The entire populace of a french town turns into Rhinoceros. This is not a fantasy book, nor it entails folklore or fairy tales. Also, why and how people turn into rhinoceros do not involve or ask for a logical debate. Because the play functions as a metaphoric tale and quite self-explanatory when you think about it. If you're familiar with the approach of Franz Kafka with his Metamorphosis, chances are you will like Rhinoceros a well.

But unlike Metamorphosis, which is a serious, bleak tragedy — Rhinoceros is a comedy play and can be enjoyed as an absurd tale with quirky fun. We should always that keep in mind.

Book cover source

The Story

On a bright sunny busy morning—when friends gather at coffee shops, colleagues chatter at workplaces, a Rhinoceros appears—running along the road. Berenger and his friends argue whether it was an Asiatic Rhino or an Afrikan one. Someone questions the existence of Rhinos in their country, therefore the witnessing of a Rhinoceros has to be a delusion. Another Rhinoceros appears and tramples a house cat under it. The situation heats up once again. Are there two rhinos or the same one passing again? If it's a single rhino, is it a unicorn horn or bi-horn? Which one is superior? Is it ethical for the Rhino to trample the cat?

Turns out the Rhino is a former colleague of Berenger, who has turned into a Rhinoceros! And all over the town, people are changing their human form into Rhinoceros—mad, vicious green animals that ravage the city.

What the Story Implies

The book metaphors the rise of fascism, antisemitism, and the role of common people. It has a deep root in the political history of Romania as well, where the author grew up seeing all the atrocities committed.

This section will have some story spoilers but I don't think that should bother you unless you're only reading/seeing the play for the suspense—and even then I think it wouldn't work. If I tell you every single detail about the story, you'd still want to read it for the comedy aspect of it as humor cannot be spoiled.

In Rhinoceros, shortly after the appearances of the green beasts, the good logical people of the town accepts their presence. The increasingly find the beasts beautiful. Just. More and more of them capitulate to being a Rhino. Just as common people first denied or didn't care about the presence of Nazis at first and accepted them later on and went along with them. But the rhinoceros aren't only the Nazis, Ionesco mostly indicated the Iron Guard—a dominant political party of fascists in the 1930s Romania who had similar ideas like Hitler — ultra-nationalism, anti-semitism, etc. They used to wear green shirts, resembles the green skins of the rhinoceros.

Ionesco was a university student at the time and he saw his friends, his teachers (some of them were very prominent in the discipline of philosophy) turning to Iron Guard one by one, leaving their humanity behind— essentially rhinocerized. In the play, the logician friend of Berenger argues that the inclination of Rhinos as the dominant race is natural and the laws of the jungle will prevail. Not unlike how the intellectuals of that time saw fascists before joining them.

Berenger is the only person in the play who remains a human until the end—terrified as the only human in a world full of Rhinoceros. He's an everyman, an alter ego of Ionesco himself — a representation of how he felt when almost all the members of his circle and his friends turned to Iron guard.

There is actually nothing absurd about the play. It only reiterates the herd mentality within us, the exploitation of it, and the sufferings of the common people it invokes. Rhinoceros points at the death of individualism — something I cherish with all my heart. I already liked the play as a comedy and then pondered upon all the symbolism and implications it had.

Quite an enjoyable read to say the least.

Rating - 4/5