Can someone explain the duel meaning of "nothing" to me. I think I get it but am not sure. Of course, I get the first and obvious meaning - what is more important than independence and freedom? Nothing as in nothing is more important. But what is the other meaning?

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8 years ago
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Nelly He has realised that while (first meaning) independence and freedom are the most important values 'nothing is more important than independence and freedom' - that there is nothing (i.e. emptiness; a void) that is more important than independence and freedom - meaning that the whole thing they fought for is meaningless and empty. That is why he laughs - it is a horrible joke.

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Seth The sympathizer has nothing to sympathize with since he has realized that all governments are tainted with cruelty and power-hoarding regardless of the core values of the revolutions that established them. So, since he has nothing to sympathize with, he sympathizes with Nothing. Not "nothing" in the sense of a void, but in "nothing" as a positive alternative to the evils of the power hungry. Nothing is more important than independence and freedom when those concepts are revealed to be lie in practice. Nothing is better than torture. Nothing is better than pointless war. Nothing is better than hate.

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Michael Rieman I think the narrator suggests the meaning when he realizes that "slogans were empty suits draped on the corpse of an idea. The suits depended on how one wore them and this suit was now worn out.." Perhaps it is that the "independence and freedom" lose their meaning and become nothing when the means of achieving independence and freedom provide neither.

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GS I have a slightly different point of view from the answers here: I don’t think the author is espousing nihilism or individualism.
I interpreted the “nothing” as “It is better to have nothing than a false promise of freedom and independence” - it extracts a big price (death, destruction, pain, division) but provides no return since ultimately one suppressor just got replaced by another.
The author is replacing his strong belief system - that the revolution will save the people and that he was on the “right side of history” - with a realization that his efforts and sacrifices have ultimately amounted to nothing at all. It is his own life that is the joke.

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Sunny Yu The meanings of "nothing" is complex, as the protagonist himself reflects that "nothing is more precious than independence and freedom, and nothing is also more precious than independence and freedom." The two "nothing" here are absolutely different, and they are even contradictory terms. Obviously, the literal nothing emphasizes the ideals of the revolution; the second "nothing" here is not only the literal nothing but also individualism. This is because in the first chapter of the book, the nameless protagonist called himself nothing. In the book, his name is never revealed, and his very identity is being torn apart. The "nothing" here refers to the opposite of collectivism, which is individualism, and that is the answer to the question what is more precious than freedom and independence.

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Michael Lệ Moore

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Sadifura When I read the novel, and whenever I think about the meaning of "nothing", I think of "nothing" in the sense of the Homestuck aspect of Void (sorry for getting a little dorky here, I'm not really a part of this group and I'm kinda necroing a dead thread but I really like The Sympathizer and can't stop thinking about this book please dear God help): when the protagonist finds out the answer is "nothing", the double meaning is both "there is nothing more important than independence and freedom" as well as "NOTHING is more important than independence and freedom"; NOTHING is the most important thing in the world. The most important thing in the world is the gaping void in which you sleep, in which you wake, in which you dream. That NOTHING is the thing you should cherish, because that NOTHING, like what happens to the crapulent major and what happens to Sonny, can be taken away from you, and you get to see EVERY torture that the main character has to see. NOTHING is the most important thing in life, because to Man, a man who has NOTHING, a man who doesn't believe in anything because of such horrible depression that he refuses to see his family because he's so deformed, NOTHING in the world is important except the annihilation of EVERYTHING. This is with which Void operates in Homestuck with the Class of Prince, narratively; a Prince of Void destroys THROUGH Void, and through Man's Void, through Man's "NOTHING", he destroyed the very ideals the captain had while he tortured him in the prison camp and allowed him to see the importance of NOTHING, allowing the captain to finally question his OWN beliefs.

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Tom

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Tony da Napoli ;-) or simply:

Definition of nothing
1 : not any thing : no thing leaves nothing to the imagination
2 : no part
3 : one of no interest, value, or consequence they mean nothing to me

nothing doing

: by no means : definitely no

nothing for it

: no alternative nothing for it but to start over

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Kathryn I see it as a Zen answer -- when everything matters, nothing matters.

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