually complies with the progression of the
theme. A close survey of the overall structure and tone as related to the theme would make this clear.
Catch-22 has been frequently criticized by early reviewers for being formless and chaotic. Anyone who has
read beyond the novel’s first section quickly becomes aware of its lack of a traditional chronological plot a close
analysis of the narrative, however, reveals that it does have an intricate organization, that “beneath the apparent
chaos of the story line exists a coherent sequence of events (Potts, 1989, p. 19). Based on the alteration of tone
and the presence of de ja vu cycles (de ja vu is the feeling of having experienced something before), Potts came
up with a sound division of the novel into five parts, as mentioned before. The following study of Part One is
meant to disclose the general structure and tone of the novel.
Part One of the novel embraces the first nine sections, which focus on Yossarian’s immediate circle in
Pianosa. It begins with his hospital visit at the 44th mission and circles mostly around the late summer period of
Avignon and the deaths of Snowden and Clevinger. It also flashes back to spring in Ferrara and the beginning of
Milo’s activities, and then back one year to Lieutenant Scheisskopf and Clevinger at Santa Ana, and further back
to pick up the history of Major Major Major.
This account serves to offer a taste of the novel’s apparent formlessness, which is to be followed throughout
except in the ending. Many major events of the novel are heaped together but little is said of them. They are to
reappear time and again in the following parts.
Nearly four-fifths of the novel is meticulously written to appear chaotic, as Heller insisted in a number of
interviews. Why, then, did Heller take so much trouble to upset the time sequence of the novel?
The structure of the novel actually “internalizes and embodies the theme of avoidance” (Bayley, 1992, p. 56)
Just as Yossarian skillfully evades flak barrage, the narrative circles round twice before getting to its target. It
twists and dodges, spinning round and going backwards, trying to avoid being caught. The relationship between
the structure and the theme is best expressed by Doug Gaukroger: “The unorthodox treatment of time in Catch-22
is both parallel to, and prepares the readers for, the unorthodox treatment of the subject matter. It is only fitting
that a novel which deals with an apparently absurd and confused world should be written in an apparently absurd
and confused style” (Potts, 1989, p. 27).
Subject matter decides the form or structure. This is also true of the ending part. In the last few sections,
Yossarian undergoes substantial changes. The degradation of Rome and Nately’s whore’s furious attacks bring
him to a moral awakening; his rejection of the odious deal, which is against the survivalism he has so far practiced,
leads him to a dead end; Orr’s miraculous arrival at Sweden strengthens his hope for an alternative-deserting the
15. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22432
world of Catch-22.
Yossarian’s decision of desertion represents a progression of the theme, and the novel needs a progression.
Yossarian, once an absurd hero, becomes, not unconvincingly, a completely sane and decent man. He jumps out
of the world of chaos and absurdity, and it is altogether fitting that Heller jumps out of the words of chaos and
formlessness and returns to chronology.
The progression of theme also accounts for the novel’s change of tone, which, in fact, has been darkening all
the way.
It is widely agreed that the first few sections of Catch-22 are generally lighter in tone than those that follows.
Heller’s talents and skills in producing comic effect are fully demonstrated here.
Repetition:
“You’re a chaplain”, he exclaimed ecstatically. “1 didn’t know you were a chaplain”.
“Why, yes”, the chaplain answered. “Didn’t you know I was a chaplain?”
“Why, no. I didn’t know you were a chaplain” (Heller, 1961, p. 13).
Contradiction or oxymoron:
“Nately had a bad start. He came from a good family” (Heller, 1961, p. 13).
Wrenched cliché: “It was love at first sight” is promptly deflated by “The first time Yossarian saw the
chaplain he fell madly in love with him” (Heller, 1961, p. 7).
Meaningless or paradoxical choices:
There was only one catch and that was catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the
face of dangers that were real and immediate were the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be
grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly
more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he did not, but if he was sane he had to fly
them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he did not want to he was sane and had to (Heller,
1961, p. 47).
These comic devices appear with high frequency in Part One, but they are to alter in significances as the book
progresses. Otherwise the book’s humor will be trivial and redundant and gradually the readers will be bored.
By the end of the opening part, verbal repetitions and contradictions begin to “shift in function from mere
stylistic devices to motifs embedded in the entire foundation of the book’s structure” (Potts, 1989, p. 41).
Repetition, for example, shows up in the recycling of certain scenes.
The repetition in structure merits attention. Each time a scene is repeated, more information is added and the
scene grows in significance, and generally speaking, the tone of writing becomes darker. Snowden’s death, for
example, is mentioned but in one sentence—“And Snowden lay dying in back” (Heller, 1961, p. 52), in section
five, then a piecemeal description of the event is found in sections 21, 22, and 24. Yet it is not until section 41, the
last but one section, that the whole matter is described in the mode of naturalism and becomes a thematic climax:
Yossarian finally sees that physical life is all we have and there is no meaning in death.
In fact, the tone of the novel has always been darkening. Sections one through 28 offered the lightest comic
touch, sections 29 through 37 are dominated by horrors, and the last five sections turned towards hope and
guarded optimism. The change of tone is actually decided by the novel’s serious theme. Catch-22 is a
masterpiece of black humor. On the one hand, Heller tried his best to describe the absurdity of human existence,
16. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22 433
which evoked a lot of laughter in tears; on the other hand, he felt obliged to offer a hopeful alternative and left his
readers with a call to actions, which is definitely serious. Had the tone been light and comic throughout, the novel
would have been little more than a comic farce.
Conclusion
Catch-22 is above all an American novel. It shares many preoccupations with other American novels. These
preoccupations have been summed up by Tony Tanner:
We may say that a central concern for the hero of many recent American novels is this: Can he find a
freedom which is not a jelly, and can he establish an identity which is not a prison?! …(And) the dilemma and the
quest of the hero are often analogous to those of the author. Can he find a stylistic freedom which is not simply a
meaningless incoherence, and can he find a stylistic form which will not trap him inside the existing forms of
previous literature? (Tanner, 1971, p. 27).
