Slaughterhouse--Five

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

One of the most striking characteristics of this novel is how it opens with the description of the ending of the novel. By saying early on, "It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet?" Vonnegut is quick to establish a sense of inevitability in the novel. This concept of inevitable war, death and massacre makes me question if originality really matters in this novel. If the most horrific events in human history are going to occur regardless of human action, then what value can an original thought really hold?

What is the purpose of innovation and creativity if it will never put a scuff or roadblock on the predestined timeline of the world? If creativity cannot change lives, then what is its purpose? It holds true in my mind, that it must only be there for the less imperative, though equally appreciated, aspects of our persona. We create and chase after these original thoughts because we can. Because there is always a place for joy in life. If one is to believe that the events of their life are out of their control, then what is stopping them from being the most free and creative person they could imagine?

Perhaps this thought process of predestination and inevitability is really just trying to say that life is all set out, the world will be how the world will be, and sadly you have no place to change that. Endure, create and appreciate and perhaps you will be able to avoid pain.

Beloved

Beloved
by Toni Morrison

This novel is unique in the context of my open question because the most influential, active and entirely present character of Beloved doesn't actually exist. Beloved exists, effectively, in the minds of the rest of the characters. This conjures a string of questions about not only the mental stability of Sethe, Denver and Paul D, but mostly about the originality of a mind that creates characters out of itself.

On one hand, the character that is being created is effectively nonexistent, so must be the most original of all thoughts. But that just doesn't seem to really be the case here. Beloved is the girl formed by the painful memories from Sethe's past and the confusion of the Denver's precarious situation. She never has the chance to be a true individual because she never was a true individual. Beloved is a spirit embodying angst in the lives of her living family; Beloved is a spirit in the body of the girl she never got to become.

Simply becuase something is false doesnt mean that it is original. In fact, and this seems to be the case with Beloved, she is more real than anyone else in the novel because she is made of all the unseen secrets of the other lives. She revels what is kept trapped inside. She may be false, she may even be a figment of imagination, but Beloved is not original. Beloved is true.

The Stranger

The Stranger
by Albert Camus

This novel was a shocking look at the simplicity of the human mind, but I was not initially sure as to how it pertained to my big question. How, I mulled over, does a story about only being concerned with the present events in one's life while paying no attention to surroundings or the past or future fit in with the idea of original thoughts? Just as I was beginning to think that only original thoughts we have came from the inherent characteristics of our personalities, Muersault enters the picture with a philosophy on life that seems utterly unconcerned with any thoughts whatsoever.

But maybe that is actually an important image in this question. What can the thoughts of a man who doesn't have any concern for the rest of the world or the thoughts of others say about the natural, organic even, tendencies of the mind? Muersault only acts on the ideas flowing through his mind at any time. He refuses to lie, to acknowledge any other lives, but he also refuses to be crudely against anything he doesn't agree with (etc. the religious themes in the novel). Muersault is, effectively, an organic mind.

Maybe all that is needed to achieve this mental cleanliness is indifference to the ways of your surroundings. Maybe it is possible to be mentally innocent, to have the intellectual corruption of a fetus, simply by withdrawing yourself from the rest of the world.

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The title of Crime and Punishment instantly brings the mind to fabricate images of concrete situations: a jail cell, a trial, a gun in the hand of a killer. I find that the beauty of the novel lies in the fact that while all of these images are encountered throughout the story, they are defined by abstract and incredibly intimate sensations. I have found through this novel what I believe to be the most significant discovery about original thoughts that I have encountered through this year's quest.

The novel follows Rodya Raskolnikov as he fights through his own guilt and fleeting, though passionate, regret for a highly contemplated murder. While this concept rose a thrilling question about whether our nation has our justice system confused when we see premeditated murder more severely than murder of passion, it also presented the perfect foil. The character Svidrigailov is a man in essentially the same position as Rodya in his life; he is a murderer, a man searching for love, and a man of great fear.

The two men, however, end up in completely different places in their lives.
Svidrigailov lies dead with a bullet hole in his temple. Raskolnikov finds spiritual redemption from within a jail cell.

Both men had the same fate awaiting them, both were guilty and sinful. But something clicked in Rodya's head that wasn't comprehensible for Svidrigailov. Here I am finally beginning to see that a personally original thought, such as an enlightenment that there could be such a thing as redemption and a joyful future for the evil if they follow the proper steps, can come from the soul of a person and not necessarily the mind. Both of these men are "the same man" in the wiring of their brains, but deeper into the soul they are defined by their choices. Sure, Rodya had guidence from Sonia in reaching his redemption, but he made himself open to God on his own. A choice that was never comprehended by Svidrigailov.

Maybe, as has been previously suggested to me,
a truly original thought is embedded in the soul, the heart.
We all have those original characteristics that make us boldfaced, and these are the personal qualities that enable us to be free thinkers in these subjects.