Skip to main content

Read "The Man Who Turned Into a Stick" by Abe Kobo. What existential issues does this story raise?

The word "existential" refers to anything that concerns, relates to, or affirms existence.  This entire text addresses the nature of human existence, namely, the fact that human beings are inherently complacent and fundamentally disposed to stop striving once they feel "satisfied".  Essentially, most of us become metaphorical "sticks" during our lives: as the Man from Hell says, "In short, the stick is the root and source of all tools."  The majority of us -- "98.4 percent" to be precise -- are, at best, tools in the hands of others.  We are used, made to perform in some capacity, scuffed up and scarred by our experiences, sometimes "suffer[ing] rather harsh treatment" that impacts what kind of literal stick we become when we die.  Those 98 out of every 100 of us who become sticks have no "aims," just like the Hippie Girl and Boy; she explains, "Aims are out-of-date."  Our lack of personal goals, our satisfaction with enough, leads to our complacency, and so, when we die, "a living stick [turns] into a dead stick [...]."


Given that this fate awaits some 98% of us, the text suggests that we all possess a predictably human propensity to avoid risk and to fail to take chances that might make our existence more extraordinary or even interesting.  We are neither good enough to have earned a reward (if such a thing exists in the text's world) or bad enough to warrant punishment.  The man who has turned into a stick in the story is simply abandoned in the end, of no note.  The Woman from Hell suggests that they give the stick to the little boy, saying, "At least it ought to serve as a kind of mirror.  He can examine himself and make sure he won't become a stick like his father."  The Man, her supervisor from Hell, laughs in her face and asks why "anyone who's satisfied with himself would do that?"  He explains that the man turned into a stick precisely because he was "satisfied."  This doesn't mean that the man was always happy, that he never wished for anything to be different, it's just that he, apparently, never really made an effort to change what displeased him.  And so he became a stick, just like his son will likely someday do.


Just like we all, or the vast majority of us, will do.  In the final lines of the text, the Man and Woman from Hell speak directly to us; the Man says, "Look -- there's a whole forest of sticks around you.  All those innocent people, each one determined to turn into a stick slightly different from everybody else, but nobody once thinking of turning into anything besides a stick."  The Woman affirms this: our acquiescence to satisfaction is simply a part of our nature, our existence as human beings, or rather sticks.  "You're not alone," she says, "You've lots of friends . . . men who turned into sticks."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more