It would be safe to say that Joseph Heller has found his stylistic freedom in Catch-22. Four-fifths of the
novel is painstakingly constructed to appear formless and chaotic, which actually internalizes and embodies the
theme of avoidance and creates a sense of absurdity. Underlying the comic effect ingeniously produced by Heller
is the narrative tone which has been continuously darkening to remind the readers of the thematic seriousness.
When it comes to Yossarian’s decision of desertion, the thematic climax in the last five sections, Heller suddenly
jumps out of the structural absurdity and shifts the narrative to chronology, and the tone accordingly becomes
serious. The novel thus progresses as he intended.
Heller once told George Plimpton that “Catch-22” is concerned with physical survival against exterior
forces or institutions that want to destroy life or moral self” (Potts, 1989, p. 111). This theme is embodied in
Yossarian’s quest for freedom and dignity.
Yossarian has a big appetite for life but finds himself in a world made hostile and irrational by ambitious
power-seekers and greedy money-seekers. He sees everyday as a dangerous mission against mortality and
struggles to keep himself alive. Yet the world of Catch-22 is also a compromised world. Victimizers-Colonel
Cathcart, Mio and the like-meet with no substantial resistance in having their way, and victims of all kinds
continue to die or wait for the doom. Yossarian is frustrated and helpless before the omnipresent Catch-22,
offering little more than complaints and token resistance, followed by reluctant compliance. Yet even such token
resistance irritates the self-seekers and he is offered a deal: to be their pals and sent home.
This is indeed a great temptation since it caters to Yossarian’s survivalism. He accepts the deal but is
promptly woken up by Nately’s whore’s attack. In hospital, he recalls the death of Snowden and the night walk in
the ruined Rome, morality and responsibility prevail and he decides to break the deal, which seems to mean
eternal damnation for him. Fortunately, Orr’s miraculous arrival at Sweden provides him with an alternative, he
deserts and leaps beyond the system of Catch-22.
The significance of Yossarian’s desertion is that it provides hope for a meaningful existence: a life of
dignity and freedom. Yet the readers have every reason to doubt Yossarian’s redemption: No one can guarantee
that Sweden is out of the reach of Catch-22.
Catch-22 is more than an anti-war novel although it has World War I as its background. It is rather a
clear-cut satire on contemporary American life. Heller once told The Realist that he had meant the novel to “be as
17. OUT OF ABSURDITY—ON THE ENDING OF CATCH-22434
contemporary as possible” (Potts, 1989, p. 115). Later in the same interview, he complained of the transfer of
wartime ideology to peacetime in America: “When this wartime emergency ideology is transplanted to
peacetime,then you have this kind of lag which leads not only to absurd situations, but to very tragic situations”
(Potts, 1989, p. 115).
Many Americans find the world described in Catch-22 depressingly familiar and the term “Catch-22” soon
finds its way into the English language. It is nothing difficult for them to pick up scenes and languages
characteristic of Heller’s book: farcical episodes from the Vietnam War (1960s); Nixon’s exemption from
punishment for Watergate Scandal (1970s); CIA (Central Information Agency)—supported terrorists in Angola
were called “freedom-fighters” (1980s); the invasion of Panama was termed “vertical insertion before dawn”
(1990s). It is no wonder that Potts ends his book with such a statement: “We still live in the world of Catch-22”
(Potts, 1989, p. 117).
Cαtch-22 is certainly a brilliant book in exposing the widespread ills of modern life: intolerance,
bureaucracy, capitalism, racism, the greed for money and power. Heller leaves his book with a well-prepared
hopeful ending, hoping that the world is a better place. Yet since his hero is only directed to desert and escape
instead of taking actions against the absurd system, we see no strong cause for being optimistic.
References
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Plimpton, G. (ed.). (1981). Writers at work: “The Paris Review” interviews, fifth series. Harmonds worth: Penguin Books.
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19. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836
June 2014, Vol. 4, No. 6, 436-441
Reading Dickens Romantically: “Night Walks”
Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
This paper will examine the essay, “Night Walks” (2000), to see how Charles Dickens (1812-1870), a social-realist
writer of the Victorian era, has used elements adapted from the Romantics in order to draw attention to the pitiable
social conditions of Victorian London. Dickens’ the realist paradoxically reflected a readiness to think and feel
“without immediate external excitement”. He expressed his alignment with Romanticism by way of a cultivation of
feeling and empathizing. His genius was, as expressed by Bagehot, “essentially irregular and unsymmetrical”
because he was “utterly deficient in the faculty of reasoning”. His daily, or rather nightly walks provided him with
the inspiration to follow the Romantic tradition of writing on walks. The essay under consideration, “Night Walks”,
clearly supports the notion that Romanticism was fallaciously opposed to realism. The paper will examine the ways
in which the theme, style, and structure of the essay evoke the preoccupation of a Romantic soul—for whom the
walk becomes a space for “encounter and reflection”—and the Romantic mind which is empowered by
“imaginative self definition or discovery”.
Keywords: Romanticism, imagination, isolation, self-knowledge, human-mind
Introduction
“Some scholars see Romanticism as essentially continuous with the present”.
Lovejoy, The History of Ideas (1948)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge considers Romanticism as the beginning of a tradition of resistance to
Enlightenment rationalism, Charles Baudelaire (2010) sees it, “situated neither in choice of subject nor exact
truth, but in the way of feeling” and for Robert Hughes, Romanticism marks the inaugural moment of
modernity. Although 20th century scholars have scoffed at what they call “emotionalism” that this
emotionalism was sometimes exaggerated should not obscure the fact that it also contained much that was
genuine and inspiring. So much so that although scientific advances and global social changes in the 19th
century had a profound effect on literature, creating a sense of loss and despair, the Victorian era continued
promoting the Romantic ideals of love and affinity with nature. It was a time when, it will be pertinent to
recall, England was veering away from rationalism and showing a renewed interest in religious mysticism,
idealism and Romanticism. These were the cultural trends and influences which inspired Victorian writers
like Lewis Carroll to use a mixture of logic, realism, fantasy, and absurdity in his book Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland and Matthew Arnold to sometimes reflect quite a meditative, elegiac tone in his poetry.
