REWARD

As I stated a couple posts ago, Thus Spoke Zarathustra actually applies to this part of the archetypal journey. After facing the fire dog, Zarathustra's reward is great deals of knowledge, and a new outlook on life. So, the question is, was this wisdom worth abondoning his followers, isolating himself, and basically having a mental breakdown soon after?
Well, I'd say it is. At this point, Zarathustra becomes a generally happier person, of course for him that isn't much, as he bassically hates people. Of course, this cheerfullness only comes after his breakdown during which he is more contemptful than usual. So, a complete turnaround with new wisdom, in exchange for isolation and a short-lived breakdown, sounds fair. If only those options were available to the rest of us. Would you take it?

Ordeal

For the ordeal, we will have to return to The Landing. The ordeal there is clearly the point when the boat Ben and Henry are on fllods, and Ben has to try to save Henrys life. Instead of giving my wordy summary, I'll skip right to my question. If Henry had been nicer throughout the book, would Ben have tried harder to save him, and would things have ended differently?
No, probably not. Ben tries increadibly hard and is terribly upset when he fails, but on the otherhand, a larger emotional connection could have caused an adrenilin rush that may have saved Henry. I'd bet that the authour wouldn't thin k of that though, also if Henry lived, it wouldn't have any emotional appeal. So overall, I don't think Henry could have lived in any instance whatsoever. But, if anyone reads this who has read the book, your oppinion would be appreciated.

Approach To The Inmost Cave

We now return to Zarathustra for the approach to the inmost cave. In this book, Zarathustra leaves his followers to go argue with what seems to be the devil. I announce it as seems to be because he calls it the fire dog and says all others misrepresent him, his other descriptions seem to reference the devil, but it is never said for sure. The two speeches leading up to this both deal heavily in it leading up to the climax of the second book, causing the debate to be the ordeal, and the abondonment of his followers being the approach.
So now that we have established firmly what the event is, what can we question in it. The most apparent question is, why would Zarathustra decide that confronting the fire dog is worth abandoning the followers he worked so hard to gather. After all, all he did throughout the first book was gather his followers.
So, why would he do this? It seems the only possible reason is that he is sure the wisdom he will gather is worth destroying all his hard work. The speech he gives on hindsight of his debate is very wise, and shows a major change in thought, so that supports my reason. Fortunatley, though angry wiht him, his followers do come back to him, and forgive him for the third or fourth time he abandoned them.