Good Ol’ Grimey
The metaphor most closely associated with this novel has to be, almost beyond all question, that which is repeated many times as almost an expression of existential philosophy by a character named Grimes. Captain Grimes has many problems including being a closeted homosexual, being drawn into a phony marriage and getting himself involved in a prostitution ring. Grimes gets into trouble, often and in a multitude of ways and he’s a very special term for this characteristic of his:
“I’m waiting till I land in the soup again. Then I shall play that as my last cared. I generally get into the soup sooner or later.”
Speaking of Philosophy
Prof. Otto Silenus makes a metaphor of his philosophy of life out of an amusement park ride that is basically constructed to reward the last person standing. It sounds like a really great attraction that should be brought back for the modern-day park:
“Life is like the big wheel at Luna Park. You pay five francs and go into a room with tiers of seats all around, and in the centre the floor is made of a great disc of polished wood that revolves quickly. At first you sit down and watch the others. They are all trying to sit in the wheel, and they keep getting flung off, and that makes them laugh too. It's great fun.”
Prof. Silenus, Again
Silenus is really the voice of the book’s philosophical views. Perhaps because his general view toward the entire human species is dismissive. Only be separating oneself from the herd around them does the tendency to philosophize become ingrained. Otherwise, one is simply too busy in pursuit of the trivial to see the larger picture:
“Why can’t creatures stay in one place? Up and down, in and out, round and round! Why can’t they still and work? Do dynamos require staircases? Do monkeys require houses? What an immature, self-destructive, antiquated mischief is man!”
Where it All Goes Wrong
This is a story about a basically decent young man named Paul Pennyfeather and his downfall. And the story begins at the site where all it all goes wrong. What is even more amazing than the fact that it goes down wrong for Paul for really no fault of his own is where in the entire world a singular incident take place capable of ruining a man’s entire future and, more telling, the circumstances in that place at that time:
“In darkness the two dons crept to the window. The quad below was a kaleidoscope of dimly discernable faces.”
That's Grimes, Not Grimey
Grimes finds himself in the soup and for all the world knows, sinks down and disappears. Paul Pennyfeather is not so convinced, however, because by the novel’s end Grimes has transformed from mere problem-child into pure metaphor:
“Grimes, Paul at last realized, was of the immortals. He was a life force.”
