The Green caldron - University Library

May, 1962 3
IT
The Search
Eloise Johnson
Rhetoric 101, Final Examination
IS POSSIBLE, IN THE MAGIC AND ENCHANTMENT OF
entering into a novel, poem or even a description of an ideal state, to
believe wholeheartedly, for the space of time it takes to read, in the
author's view of the real or good for man. Yet it is only with later con-
templation and compassion, with other reading that we can extract the full
impact.
Plato, in The Republic, Flaubert, in Madame Bovary, and Dostoevsky,
in Crime and Punishment, present both similar and contrasting opinions on
what is real or good for man. Similarly, they agree that reaching the ideal
reality is not an easy matter, but their notions of man's potentiality or likeli-
hood of achieving this reality contrast sharply with one another. Their
views of man's life here on earth are all somewhat pessimistic, but for
different reasons. As for man himself, they agree that only a few ever
reach the ideal reality as seen from their three points of view.
Man's nature, according to Plato, is dependent upon heredity and en-
vironment. If man is born with gold in his composition, he is capable of
being molded by environment into a nature receptive to a vision of the Good,
or the highest knowledge man can attain. Plato would classify men by their
display of intelligence first. Those who display signs of cleverness in youth
would be singled out for special education. The next in intelligence would
receive training in trades. Plato's strict order in classifying man exemplifies
his belief that if life could be so ordered, then justice, or his ideal Good,
would rule. He never says that the attainment of this state is an easy task.
On the contrary, his educational program would continue until his philos-
opher, his ideal man, reached a vision of the Good at about age 50. This
Good, or ideal condition of man, he conceived as wisdom or knowledge ruling
the spirit and appetites. Man himself, by trials and by endurance, or by
submitting to the order or ruling power in the state, can come to this order
in the soul, defined as justice, only by "working for it like a slave."
Flaubert seems to feel pessimistic about man, about his life here on
earth and about his eventual achievement of anything at all. In Madame
Bovary his pessimism is shown by the mediocrity he gives his characters'
personalities and by the dullness of their environment. Flaubert seems to
be saying, in Emma's case, "Seek as foolishly and incessantly as you will,
you will never find that which you so frantically desire." He makes her
run after nothing, like a dog chasing a mechanized rabbit in a race, only
to have it snatched away at the finish line to be oiled and cleaned for the
next race. Flaubert also seems to be saying that, foolish as Emma is, she