Tennyson with his Lady of Shalott and poems dealing with the Arthurian legend was also clearly influenced
by the ideals of Romanticism.
Rukhsana Rahim Chowdhury, senior lecturer, Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University.
DAVID PUBLISHING
D
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Romanticism Fallaciously Opposed to Realism
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), a social-realist writer, was greatly influenced by the Romantics. He grew up
under the influence of the Romantic Movement’s fascination with feeling, emotion, imagination, and states of
marginal consciousness. Dickens, the realist, who paradoxically, reflected a readiness to think and feel “without
immediate external excitement” expressed his alignment with Romanticism by way of a cultivation of feeling and
empathizing. His genius was, as expressed by Bagehot, “essentially irregular and unsymmetrical” because he was
“utterly deficient in the faculty of reasoning”. His writings and especially the essay under consideration, “Night
Walks”, clearly support the notion that Romanticism was fallaciously opposed to realism. Historian Jaques Barzun
declared that “ …the Romantic realist does not blink his weakness, but exerts his power” (Jacques, 1755, p. 77).
For Dickens, this power which was a vehicle for social change was exerted through an involvement in the life
of the common people, bringing him into “sympathetic relations with people” (Dickens, 2000, p. 147).
He transformed this empathy for the sufferings of others into a medium for social reform, as is evident in
this essay. “Night Walks” was originally published in the weekly journal, All Year Round in 1859. Later it
appeared as chapter 13 of The Uncommercial Traveller in 1861. He wrote this essay at a time when he suffered
from insomnia and decided that the best way to cope with the problem was to leave his bed and walk the streets of
London and return at last in the early hours of dawn to a restfully peaceful sleep. This paper will examine the
essay, “Night Walks” to see how Dickens has used the concept of imagination that he adapted from the
Romantics to highlight the pitiable social conditions of Victorian London.
The English Romantic poets were clearly inspired by their long walks: Wordsworth and Coleridge in the
idyllic Lake District of England and Shelley in Italy. Dickens here was clearly inspired by the Romantic
tradition of peripatetic writings. Walking which is usually a physically and spiritually uplifting experience,
translated into an obsession for Dickens. His walks resulted in a lament of the sickening condition of London.
He describes the back alleys of this Victorian city as “the filthiest, the strangest, and the most extraordinary of
the many localities that are hidden in London” (Dickens, 1994, chapter 50). But this obsessive interest in the
lives of the homeless poor of London resulted in a social criticism having far reaching effects on the lives of
people globally. His descriptions of the mistreatment of children helped initiate child labor reform culminating
in the Great Reform Act of 1832.
The essay, “Night Walks” has almost a surreal feel to it. It reads like an exercise in meditation. Elements
like imagination, emotion, nature, and Gothicism are clearly evident here. The very idea and style of the essay
is evocative of Rousseau’s “Reveries of a Solitary Walker” written between 1776 and 1778 where the French
philosopher described sights he encountered on his walks around Paris and recorded his introspective
interaction of the mind and the world around him. According to Clark (1996):
It may be compared to that minor genre of Romantic writing that dramatizes the meditations of a walk, such as
Hazlitt’s “On Going a Journey”, various essays by De Quincey or Leigh Hunt’s “Walking Home by Night”. The walk in
the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge … engages the writer in the dramatization of a dialectical interaction between
mind and world. It is a space of encounter and reflection; it enacts a drama of consciousness […gained through….] topics
suggested by the walk in progress and empowerment of the mind in imaginative self definition or discovery. (p. 35)
Dickens’s personal life was full of trials and tribulations. Private misery left indelible marks on his work.
His mother’s insistence that he continued working at the shoe blacking factory, even after his father’s released
from the debtor’s prison, scarred him emotionally for the rest of his life:
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No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I … felt my early hopes of growing up to be a learned and
distinguished man crushed in my breast. The deep remembrance … of the misery it was to my young heart to believe that,
day by day, what I had learned and thought, and delighted in, and raised my fancy and emulation up by, was passing away
from me … cannot be written. (Forster, 2008, p. 53)
In flight from physical problems like insomnia and internal troubles like being haunted by the past, the
narrator-walker starts out “under a compulsion to walk and walk and walk in the darkness and pattering rain”
and by doing so, successfully captures the romance and ecstasy of misery, isolation and wretchedness that he
encounters on the streets of London. His use of personification and imagery dramatizes the inner and the outer
forms of the human universe. Personification is used when the very city of London seems to share the walker’s
anguish and experiences the same fits and starts of a restless sleeper in “the way in which it tumbles and tosses
before it can get to sleep” (Dickens, 2000, p. 122). The hour itself, that of night, is highly Romantic, coupled
with the “wild moon” and the clouds. The moon in the Romantic tradition is identified with imagination, and
the night is associated with silence and solitude and therefore provides an ability to meditate and communicate
easily with nature. For expressing this highly Romantic theme, Dickens, the ultimate artist employs the tool of
a simple, plain and emphatic language which for Wordsworth is “a more permanent and a far more
philosophical language” (Wordsworth, 1991, p. 245). The essay has quite a few Wordsworthian echoes. The lines,
“ …the buildings on the banks were muffled in black shrouds … the very shadow of the immensity of London
seemed to lie oppressively upon the river” (Dickens, 2000, p. 124) are like mirror-images of Wordsworth’s, “Dear
God! The very houses seem asleep;/And all that mighty heart is lying still!” (Wordsworth, 1807, p. 82).
