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Michael Shaffer
English 10 Honors
Mr.Bierowicz
31 January 2013
Quote #3
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become
a monster. And if you gaze
long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you-
Friedrich Nietzsche
The meaning of this interesting quote by a famous
existentialist, is that even if you are
fighting something so evil that you would have to bring yourself
to their level in order to defeat
or overcome them, dont become the person you sought out in the
first place. This situation tends
to repeat itself in history often, with such things as dictator,
generals, or even bullies. In another
way it could be explained, is if a child is growing up in a
country during a war and eventually the
war ends he may be angry and grow up as a leader would destroy
the other country and thus
becoming the monster he had meant to destroy and possibly repeat
the process. The abyss that
was spoken of in the quote, that if you put yourself in a
situation long enough or think long
enough about something, it will stare back into you, or reflect
your actions back to you. This is
similar to daydreaming for people because they stare into
nothing in full thought, or the abyss,
and this abyss stares back at you and is actually your own
opinion of whatever you are
thinking about. It is sometimes difficult to come out of the
abyss if you very deep inside so
you never or cant find your way out of it.
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InAnthem, the leaders of the post-apocalyptic society could be a
good example of
becoming monsters themselves. When they formed their perfect
society they got rid of the
history books and anything else that held the ideas of anything
bad that happened in the world
before their civilization was formed. This action could be
interpreted as a form of propaganda
which dictators and other evil leaders use to rid history of
their horrible deeds. The society
become somewhat bad for the bad people that lived in it, but the
leaders were still in fine living
compared to everyone else like dictators of history. Like the
quote states, the leaders had become
monsters themselves in an attempt to rid the world of them.
If you stare inside the abyss for far too long you may end up
like the character Meursault,
in The Stranger, because thinking too much about a situation may
make you depressed or even
almost emotionless if you think too much about life itself.
Meursault stared into the abyss or was
raised as a lonely child which gave him the opportunity to think
to himself, and he thought about
the sad facts of life which probably made him depressed so he
doesnt really care for much in life
anymore. An example of this is the first paragraph of the book,
when he first acknowledges his
mothers death, its almost like he cares more about figuring out
what day he got the message of
the death then the sadness that he should normally be feeling
and fist shows his personality right
off the bat. When Marie asked if he wanted to marry her, he said
yes, but thought nothing of the
emotional parts of it and he only cared for the physical aspects
of the marriage. Marie asked what
he would say if it was another woman and he said he would most
likely answer yes, this shows
his outlook on the emotional parts of life because he doesnt
really care. The final example
involving Marie is when she asked if Meursault loved her, he
replied by saying that it didnt
matter ifhe loved her. This is a prime example of Meursaults I
Dont Care outlook on life and
the effects staring into the abyss may have on someone.
