NORMAN MANEA
537
to pieces from one day
to
another, something also out of the ordinary
happened in my class.
Among the mid-term papers, I had received one on Eugene lonesco's
Rhinoceros.
Hesitating to evaluate it, I decided to read it to the class,
without disclosing the author's name, then
to
ask them
to
comment on
it and suggest a grade.
There was nothing spectacular in the beginning:
Berenger cannot believe his eyes when his close friend, Jean, joins the epidemic
sweeping their village and transforms himself into a rhinoceros. As the horn
swells on his forehead and guttural moaning bulges from his thickening throat,
the frantic Jean sings the blessing of freedom to a bewildered Berenger. "Morals!
I'm sick of morals! We must go beyond moral standards. Nature has its own laws.
Morals is against nature!" From a responsible obedient citizen who ostracized
Berenger for his senseless rebellion, Jean has become a raving reactionary. He
gradually turns green as he denounces the societal structure he so vehemently pro–
tected as a human. Along with the release of his human form, Jean is released
from the laws and the rules he had been conditioned (forced) to uphold. Berenger
is terrorized. Before him stands the man who had always symbolized order-a
man he had felt too weak
to
imitate. Berenger cannot get beyond the absurdity of
this revolution against the human condition. He is terrified to admit that the RHI–
NOCEROS could be making a valid, self-satisfying decision of rejection.
However natural and acceptable it seemed, the last sentence was some–
how already announcing the novelty.
The class sensed the potential turn; the silence was complete. I read
the last sentences again, before going on. "Berenger cannot get beyond
the absurdity of this revolution against the human condition. He is ter–
rified to admit that the RHINOCEROS could be making a valid, self–
satisfying decision of rejection."
Attention grew keener, I felt that.
He is terrified to admit that the RHINOCEROS could be making a valid, self–
satisfying decision of rejection. ...Could Jean, a model citizen-a pillar of
social strength for Berenger himself-be choosing to betray the established code
he so religiously upheld? To Berenger's horror, the choice is imminent. He
grasps at analytical solutions to a sociological crisis. He is responsible for mak–
ing up his own mind, he will procure his destiny and suffer the repercussions:
to
become a Rhinoceros or
to
remain a human being. Suddenly, life before the
commotion seems safe and logical to Berenger, as he watches Jean go stamped–
ing through a brick wa ll. The fact that he had, for all intents and purposes,