Dreams and Literary Creations
Dickens had a magnificent technique of externalizing inner mental conflicts. He did not talk about the
mental processes of his characters but showed their troubled lives reflected in the surroundings and social
conditions. The oppressive shadows, silence, and the dimness of light gave a whole new dimension to every
encounter that the troubled walker, the “houseless mind” or “houselessness” had. The familiar daily sights took
on a wholly different form of visibility. The people and the places took on a fascinatingly remote and eerie air,
denoting his own uneasy feeling of vagueness and isolation. The author’s state of self knowledge was subject to
the influence of strong emotions. It gave him matter for reflection to walk past “that wicked little Debtor’s Door”
at Newgate and be reminded of the prisoners, “many quite innocent” (Dickens, 2000, p. 125). Like a true
Romantic, the walker feels like “lamenting the good old times and bemoaning the present evil period” (Dickens,
2000, p. 125) experiencing a kind of night fancy as he approached Bethlehem, an asylum for the insane. The
physical reality of the asylum and its inmates evoked a much deeper metaphysical reality. Dickens grew up under
the influence of the Romantic Movement’s fascination with states of marginal consciousness and the Victorian
dream books and magazines carried works on spiritual accounts of revelatory dreams. His personal collection
comprised of more than 30 books on topics ranging from physiological psychology to miscellanies on the spirit
world covering ghosts, apparitions, omens, dreams, daemons and “Other Magical Practices” as written on the
cover of an 18th century book. All the Romantic writers considered that there was a strong link between dreams
and the processes of literary creation. Byron produced what might be called the Romantic Manifesto on dreams
by ruling that the three cardinal Romantic doctrines on dreams are that they are a revelation of reality, they can
form and influence waking life, and the dream process is a parallel and model of the process of poetic creation
(Lewes, 1865, p. 70).
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An important dream postulated by Aristotle held special significance for the Romantics and especially
Coleridge and Keats: “Nor is every presentation which occurs in sleep necessarily a dream. For in the first
place, some person when asleep, actually perceive sounds, light etc., for there have been cases in which persons
while asleep but with eyes partially open, saw faintly in their sleep the light of a lamp, and afterward on being
awakened, straight away recognized it as the actual light of a real lamp … but none of these occurrences should
be called a dream”. Coleridge referred to these as reveries. Dickens’ novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood
focuses on the opium induced reverie of the central character. Dreams as sources and techniques and especially
the Aristotelian Dream Theory were important to the Romantics, and they valued and used their own dreams
(Lewes, 1865, p. 69). Charles Dickens is also known to have used his own dreams as “aesthetic experiences of
intrinsic value” for his creative fiction.
Coleridge’s fascination with the creative sources of the imagination, and Wordsworth’s preoccupation
with recollection of childhood memories show a remarkable influence on Charles Dickens. Approaching
Bethlehem, the walker is struck by the realization that we are “troubled by our own sleeping inconsistencies” just
as the insane are by their “waking delusions”. Thereby, indicating his shocking idea that the perils of
industrialization and pressures of living in a modern society have thrown the sane and the insane together, at least
at some paranormal level. He thinks that the state of the insane is not particularly different from the state of the
sleeping sane. “Are not the sane and the insane equal at night as the sane lie a dreaming?” This question
beautifully internalizes the external. Dickens recalls problems of sane Londoners and implies that they too are
driven by their demons just like these inmates, some of whom in ironic contrast to their situation regard
themselves as kings and queens in their waking hours. In quite a Romantic manner, Dickens had entertained
royalty in his dream in his childhood years. This dream contrasted sharply with his poverty stricken reality. He
had in fact, used his imagination to suspend reason. Imagination can effectively control perception making the
mind work in which Freud would call a primary process that dominates dreams and allows one to attain an
ideal. According to Higbie (1998):
The versions of the ideal that Dickens imagines seem to be versions of a return to a paradise childhood world in
which his parents had not failed him, and to a pre-Oedipal infantile union with a mother whom he could still see as loving
and totally wish fulfilling. (p. 60)
George Henry Lewes in “Dickens in Relation to Criticism”, arguing about the mental processes that feed
the hallucinations of the insane and their belief in the reality of their visions, said that for Dickens “revived
images have the vividness of sensations; …created images have the coercive force of realities, excluding all
control, all contradiction” (Lewes, 1865, p. 145). Lewes finds the glorious energy of imagination, a force “so
definite” that even while knowing that the image created by imagination is false, “we could not help for a
moment, being affected by his hallucination”. He also said, “Dickens sees and feels but the logic of feeling
seems the only logic he can manage” (Lewes, 1865, p. 151).
Drawing Inspirations From Romantic Tradition
Romantic poets such as Blake and Wordsworth celebrated the innocent world of children. The theme is
borrowed by Dickens in his writing where the figure of the exploited and orphaned child is pivotal. His own
childhood sufferings and a profound sense of loneliness made him acutely aware of the Romantic notion of
childhood and cultivated an empathetic feeling for what he described as the “ragged, homeless, urchin”. Most of
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these child labourers were orphans or abandoned children and therefore exposed to exploitation, physical injury,
emotional trauma and even death. This depiction may be traced back to the experience of a twelve-year-old
Charles forcibly sent to work at Warren’s Blacking due to his father’s imprisonment for debt and is reminiscent of
Blake who was also a harsh critic of child labour. Dickens’ portrait of these child labourers echoes Blake’s
depiction of the young chimney sweeps in 18th century England. It was this criticism of society which produced
reforms in child labour laws towards the end of the 19th century.
