What is Patrick White's central idea about human nature?
The fundamental tension, I believe, lies between the spiritual impulse and the crushing weight of the material world. We are, for all our pretensions to reason and progress, creatures perpetually at war with ourselves. The flesh is a terrible reality, as is the allure of comfort and conformity. Many mistake this struggle for mere psychological drama, but it is, at its heart, a spiritual quest. The suburban dream, so lauded by the masses, is often a gilded cage, breeding a profound spiritual poverty. True life, if it can be called that, is found in embracing the wounds, in recognizing the isolation that binds us.
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