How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The truth is always some inner power without explanation. The more genuine part of my life is unrecognizable, extremely intimate and impossible to define. (1.3)
If truth is elusive and unrecognizable, it seems weird that the narrator would be trying to write about it at all. Is his task doomed before it even begins?
Quote #2
As I prayed I emptied my soul—and this emptiness is everything that I can ever hope to possess. Apart from this, there is nothing. But emptiness, too, has its value and somehow resembles abundance. One way of obtaining is not to search, one way of possessing is not to ask; simply believe that my inner silence is the solution to my—to my mystery. (1.14)
Here, it seems like the narrator is striving for something that Macabéa has always already possessed. Macabéa has nothing and wants for nothing, so she overflows with light and purity. (We still think she'd be better off with a sandwich.)
Quote #3
But the idea of transcending my own limits suddenly appealed to me. This happened when I decided to write about reality, since reality exceeds me. Whatever one understands by reality. (1.24)
So, "What is reality?" is pretty much question numero uno that philosophy tries to answer. But Rodrigo seems to think that there's more than one kind of reality, and that Macabéa's reality is different than his—and maybe inaccessible. This could be one more way that The Hour of the Star tries to convince us that everyone is alone: we all inhabit different realities.
Quote #4
I want to escape my freedom without reaching the conclusion like so many others: that existence is only for fools and lunatics: for it would seem that to exist is illogical. (1.37)
This kind of thinking, called absurdism, comes out of existentialist philosophy. Both schools of thought essentially propose that it's impossible to try to find meaning in life. And Macabéa's existence does seem meaningless: after living a life of hardship and desolation, she dies without realizing any of the new hopes she had just embraced. Absurd—or just tragic?
Quote #5
It isn't necessary to have faith in anyone or in anything—it is enough to have faith. (3.53)
If existentialism and absurdism say that we'll never actually find any value in life, then maybe faith is the only answer after all. You can't find any meaning through logic and reason, so you just have to take it on faith that there is a point, after all.
Quote #6
God belongs to those who succeed a pinning Him down. God appears in a moment of distraction. She asked no questions. She divined that there were no answers. Was she foolish enough to ask? Only to get a blunt no in reply? Perhaps she thought about this futile question so that no one could ever accuse her one day of never having asked. Not knowing who to turn to, she appeared to have answered her own question: it is so because it is so. Could there be some other answer? (3.55)
While we don't directly get this so-called foolish question, we do get the answer: "it is so because it is so." Gee, it seems like there's really only one question she could have been asked: "Why is it so?" Not much of an answer, if you ask us.
Quote #7
One doesn't have to know everything and not knowing became an important factor in her life. Not knowing sounds awful, but it was not so awful for the girl knew lots of things just as a dog knows how to wag its tail or a beggar how to feel hungry: things happen and you suddenly know. (3.62-63)
Existentialist philosophers believe you have to make life choices based solely on your own experiences. The more you experience, the more you know, and the better your choices can be. Macabéa's knowledge is very limited because her experiences have been very limited. And yet the narrator also seems to suggest that perhaps Macabéa's instinctual knowledge actually serves her better than all of his experience.
Quote #8
She believed in everything that existed and in everything non-existent as well. But she didn't know how to embellish reality. For her, reality was too enormous to grasp. Besides, the word "reality" meant nothing to her. Nor to me, dear God. (3.80)
Clip on your suspenders, Shmoopers, because here's a fancy word for you: ontology. Ontology is the study of being and existence, asking questions like "What is reality? What can be said to exist?" Seems like Rodrigo has some ontological questions of his own—check out the quotations marks around "reality."
Quote #9
This alarms me, for I am afraid of losing my sense of order and of plunging into an abyss resounding with cries and shrieks: the Hell of human freedom. (3.93)
Existentialism says that people should apply their free will to arrive at meaning in their lives. The idea is to make choices by using free will instead of using societal rules or laws or traditions. But doing so requires discipline and responsibility. It's not easy to make responsible choices when you could potentially do anything. Just like Uncle Ben—er, Voltaire—said: "With great freedom, comes great responsibility."
Quote #10
Her dreams were empty on account of all that inner life, because they lacked the essential nucleus of any prior experience of—of ecstasy, let's say. Most of the time, she possessed, without knowing it, the emptiness that replenishes the souls of saints. Was she a saint? It would seem so. (3.98)
So, we're starting to get a better picture of what the narrator thinks is so important about Macabéa. (1) Existentialism requires people to have prior experiences; (2) Macabéa has had no prior experiences. She's, like, a philosophical unicorn: something that's too pure and innocent to actually exist.