The night walker saw children sharing sleeping space under the vegetable wagons with the sharp dogs in the
Covent Garden market. These were children who after spending a day fighting for offal, diving for anything they
can steal, hiding from the constables, running around in bare feet in the cold rain finally finding a resting place in
the vegetable baskets. He compared the growth of corruption in these uncared for and ever-hunted “savages” with
the growth of corruption in civilized society. These children reminded Dickens of Rousseau’s “savages” as
industrialization and the ills of modern society had compelled these innocents to be driven primarily by their
immediate needs like food, sleep, fear of hunger, pain, and self preservation. This portrayal of children by
Dickens reinforces Rousseau’s concept of children existing in—according to Newsom in his essay, “Fictions of
Childhood”—an original, natural, even prelapsarian state and thus deserving society’s care and attention so that
their innocence can be preserved. The reader also notes that despite the harshness of their situation, the world of
these children is filled with innocence and naivety, as these “savages” seem ignorant of their rights and position
in society.
As the walk progresses towards yet another prison, the tone darkens, and his anxiety, awareness and the
emotions which he found complex and indefinable or vague, found expression in a reworking of the Gothic
element which is apparent in the very Coleridgean description of the “Dry Rot in Men”. We are reminded of the
nightmarish experience of the ancient mariner who had committed a sin against humanity and was subsequently
punished to a life-in-death experience. Just as the dreadful figure of Death makes each sailor cast one accusing
condemning look at the mariner before dropping lifelessly, one by one at his feet, the walker too noticed how the
dry rot in men consumes them hollow for indulging in corruption and committing unpardonable acts of cruelty.
For Coleridge, reverie meant a waking dream in which the mind though remaining aware relaxed its
monitoring and allowed the imagination to roam freely in a process of association. Dickens exhibits a vivid
display of just such Romantic imagination when he associates stories with people he notices at this late hour: the
criminal’s shadow in the doorway, the toll-keeper at the bridge, the dead body of a murdered man, the pudding
eater’s mother evoking memories of his own mother. The red-faced pudding eater in the coffee house at Covent
Garden Market mentioned that his mother “was a red-faced woman that liked drink, and I looked at her hard when
she laid in her coffin, and I took the complexion” (Dickens, 2000, p. 129). This grotesquely gothic association
completely puts off the night walker for whom “the pudding seemed an unwholesome pudding after that, and I
put myself in its way no more” (Dickens, 2000, p. 129).
Conclusion
The essay again takes on a very realistic and prosaic tone towards the end, when night fades away and the
first rays of the sun hit London city and the author comments that daylight hides the vice and misfortune that
night reveals. But even while doing so, it also follows the traditional structure of writings on walks by the
Romantics, where the end brings some sort of a resolution. For Dickens’ walker, it brings daylight and the
much coveted sleep: “the day came and I was tired and could sleep” (Dickens, 2000, p. 130).
24. READING DICKENS ROMANTICALLY: “NIGHT WALKS”
441
The theme, style, and structure of the essay evoke the preoccupation of a Romantic soul—for whom the
walk becomes a space for “encounter and reflection”—and the Romantic mind which is empowered by
“imaginative self definition or discovery”. As Oates (1999) said, “This haunting essay seems to hint at more than
its words reveal. No one has captured the romance of desolation, the ecstasy of near-madness, more forcibly than
Dickens” (p. 1).
References
Clark, T. (1996). Dickens through Blanchot: The nightmare fascination of a world without interiority. In J. Schad (Ed.), Dickens
refigured: Bodies, desires and other histories (p. 35). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Baudelaire, C. (2010). Baudelaire’s speech at the “Salon des curiosités Estethiques”. Retrieved from
http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Salon_de_1846_%28Curiosit%C3%A9s_esth%C3%A9tiques%29#II._.E2.80.94_Qu.E2.80.99e
st-ce_que_le_romantisme.3F
Darrin, M. M. (1998). The counter-enlightenment and the low-life of literature in pre revolutionary France. Past and Present,
159(77-112), 79.
Dickens, C. (2000). Night walks. The uncommercial traveller (pp. 122-130). Retrieved from
www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/dickens/travel.pdf
Dickens, C. (1994). Oliver twist. London: Penguin Books.
Forster, J. (1927). Life of Charles Dickens. London & Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons.
Hayter, A. (1968). Opium and the Romantic imagination. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
Higbie, R. (1998). Dickens and imagination. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Lewes, G. H. (1865). Dickens in relation to criticism. Fortnightly Review (pp. 69-70, 145-151). London: Chapman and Hall.
Retrieved from http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/1781612.html
Simon, L., & Hughes, R. (2004). Book world—Reviews—The sleep of reason—Goya. The World & I, 19(2), 210.
Lovejoy, A. O. (1948). On the discrimination of Romanticisms. The History of ideas (pp. 545-549). Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2909304
Newsom, R. (2001). Fictions of childhood. The Cambridge companion to Charles Dickens (p. 92). Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521660165.008
Oates, J. C. (1999). To invigorate literary mind, start moving literary feet. The New York Times, p. 1.
Rousseau, J. J. (1755). Discourse on the origin of inequality. London: R. and J. Dodsley.
Berlin, I., & Hardy, H. (2000). Three critics of the enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press.
Bagehot, W. (1858). The national review. New York: National Review.
Wordsworth, W., & Coleridge, S. T. (1991). The lyrical ballads (2nd ed.). R. L. Brett, & A. R. Jones, (Eds.). London: Routledge.
Wordsworth, W. (1998). Composed upon Westminster bridge. In S. Logan (Ed.), Selected poems (p. 82). London: Everyman.
25. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, ISSN 2159-5836
June 2014, Vol. 4, No. 6, 442-449
On Equity Between Human and Nature
WU Xuan
Shanghai university of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
Ontological negation advance the third kind of relationship between human and nature, “Equity Between Human
and Nature”, which different from either “Western antagonism” or “Chinese traditional integration”. Human and
Nature divided but equivalent, based on the limitation of Antagonism and Oneness Between Human and Nature,
as well as the Fact and empirical discovery of equity between human and hature”. This third point of view is
expected to bring a creative and productive separation and “a new harmony” which keeps those two different
types of the worlds mutual, respectful and equal.
