The Metaphor of Insignificance
Insignificance is not just a thing to be celebrated with a festival, it is the controlling metaphor which drives the narrative. It is truly significant that to understand that insignificance is forwarded as a tangible property; an abstraction which has leapt into the world in a visceral way. In other words, understanding the following is of supreme importance:
“But it is not only a matter of acknowledging it, we must love insignificance, we must learn to love it. Right here, in this park, before us—look, my friend, it is present here in all its obviousness, all its innocence, in all its beauty.”
Life, It’s a Shame
To suggest that the philosophical center of this novel is a festival of upbeat optimism is to draw the story into conflict and propose debate. One can well take the immediately obvious interpretation that it is a story of dark depression. But that is mere conjecture; a deeper dig might lead to an alternative conclusion:
“Life is a struggle of everyone against everyone. This is well known, but how is this conflict manifested in such a civilized society? People cannot attack each other when they meet. Instead, they try to shame others of guilt. Whoever succeeds in making the other guilty will win. And whoever admits his mistake will lose.”
Death, It’s a Sham
This tendency to view the novel as an exercise in nihilistic rejection of the fundamental positivity of existence is belied through metaphor again and again. One of the most explicit rejections of a dark perception of its philosophical foundation is made manifest by comparing the relative virtue of life and death:
“Life is stronger than death, because life is nourished by death!”
Like Forest Gump, but Not
Like the opening scene from Forest Gump, a character become captivated by the sight of a single white feather floating upon the currents of the air. Unlike the simplistic Forest, however, the sight of the feather inspires a rhapsodical outpouring out of metaphorical imagery:
“It struck him that the angel he had thought about these past weeks was alerting him that it was already somewhere here, very nearby. Perhaps, frightened, before it was to be flung out of heaven it had let loose from its wing this tiny barely visible feather, like a wisp of its anxiety, like a memory of the happy life it had shared with the stars, like a calling card mean to explain its arrival and declare the approaching end.”
The Dark Side
On the other hand, maybe the philosophical foundation of the narrative is as dark as it seems. Ultimate, La Franck is a character that certain expresses a pretty dark view toward the basic assumption of humanity. Note, however, that upon hearing La Franck express that philosophical position, Ramon is moved to a dismissive smile of amusement:
“Human existence is nothing but solitude…A solitude surrounded by other solitudes.”
