The Egoist By Pablo Neruda Summary - 1293 Words

Written Assignment: The Hallucinatory Self in â€Å"The Egoist† by Pablo Neruda Philosophers as ancient as Plato and Socrates have pondered the soul for millennia. After all, every person appears to possess an unchanging self. Why else would languages universally utilize the pronouns, â€Å"I† and, â€Å"you?† However, conversely, other theorists such as David Hume and Buddha, inquiring what one can truly classify as their persona, have considered the self an illusion. From their perspective, though humans naturally experience the soul, it does not actually exist. Pablo Neruda espouses a similar view in his poem,â€Å"The Egoist,† written in 1973 as a part of Neruda’s posthumous collection Winter Garden. Throughout the work, Neruda contrasts the concept of†¦show more content†¦Notwithstanding the regular view of shadowy vacancy dominating the persona’s luminous phantom as terrifying, Neruda unconventionally suggests, â€Å"itâ€⠄¢s an hour / when no one should arrive† (5-6). Hence, he characterizes the self as an unnatural threat, which upholds repressive illusions like separateness and death, rather than a necessity. Neruda solidifies this interpretation in the next stanza by once again elucidating nature’s harmony, noting, â€Å"This is the hour / of fallen leaves†¦ when / ...they rise up to know the spring† (14-16, 21). Through mentioning â€Å"the hour of fallen leaves,† Neruda employs autumn and winter as seasonal symbols to delineate individuality as perpetuating humanity’s woes. People see time’s passage and human demise as horrific because they confirm the soul’s evanescence. Yet, as Neruda reveals, because the leaves understand their nature, they see every hour, birth or decay, holistically. Moreover, Neruda’s visual imagery within these lines typifies how, without the leaves’ willingness to die in winter, they could not resurrect for the glorious spring. Because the leaves welcome their dependent origination and impermanence, they have no existential fears. Nevertheless, as prey to the ego’s trap, the Egoist remains ensnared by its enslaving powers, and cannot shatter his delusions to attain a similar tranquility. Stuck in the soul’s alluring ruse, the Egoist at first ignores actuality. Only upon harmonizing with