Have you ever heard about Scrat, one of the main characters of the cartoon Ice Age, appearing in each episode ?
Scrat is this ugly squirrel who spends his time trying to catch an acorn. He succeeds in it, and then looses it again, and again. I think that Scrat and his unceasing quest is a perfect metaphor of life, according to Nietzsche’s conception of it.
Let’s have a look on the situation: each time he appears on the screen, he is alternatively looking or trying to get his acorn, Scrat’s life is defined only by the search of this tiny nut.
The acorn is often within sight but never within easy reach, like a star in the sky would be for us. As soon as he catchs sight of the acorn, it becomes his only and ultimate objective in life and his life finally has a sense. He does not think of the meaning of his life anymore as his mind is only preoccupied by the nut.
Scrat symbolizes the loss of true meaning in human being’s life.
The way the acorn occupies his mind in the everyday life reminds how humans are obsessed by their desires and by achieving them. As they are never fully satisfied, they keep having desires and trying to achieve them while forgetting the really meaning of their existences.
Scrat’s story shows how life can be only driven by the desire of having something you will never have and thus, that you will keep desiring. According to Nietzsche in the Gay Science, love is the desire of possession. As Scrat will never possesses the acorn, it is the acorn that actually possesses Scrat.
Thus, human beings are driven by love which is their main weakness. Human beings should fight against the facility of love and should be able to be satisfied with what is available and reachable right now. In other words, Nietzsche is for the foresight of love and not for love of foresight. He would tell to Scrat to love this blade of grass, this ice under his feet and not to desire this acorn. It is much more difficult to love something with its imperfections, to love what is already yours, rather to love something by frustration.
What a great idea to compare the character of Scrat with Nietzsche’s conception ! It is very interesting. I would add that Scrat is like Sisyphus. We remember that in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus recounts the story of the mortal Sisyphus, condemned by the gods to roll a stone up a mountain for all eternity. Every time Sisyphus reaches the summit, the stone rolls back down, forcing Sisyphus to begin the task again. And Sisyphus keeps pushing. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. Camus concludes that "one must imagine Sisyphus happy." Therefore, I think that one must imagine Scrat happy.
ReplyDeleteI do not totally agree with you Rebecca. Indeed Sisyphus is conscious of the punishment that the Gods imposed on him and of the nonsense of this task. This is why Camus considers him as a hero. On the contrary Scrat is not conscious that its research for acorn which ends always badly is absurd. Scrat has the choice to stop while Sisyphus has no choice. Sisyphus is conscious that its action is absurd and that there is no hope that the stone stays at the top of the mountain while Scrat always hopes to possess its acorn one day its. If Sisyphus is happy because he agrees to live hopeless while Scrat refuses to understand this and continues to pursue with hope its hopeless purpose. Thus I do not think that Scrat is happy.
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ReplyDeleteThank's for your post, I had never realized how much Scrat was a philosophical character !
ReplyDeleteI would like to complete Rebecca's comment. We cannot imagine Scrat without his acorn. Event if his goal is completely meaningless, Scrat need this goal to live, acorn, meal, happiness, pain, we all need to reach a goal and this goal is what keeps us alive. Do not you think that Nietzsche is wrong when he develops that we have to forget any goals we could have?