Previous
Phaedrus
Chris is the oldest son of the narrator/Phaedrus. He is eleven years old when he accompanies the narrator on the transcontinental motorcycle trip that forms the bulk of the storyline. Chris frequently complains of psychosomatic stomachaches, and the narrator fears that his son may inherit his mental illness. The narrator’s fractured relationship with Chris is a primary impetus in the narrator’s quest to reconcile his identity with Phaedrus’s. The novel’s afterword reveals that Chris was murdered by muggers just before his 23rd birthday.
Chris Pirsig Quotes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance quotes below are all either spoken by Chris Pirsig or refer to Chris Pirsig. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 31
Quotes
I can imitate the father he’s supposed to have, but subconsciously, at the Quality level, he sees through it and knows his real father isn’t here. In all this Chautauqua talk there’s been more than a touch of hypocrisy. Advice is given again and again to eliminate subject-object duality, when the biggest duality of all, the duality between me and him, remains unfaced. A mind divided against itself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Zen and the Art of... LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chris Pirsig Quotes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance quotes below are all either spoken by Chris Pirsig or refer to Chris Pirsig. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 31
Quotes
I can imitate the father he’s supposed to have, but subconsciously, at the Quality level, he sees through it and knows his real father isn’t here. In all this Chautauqua talk there’s been more than a touch of hypocrisy. Advice is given again and again to eliminate subject-object duality, when the biggest duality of all, the duality between me and him, remains unfaced. A mind divided against itself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
