{"id":67836,"date":"2018-05-10T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=67836"},"modified":"2018-05-21T13:54:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T20:54:24","slug":"the-great-divorce-c2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2018\/05\/10\/the-great-divorce-c2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Divorce: Chapter 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-67834\" src=\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bus-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"860\" height=\"347\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><b>Tousle-Headed Poet<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> explains that his parents never appreciated him. The schools he attended, the education system in general and capitalism all failed to recognize his genius. During the War, he was a conscientious objector and moved to America. After money troubles and poor treatment by a girl, he jumped under a train. He is convinced that, while all the others would return, he would stay at their destination and finally receive the recognition he deserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A fight breaks out in the bus. Nobody is hurt, but when it is over, our protagonist finds himself at a different seat with a new companion, an <\/span><b>Intelligent Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with a large nose and bowler hat. His new companion explains to him why the town seems so empty, that everyone there is so quarrelsome that they keep moving further and further away from each other. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some residents of the town are identified: Tamberlaine, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Henry the Fifth and Nepoleon. Some had gone to visit <\/span><b>Napoleon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a journey which took fifteen thousand years. They found a huge house in the middle of nowhere with Napoleon <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWalking up and down-up and down\u2026 never stopping for a moment\u2026muttering to himself all the time. \u2018It was Soult\u2019s fault. It was Ney\u2019s fault. It was Josephine\u2019s fault&#8230;\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this point, the <\/span><b>Intelligent Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shares his plan. He says <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cthere\u2019s no proper economic basis for any community life. If they needed real shops, chaps would have to stay near where the real shops were\u2026 It\u2019s scarcity that enables a society to exist\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His solution is to <\/span><\/i><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201ccome back with some real commodities\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">which he could sell, forcing people to live nearby. This would also provide \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201csafety in numbers\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, particularly when the dusk eventually turns to night&#8230; The <\/span><b>Big Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the others tell the <\/span><b>Intelligent Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to shut up, under threat of violence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A nearby passenger, <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cA <\/span><\/i><b><i>fat clean-shaven man<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, tells Lewis that <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cthere is not a shred of evidence that this twilight is ever going to turn into a night. There has been a revolution of opinion on that in educated circles\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, arguing instead that it is a precursor to the dawn. He rejects the <\/span><b>Intelligent Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cearth-bound\u201d<\/span><\/i> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">desire for<\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201creal commodities\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The greyness outside begins to subside and the bus is fulfilled with light. Our protagonist goes to open the window, but it is forcefully shut by the<\/span><b> Intelligent Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The <\/span><b>Big Man<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> encourages him to hit Lewis. The cruel light reveals the <\/span><span style=\"color: #000080\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cdistorted and faded\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> faces. Then Lewis then sees his own reflection in a mirror\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Questions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Q1. What is the sin of the tousle-haired poet? What is he expecting to find in Heaven?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Q2. According to the Intelligent Ghost, why does The Grey Town seem so empty?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Q3. What solution does the Intelligent Ghost present?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Q4. What spiritual lesson can you draw from the way houses are constructed in The Grey Town and their poor function?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Q5. How would you describe the outlook of the <span style=\"color: #000080\">&#8220;fat clean-shaven man&#8221;<\/span>?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Q6. What does the light reveal?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2018\/05\/06\/the-great-divorce-c1\/\">Previous Chapter<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2018\/05\/09\/the-great-divorce-notes\/\">Index<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2018\/05\/12\/the-great-divorce-c3\/\">Next Chapter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary The Tousle-Headed Poet explains that his parents never appreciated him. The schools he attended, the education system in general and capitalism all failed to recognize his genius. During the War, he was a conscientious objector and moved to America. After money troubles and poor treatment by a girl, he jumped under a train. He is convinced that, while all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2969,4848,4852],"class_list":["post-67836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-the-great-divorce","tag-the-great-divorce-series"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67836"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68063,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67836\/revisions\/68063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}