Keywords: equity, antagonism, attachment, the third kind of view
Introduction
Contemporary international and intercultural codependence and conflict give rise to a set of questions that
call for reconsidering the relationship between man and nature. While “Western antagonism between human
and nature” implies human centralism that the human is superior to the nature because of its ability to separate
from the world, Chinese traditional way of thinking stood on “oneness between human and nature” considers
the human as the integral part of the nature, containing the idea that the nature is superior over the human as
Confucianism and Taoism interpret. Can we find a new third harmony to solve the questions if the two kinds of
thinking are powerless for modern and contemporary international cultural relations? Ontological negation
(WU, 2008, p. 1) is committed to the Chinese theoretically original issue. “Equity Between Human and Nature”
is one philosophical proposition of Negativism. This opinion about the relationship between human and nature,
which is different from either “Western antagonism” or “Chinese traditional integration”, remains the Chinese
harmony as well as modern individuality and Originality. Chinese modernization should be neither Western
“anthropocentrism” based on human’s superiority and aggression, nor the peaceful way of Chinese traditional
culture based on human’s dependence and attachment. How should be Chinese modernized harmony
development? This paper seeks to establish the concept of “Equity Between Man and Nature” and Chinese
modern human—nature philosophy through reinterpretation of various manifestations of reciprocity both the
cultural and the natural realms.
Limitation of Antagonism and Oneness Between Human and Nature
According to Ontological negation, on the relationship between Human and Nature, China’s modernization
WU Xuan, professor, vice-chairman of China Literature and Art Academic Society, College of Humanities, Shanghai university
of Finance And Economics.
DAVID PUBLISHING
D
26. ON EQUITY BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE 443
should be established on the fundamental proposition of “human and nature, divided, but not antagonistic”, a
Chinese theoretically innovative issue. The three reasons are as follows: (1) The Western mentality of
antagonism between human and nature gives rise to confrontations between worlds of different natures, which
contradicts Chinese culture’s idea about harmony and coexistence of the world; (2) China’s “oneness between
human and nature” can barely show the creativity of human, especially the creation of world outlook and way of
thinking，which is highly valued in modernity, so it is necessary to “divide” human and nature to tap into the
issue about human leaving the existing world on the aspect of nature, relying on its characteristics of creation;
and (3) based on the aforementioned limitation of the West and China, it is crucial to see the “limitation in
common” for China’s modern “relationship of human and nature” to obtain a innovative revelation, different
from Western and Chinese traditions, to amend the limitation.
Firstly, the Western modernity, which is established on conquering and transforming nature, is an inter-race,
inter-culture, and international confrontational relationship evolved from human’s conquering and confrontation
with nature. Huntington could only adopt “clash of civilizations” to study the “politics-culture transformation” in
today’s world, which well interpreted the nature of the relationship. From the perspectives of culture and
philosophy, this kind of clash is summarized as the “antagonism between human and nature”, with an emphasis
of the specific method of rational comprehension, subjectivity and economic development, so “antagonism
between human and nature” is a “separation of human and nature through fighting”. The “antagonism” and
“clash” originate from “this side of the lake” is superiority and conquer over “the other side of the lake”, which
also includes “beauty and ugliness”, “good and evil” and “true and false”. When it comes to politics, “antagonism
between human and nature” prompted the West to plunder resources, invade other countries and disregard
oriental culture, which have formed a negative and unperceived image for its development. “Antagonism
between human and nature” is further evolved into “human centralism”, “Europe centralism” and “Rationality
Centralism”. Consequently, “antagonism between human and nature” did deliver the remarkable development of
the modernization and world-wide impact of the West. However, merits and demerits come hand-in-hand: Due to
the limitation of natural resources, development through conquering nature will eventually jeopardize the
environment human relies on. Also, conquering nature is structurally the same as conquering other cultures, so
the world will be logicaly dominated by a single, homogenized civilization established by the West culture. In the
end, it is very likely that cultural pluralism will come to an end, killing the possibility of diversify like the nature.
In the face of such an issue, Chinese culture, without the tense religious duality, can neither adopt the “Duality
confrontation” mentality to realize modernization by neglecting its own advantages and characteristics, nor take
the pattern of Western modernization as its own and eventually leading to serious consequences. If Chinese
culture’s view of the integrated and harmonious world does not necessarily contradict modern development, and
if Chinese modernization employs a path differs from that of the capitalist West, out of China’s responsibility to
the world, as a country with its own cultural traditions, the mentality of the “confrontation”, “antagonism” and
“clash” between human and nature must be criticized and transformed in the build-up of China’s modern
philosophy. “How is it possible for non-antagonistic separation of human and nature?” Thus it arises this
theoretically innovative philosophical issue. Any mentality and concept of “Duality Antagonism” or “Duality
Confrontation” will be treated as “limitation” that deviates from Chinese culture.
27. ON EQUITY BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE444
Secondly, it seems to be widely acknowledged that “oneness of human and nature” is the main theme of
China’s philosophy. Although Xunzi from China1
used to say “to know the different roles god and human play”,
Pythagorean scholars have also derived from the harmony of music “the harmony of cosmic order”,2
and
Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud (2010) also explained the bond between human and nature, since
“oneness of human and nature” was proposed by “great people act in accordance with the nature” (p. 78) in
Commentary on the Book of Changes (1993, p. 78), the dependence on Confucius ethics and Daoism was
interpreted as the “oneness of human and nature” through the authority of “the way of heaven” and further
evolved into the dependency on others and community. The conversion to a simple existence advocated by
Taoism was followed, and thus it came the mentality of Crossing-Saints and Obeying-Classics, and the
development and innovation view of “change the technique while maintain the philosophy”, have indeed become
the culture constructed by the lack of consciousness of Chinese scholars and civilians. The upside of “oneness of
human and nature” lies in the ethical harmony of standing aloof of worldly strife, the universal harmony of
brothers within four seas, and “vitality of changing” which conveys significant world outlook and ethics, and
could also be reinterpreted given different circumstances, is just the reason for Chinese culture’s “continuous
vitality”. The downside of “oneness of human and nature” is that it masks the vitality and creativity of human,
and leads to cultural issues of “innovations at low level”: “depression of the continuous expansion of life’s
desire”, “independent will strained and weakened by survival instinct”, “innovative theories overshadowed by
theoretical interpretation”, “world outlook innovation outshone by technological innovation”, and “concept of
one civilization incorporated and scattered by that of another civilization”, which have become the fundamental
obstacle for China to establish its own modern main theoretical image. If we say China’s modern culture has not
distinguished itself from traditional Chinese culture, China’s social science can hardly establish its own theory
subjectivity because it relies on Western philosophy and principals, and China’s universities were deemed by Mr.
