Vilnius pedagogical university faculty of foreign languages department of english philology

[…] the volvox […] interests us because he invented death. […] while each cell is potentially immortal, by volunteering for a specialized function within an organized society of cells, it enters a compromised environment. The strain eventually wears it out and kills it. It dies sacrificially, for the good of the whole.” (The Centaur, p. 41)

This is a rule for Caldwell himself; he realizes his role in life being similar to that of the volvox. During all his life the science teacher sacrifices on behalf of other people: he moves to the country because his wife wants to live there, the hitchhiker takes his leather gloves, he gives his last thirty-five cents to the drunkard, and, finally, Caldwell-Chiron gives his life for his son.

Peter also contemplates the theme of sacrifice – in a reflex action it is close to him, however, he is too young to understand and accept his father’s sacrifice. Thinking about the girl he likes, Penny, Peter states: “And there was that in Penny, which now in the dream made vivid to me, what I had hardly felt before, a sheltering love, young as she was, recent as our touching was, little as I gave her; she would sacrifice for me.” (The Centaur, p. 50) Peter realizes deep in his heart that this sacrifice is the highest proof of love, the best feature of human goodness.
Besides sacrifice, another Christian attribute present in the novel is suffering. According to Campbell, suffering is one of the most important themes of myths. He wrote about it as follows: “The secret cause of all suffering […] is morality itself, which is the prime condition of life. It cannot be denied if life is to be affirmed.” (The Power of Myth, p. xiii). The Centaur opens with Caldwell’s suffering from the pain the arrow caused him. Later in the novel, Peter thinks:


I enjoyed at this age a strange innocence about suffering; I believed it was necessary to men. It seemed to be all about me and there was something menacing in my apparent exception. I had never broken a bone, I was bright, my parents openly loved me. In my conceit I believed myself to be wickedly lucky. So I had come to this conclusion about my psoriasis: it was a curse. God, to make me a man, had blessed me with a rhythmic curse that breathed in and out with His seasons. (The Centaur, p. 51)

These thoughts seem to belong to Updike himself, for he believes that only through suffering it is possible to conceive the world and to preserve the human features. The novel

comprises the dichotomy – the difference between the approaches to the inner world appropriate to Ancient Greece and modern America. In his article, Larry A. Brown states that suffering was extremely important for ancient Greeks. He writes:


Whereas the causes of suffering are diverse, the purpose of suffering in tragedy appears almost universally acknowledged: only through suffering does a person attain wisdom. The chorus in Agamemnon by Aeschylus recites: "Zeus, whose will has marked for man the sole way where wisdom lies, ordered one eternal plan: Man must suffer to be wise." In Antigone, the chorus counsels Creon that suffering is wisdom's schoolteacher. (Tragedy afterAristotle: http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/Tragedy_after_Aristotle.html)

According to the American dream, every American believes that a person who is not happy is abnormal. The ancient Greek, on the contrary, thinks that the man who is constantly happy is abnormal. Greeks believed that suffering is a natural condition of one’s soul, a feature which differentiates a man from an animal. For a Greek the notion ‘to live’ means ‘to suffer’. Campbell had a similar point of view. He quoted Buddha and Joyce: “”All life is suffering”, said Buddha, and Joyce has a line – “Is life worth leaving?” (Quoted by Campbell, p. 161) Caldwell suffers because his inner world does not coincide with the outer world governed by American dream which is so alien to the protagonist as well as to Updike. Suffering extends the human consciousness and thinking; it raises Caldwell and makes him similar to Christ.

There is one more place in the novel where Peter clearly states: “The world of water was closed to me, so I had fallen in love with the air, which I was able to seize in great thrilling condensations within me that I labeled the Future: it was in this realm that I hoped to reward my father for his suffering.” (The Centaur, p. 98) Peter conceives how difficult it is for his father to live in Olinger, to communicate with people who are strangers and do not care about each other, who are veiled enemies hidden behind the masks of artificial American smiles.
Besides moral suffering The Centaur is pierced with Caldwell’s physical pain. The very first page contains four direct statements of “pain”: “the pain scaled the slender core of his shin”, “[Caldwell desired] privacy in which he could be alone with his pain”, “the pain extended a feeler into his head”, “the pain seemed to be displacing with its own hairy segments” (The Centaur, p. 7). These numerous references of pain create severe atmosphere of the novel, increase the level of the protagonist’s suffering and, finally, parallel him with Christ and his great torment. As a result the reader feels a deep sympathy for George Caldwell, as his figure inspires love and goodness.

