The end

            Today in class I was quite frustrated. Although I was relieved that we finally finished the book, the conversation of dark thoughts came up. It may be valid, and I have no trouble understanding it, but I do not think it ever gets that extreme. There are thought you suppress as a human. It is human nature. But we suppress these ideas because society tells us that we must. If we were cavemen for example, there would be nothing holding us back. No wall. This is what is scary. Now society and its norms are the walls. I am also a very up front and verbal person. If I have a problem I will say it. I think this results in less of those thoughts that I must suppress versus someone who is rather shy and bottles everything up. When things get complicated and frustrating, everything bottled up just blows up. These are not necessarily suppressed thoughts, and they were definitely not in our subconscious.

            Apart from that, I really thought it was worth reading this book. The analysis is the only reason that I understood and although it was a long process, I enjoyed it for the most part. There were some times that I got annoyed with the thoughts that the book was demonstrating, such as religion. This bothered me because there must be faith and the religious quality was ridiculed. This is something that some people truly believe and they do not want to hear something like that. Do we necessarily know it is true? No, Nothing is absolute. That is something that I learned quite well with this novel. The infinite is scary, and I learned also about human nature. There are some contradictions that frustrated me though. He is telling us to accept the answer that there are no answers. This novel really made me stop and think, as well as change the way I view different situations. I can also relate it very closely with my term paper bog book, Zen an the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. There are many similar themes and philosophies. For example, the journey versus the destination conflict is a recurring theme in both novels. I really like the novel for the most part and was able to take in what it has to say. This helped me broaden and define my ideas and beliefs. Thank you.