Rhetoric of Zen

          Throughout Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig uses rhetoric to convey his philosophical ideas to the reader in a comprehensive and accessible way. His primary techniques are the use of metaphor and figurative language to simplify certain things. In part one, he frequently elaborates on topics such as technology, science, and even human consciousness. He calls these moments of reflection "Chautauquas", the name given to traveling tent-shows that sought to educate and entertain american audiences throughout the early 20th century. One such monologue, in which he attempts to explain the different ways people view the world, is especially packed with metaphor and figurative language. Pirsig writes,

          "The application of this knife, the division of the world into parts and the building of this structure, is something that everybody does. All the time we are aware of millions of things around us - these changing shapes, these burning hills, the sound of the engine, the feel of the throttle, each rock and weed and fence post and piece of debris beside the road - aware of these things but not really conscious of them unless there is something unusual or unless they reflect something we are predisposed to see. We could not possibly be conscious of these things and remember all of them because our mind would be so full of useless details we would be unable to think. From all this awareness we must select, and what we select and call consciousness is never the same as the awareness because the process of selection mutates it. We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful and sand the world."

         Pirsig uses figurative language and imagery to present his idea about human consciousness, using the overarching example of his motorcycle trip for specific references. After further explaining his thought, he goes on to summarize what he is saying with a metaphor. He likens a person's potential for awareness to an "endless landscape" and compares their personal consciousness to a handful of sand that they chose to pick up. In this way the author is able to convey a heavy topic in a way that the reader can easily understand, allowing the reader to indulge in the author's thought process on a simpler level.