The Abolition of Man: Men Without Chests

Quote 1: "The man who called the cataract sublime was not intending simply to describe his own emotions about it: he was also claiming that the object was one which merited those emotions" (15).

Quote 2: "We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise" (26).

Lewis argues that writers, such as Gaius and Titius, are not enhancing their readers' knowledge, but are making it worse. When Gaius and Titius talk about something, they focus on one group of people to direct their message to, forgetting that there are other populations of people either confused or not bothered by the same message. Basically, nothing is really being taught. Gaius and Titius are teaching students that their opinion on an object is an opinion they hold about themselves. Lewis logically refutes this position by stating how an object has value within itself; therefore one may call it what it appears, like beautiful or distorted. In other words, Gaius and Titius do not have the right to teach students what to feel and how they should feel, which brings up "men without chests" (26). Students are brainwashed rather than taught to the point where they cannot feel with their own feelings, but from what has been taught to them. Lewis uses an aggressive syntax and diction to support his logic to get his point across. There is not as much emotion used, but Lewis shows his character through his opinions: "I myself do not enjoy the society of small children: because I speak from within the Tao I recognize this as a defect in myself" (19).