QIAN (2010) to be uncreative universities which “only say what have been said, and dare not say what hasn’t
been said” (p. 113), that “innovation” and “combination” proposed by “oneness of human and nature” can hardly
reach the “innovation” on principles and way of thinking. To follow development of Western mentality and
principles with the low-level innovation of coping with changes (understanding and interpretation of Tao) by
sticking to a fundamental principle (Tao, concept) that will definitely lead to dilemma of the opening ceremony of
the Olympic Games in 2008, where we had nothing to show about China’s modern cultural products but our
ancient arts. In the face of such a dilemma, earning China’s modern culture, the respect of the world by enhancing
“innovation” on world outlook, nature and structure of cultural product will naturally give rise to the mentality of
“separation of human and world”. Innovation is only possible when “separated from reality” on world outlook
and way of thinking. Therefore, the “limitation” of traditional “oneness of human and nature” on “masking the
originality and creativity of human” must become a theoretical issue that needs to be seriously taken and tackled
for the theory construction of China’s modern “human & nature” relation.
1
In his discussion on heaven, Xunzi proposed “knowing the different roles god and human plan”, with an emphasis on different
roles and authorities of “human” and “God”. When commenting The Book of Rites (2006), Zhen Xuan wrote “distinction is also a
kind of resposibility”, which also implies “property distinction” for modern people.
2
In his On the Heavens, Vol. 2, Chapter 13, Aristotle mentioned the Pythagorean theory. “Harmony of Cosmic Orders” proposes
that celestial bodies with different sizes, velocities and distances give different tones, which forms a harmony that resembles
music.
28. ON EQUITY BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE 445
Form the above, while “Western antagonism between human and nature” implies human centralism that
the human is superior to the nature because of its ability to separate from the world, Chinese traditional way of
thinking stood on “oneness between human and nature” considers the human as the integral part of the nature,
containing the idea that the nature is superior over the human as Confucianism and Taoism interpret. Therefore,
Chinese modern human-nature philosophy has to be aware of the surface problem both human centralism based
on “Western antagonism” and human attaching themselves to the nature, sage, classics, tradition, nation, groups
etc. based on “Eastern oneness”, and also has to see the limitation of “inequality” in both of them. The entire
Western civilization through the different and creative comprehension of “the other side” being opposited to
“this shore” of the Bible, is ancient “church first”, modern “reason first” and contemporary “life first”, which is
described as a schema of historical progress. In this schema, people really feel modernization being superior to
the traditional life, and justify “unequal” rational thinking and subjectivity theory of “human surpassing,
dominating and transforming the nature”. On the contrary, the evolution and development of Chinese
civilization may be described as the superiority of the tradition culture, as well as the concept of the generation
is worse than the last generation, which is described as the style in LU Xun’s novel The Storm. This style
strengthen unequal consciousness of human depending on the nature and the tradition through the perception
about the Chinese literature and art not brilliant as the ancient literature and art. So, not only should we
emphasize the subjectivity and individuality as the Western culture does, but also we should emphasize that
people coordinate with the nature, the morality, the tradition and the group to reach harmony, which is the basic
thinking mood of modernized Chinese culture. However, the whole problem of Chinese modernization can not
be simply expressed as both the Western developing style and the tradition Chinese harmony. Because in this
way, we can not grasp the essence of how to develop and how to reach harmony, and not break the developing
view of the Western and the Chinese thinking mood of harmony. For example, if we emphasize the
modernization leading by the country’s economy and personal profits, it would cause the green issue of
globally ecological crisis because it is hard to pause or end the economic development and the personal profits.
It is a good example that the developed countries evade on the problem of carbon reduction in 2009
Copenhagen international ecological summit. This so-called economy development will clash the harmony of
Chinese tradition if personal benefit is prior to group benefit, or countries’ benefit is prior to the survival of the
globe, or human rationalism is prior to sensibility of life. That is to say, to give expression to the harmony of
Chinese tradition, it’s necessary to lower down the economic development, suspension subjectivity, the concept
of individual priority as the prerequisite. If we do that, not only will the economy develop unstable and
non-sustainable, and also we can not inspire the creativity, the fatal weakness of Chinese culture modernization.
In other words, if Chinese modernization is neither Western “anthropocentrism” as coordinately based on
human’s superiority and aggression, nor the harmonious way of Chinese traditional culture, keeping peaceful
between human and nature, individual and group. The key point is how to be modernized harmony rather than
how to be Chinese modern development. As a result, the theoretical innovation of Chinese modern
“human-nature relationship” should mainly criticize “unequal in common” whether “antagonism” or “oneness”.
That is, on the one hand, “nature” and “human” should be thought about “separately” in order to ensure and
respect the creativity of human beings. On the other hand, as the eight diagrams in The Book of Changes
focused, there is the fact that “asymmetric”, “structural changes”, and “harmony” are the essence of Chinese
29. ON EQUITY BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE446
culture. Therefore, we have to or we are able to grasp “nature and human in separation” and also put and keep
them in a state of “Symmetry harmony”. “The equity” may be “the third kind of relationship between human
and nature”. It is expected to bring a creative and productive separation and “a new harmony” which keep those
two different types of the worlds mutual, respectful and equal. It is different from either “Western antagonism”
or “Chinese traditional integration”. This notion will have a great influence on “the value of Western creation
and development grounded on inequality”, and will be able to change it gradually to the modern and
harmonious cultural affect stood on the equity. It also will be beneficial for the modern Chinese people to
release their vitality and creativity on the basis of “respect and equality”, which is the eastern attitude towards
the world, and to shape the figure of the contemporary Chinese culture and modern Chinese people, which is
calm, gentle, powerful, and respectful.
The Fact and Empirical Discovery of “Equity Between Human and Nature”
This is to say, if theory innovation views the world with the “common limitation” of “human and nature,
divided, but not equivalent” from China and the West, then our discovery of the world shall be able to make up
for this limitation and become “special fact and experience”. Or, whether or not we can discover the “fact” or
“experience” of “human and nature, divided and equivalent” will become the key of proving that “equity of
human and nature” is not merely a theoretical hypothesis. This kind of “fact” and “experience” could be
investigated on the following three aspects:
(1) View the issue of world peace from the perspective of existentialism basis of “human and nature, divided
and equivalent”. In physics, positive charges and negative charges, N pole and S pole, gasification and liquidation
are all symmetric structures. The stress and stability of these symmetric structures could also be demonstrated by
“peaceful coexistence of the strong” in the animal world, like the case with lions, tigers and elephants. Under
normal circumstances, inequality only exists between the “strong” and the “weak”, there is a smaller chance of
confrontation because of the “balance of power”. International relationship is derived from the political unit of
“nation”, and the coordination and confrontation of interests between different countries is the most important
international issue after the Cold War. However, in retrospect, the stability among nations was not due to the
temporary stability of many small countries ruled by one superpower or voluntarily rely on one superpower, it
was, due to the restriction from the “balance”of power and military among nations, to be specific, the “balance of
power” formed by “equity” among major powers, the relationship of mutual deterrence and respect. The fact that
a third world war did not break out in the 65 years after 1945 is mainly because of the confrontation and balance
between powers. On the other hand, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are live proof of the fact that the power gap
between nations is a main cause for war, just like in the 30s, Germany started the war because it thought itself to
be the most powerful country in Europe before World War II. “Balance of power”, which forms among
independent powers like US, China, Russia, and Japan, leads to confrontational peace, which could be explained
neither by asymmetric confrontation derived from“antagonism between human and nature”, nor by dependent
stability derived from “oneness of human and nature”. It is the empirical fact of the implementation of political
equity, which in nature coincides with China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
(2) From the perspective of “human and nature, divided and equivalent”, we could draw experience and
inspiration from the relationship among different cultures: between The Book of Changes and Bible, neither one
30. ON EQUITY BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE 447
is better than the other, because the two cultural classics respectively represent the understanding of world of two
different cultures. As cultural classic is itself innovated by human, it will not only exert a profound impact on its
own culture, but also significantly affect the development of world history—The Book of Changes used to and
still is affecting the cultures of eastern countries, while Bible has affected the whole Christian world and gave rise
to the ancient and modern civilization of the West. This is the proof of the impact of Western and Eastern
civilizations. Although Chinese culture has been on the decline since late Qing Dynasty, we cannot therefore
draw the conclusion that the Bible is superior over The Book of Changes, because Confucius and Taoism did not
put too much emphasis on the invocative experience that connects Chinese culture and modernity, the innovative
experience of SU Shi, CAO Xue-qin and LU Xun, which we call as “literature Penetrating Tao”3
(WU, 2010,
p. 111) is not inspired differently from “literature carrying Tao” and “Destiny Theory” in modern Chinese
literature theory, thus “Obeying-Classics” and “Carrying-Tao” dominate Chinese culture and lead to its lack of
major creation of modern principles and world outlook. If “literature penetrating Tao” could become the
counterpart of “literature carrying Tao”, China’s modern culture will not only have its own product that differs
from the philosophies of Confucius and Taoism, A Dream of Red Mansions and ancient arts, but also exert an
eastern impact on world modern history on the basic aspects on modern culture, including “individuals”,
“vitality”, and “creativity”. The “equal influence”of eastern civilization and Western civilization will not only be
a historic concept, but also a reality concept. It is the same case with the cultures of the seven great religions, the
Christian culture cannot be viewed as superior because the comprehensive creativity which generates culture is
not well positioned in its own culture, and thus does not facilitate the modern creative development of indigenous
culture. In fact, with integral experience, China has paved a way of affecting the world by economic development,
on culture, if we could affect the world by mild and powerful culture of the east, which differs from the
conquering culture of the West, such a change will make it more feasible for the “equity” between Chinese
culture and Western culture, and also challenge the “combination of Yin and Yang” “Complementary Chinese
and Western cultures ” and “one’s luck and destiny will change over time” from the “Cultural Centralism”
mentality.
From the relationship between human and nature, “human and nature, divided and equivalent” could explain
the crisis in our environment and solution does not come at the price of human development. “Green revolution”
is becoming an increasingly important ecological issue around the globe, which at first glance is the result of
seeking modern development at the cause of our environment in the West, while in nature, it derives cultures and
of the West and east that features human centralism. Xunzi (2006b) considered that:
Fire and water possess a spirit but no life, grass and trees possess a life but no sensitivity, birds and animals possess
sensitivity but no sense of morality, only humans possess spirit, life, awareness, as well as the sense of morality, hence
the noblest beings in the world”, which is an example of human’s superior philosophy. Our cultural innovations are
physical evidence of “human superior to animals. (pp. 275-276)
But it also masks another kind of “special fact”: When we are talking about the immoral animals and
insensitive grass and trees, we are judging them from a human perspective of “morality” and “sensitivity”, not
from the perspective of animals, with the difference between animals and human in mind. The natural, organic,
3
“Literature Penetrating Tao” is a unique and non-conceptual literature creation that respects and transforms conceptual Tao.