2. 
   SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF MYTH
   

In The Centaur, the sociological function of the myth about Chiron has two main purposes: it portrays social and spiritual chaos in contemporary America and emphasizes degradation and deterioration of a modern individual.
From the very beginning of the novel the reader is thrown into chaos. The lesson taking place at a school of Olinger frightens with its mayhem and the pupils’ cruelty. The reader meets the teacher George Caldwell who receives an arrow which was released by one of the pupils and as it happened “the class burst into laughter.” Later this laughter transforms into “shrill bark”, which afterwards becomes “deliberately aimed hooting”. Finally, when the teacher leaves the classroom unable to continue the lesson because of the terrible pain, the pupils already emit “the furious festal noise”. (The Centaur, p. 7) The children studying at the school of Olinger are cruel people with the marble hearts; they torment their teacher and enjoy his suffering.
Unfortunately, this children’s arbitrariness is not merely a literary device. The American psychologist Phillip Bonoski writes in one of his books that in the years 1974 and 1975 the number of crimes committed by pupils has reached 6811. This number comprises 1872 attacks over teachers and serving personnel (474 of them have been armed), 211 burglaries, 134 cases of illegal weapon bearing, 274 arsons, 678 cases of theft, 291 cases of keeping drugs, 58 sexual crimes. (Две культуры: Культура США, стр. 130)
Attacking teachers became a normal phenomenon in American schools. Respect for teachers disappeared; all that is left is the fear of physical strength and hate. American pupils, especially provincials, protest against knowledge which is meaningless from their point of view. Their inner world became extremely restricted and poor; they do not possess any moral values. Updike portrays the contemporary American school which symbolizes American educational system with all its outcomes: the chaos at educational institutions, pupils’ immoral behaviour and highly difficult teachers’ situations.
Throughout the novel reality is juxtaposed with myth, however, at some points the author makes the events fantastic in order to emphasize the effect of the chaos. For instance, the episode at the end of the first chapter, which describes the continuation of the lesson, reaches the apogee of the chaotic fantasticality.
When Caldwell returns from Hummel’s garage with an arrow already put in his pocket he finds the school’s principal, Zimmerman, in his classroom. The first words pronounced by the principal are: “’Mr. Caldwell has graciously returned to us.’ The class obediently snickered.” (The Centaur, p. 32) Zimmerman is not interested in what has happened to
Caldwell. Instead of asking if the teacher feels well and why he has left the classroom, the principal humiliates him in front of the pupils: “the humiliated teacher licked his lips.”(The Centaur, p. 32) Seeing such an example of Zimmerman’s behaviour it is useless to expect children to react in a different way, to respect their teacher. Afterwards the principal says: “I think such devotion to duty should be rewarded with a mild round of applause.” (The Centaur,
p. 32) The situation seems to be absolutely absurd, it is difficult to imagine a similar event in reality. However, by exaggerating, Updike stresses the problem of the contemporary American society – the disdain of a common teacher, the drawbacks of the educational system.
Desperately trying to explain everything to the principal, Caldwell bents and lifts his trouser leg attempting him to see the wounded ankle, but the result is the same: “Your socks don’t quite match […] is this your explanation?” (The Centaur, p. 33) Zimmerman continues to humiliate the teacher in front of the class, the pupils “burst”. When he noticed an arrow- shaft jutting from Caldwell’s pocket, the principal remarks: “Are you carrying a lighting rod? Remarkably prudent, on a cloudless winter day.” (The Centaur, p. 33) These words are an implicit allusion to myth, as Zimmerman represents Zeus, the God of thunder. For that reason he is afraid to touch the “lightening rod”.
Further on chaos at the lesson intensifies with every page. Zimmerman takes his seat near one of the pupils, Iris Osgood, and begins looking down the top of her loose blouse at the dugs. Deifendorf, one of the country boys, begins to scratch his scalp and “make monkey chatter”. Caldwell “tapped the first one [word written on the blackboard] and the chalk turned to a large warm larva in his hand.” (The Centaur, p. 40) Reality begins to merge with the fantastic elements; and their convergence expands the chaos taking place in the classroom. A paper aeroplane becomes a white flower effusing “pale fluid”. Deifendorf not content with pencil-tickling puts “his hands around the Davis girl’s throat and with his thumbs” caresses the underside of her chin.
The chaotic lesson is still proceeding: “Fists, claws, cocked elbows blurred in patch- coloured panic above the scarred and varnished desktops; in the whole mad mess the only still bodies were those of Zimmerman and Iris Osgood.” (The Centaur, p. 41) One of the boys sneakes a paper grocery bag into class and a clot of living trilobites dropped out onto the floor. “As a sport the boys began to drop their heavy textbooks on these primitive arthropods; one of the girls, a huge purple parrot feathered with mud, swiftly ducked her head and plucked a small one up.” (The Centaur, p. 42) Furthermore, the whole class begins to hum, “no one’s mouth moved; their eyes shifted here and there innocently; but the air was filled with a hovering honey of insolence.” (The Centaur, p. 43) After the first bell the two pupils
rush to the door but bump: “Their teeth gnashed; phlegm poured through their nostrils.” (The Centaur, p. 43) The school’s principal undresses Iris Osgood and her breasts become seen by everybody. The lesson loses its thread with the real world and the reader gets the feeling that all events happening are taking place in someone’s dream.
Later the fantastical elements finally blur with reality: