The Music School Essay Research Paper I — страница 2

our own actions. We create our own human nature through the free choices that we have. Time, a very important term is used to describe the relative nature of human experience. Bergson states that time is heterogeneous, always in motion, fluid, ever shifting, and things in it are indistinguishable. Space, conversely, is homogeneous, still, measurable. Time, furthermore, cannot be characterized by separate moments–to do this, as some have attempted, is to measure what is indistinguishable and to replace time by space. With a touch of his brush, Updike highlights certain brushstrokes which conveys the meaning of the story in a more clear and concise way. We are all pilgrims, faltering towards divorce. Some get no further than mutual confession, which becomes an addiction, and

exhausts them. Some move on, into violent quarrels and physical blows; and succumb to sexual excitement. This statement briefly states how he has lived his life. He has been a failure since the beginning. He never pursued his music lessons because he was afraid to fail — so he would rather watch his daughter take music lessons. He is vicarious — never once trying to experience life, but rather experience it from someone else. Take the computer programmer that died, for instance — he has accomplished many things in life, including being successful, and yet the narrator grieves for his death. He is unable to cope with his murder. Each moment I live, I must think where to place my finger, and press them down with no confidence of hearing a chord. More importantly, he lacks a

core of values and beliefs to order his own life and creative impulses. He struggles to find a focus in life. The uncertainty of the narrator leads him to a life filled with meaningless purposes. He cannot continue with his life, to some extent, a “coda” must be put, or should I say urged, in order for his life to gain some kind of meaning. The “grace notes” of his life reveals vivid images of society, religions, and social changes. From the Eucharistic wafer to the murder of the computer programmer, he tries to view a perspective of life that might bring meaning to him, yet, he cannot comprehend how these meanings developed. His image of the world, a true existentialist belief — that “life with its little joys, griefs, triumphs, and tragedies, is a very brief

interlude between two vast abysses of nothingness.” And in the grace note, of the two backward steps and then again the forward movement, a coda seems to be urged. “Technique is vision–Von Ghent.” Updike uses the illogical metaphors to further emphasize that the narrator is a confused man. Alfred is tackling a very rocky relationship with his wife and at the same time trying to live his life through others. For example, his daughter is learning how to play the piano. When Alfred was a child, he wanted to learn how to play the piano and read music, but he was frightened of the outcome. As he watches his daughter hit the ivory, he feels like he is the one doing the playing. The same situation applies to the murder of his friend, a computer expert. He is unable to cope with

his murder because he though about the many things he has done, including success, and that wasting all that was just a waste of effort. He is confused about his life. “Our aim as poets is not representation but presentation–Marianne Moore.” The illogical connections of metaphors in The Music School add deeper meanings in the story. It reveals, in a vague manner, the significance of the narrator’s thoughts and how he relates to life as a whole. His perceptions in life are then conveyed to the whole story itself — which in turn helps us prepare for the last two paragraphs. The last two paragraphs connect all of the metaphors together to form the many different meanings and purposes of the story. Also, the last two paragraphs clarify Updike’s style of conveying the

meaning of the story–through a confused man’s perspective. He is unable to commit to something–always afraid of what might happen in the future. Vision, timidly, becomes percussion, percussion becomes music, music becomes emotions, emotions becomes–vision. Few of us have the heart to follow the circle to its end.