"It is the body that speaks, and the spirit that listens," writes Santayana. "Honest attention to our streams of consciousness attests to the fact that spirit is not the self but an observer of the self." Santayana identifies the quest for the good life with that of self-knowledge. But, Oliver instead tried to control his existence entirely with his spirit, and at the same time he never really knew himself, never realized where his spirit was coming from. At least, until it was too late. He repeatedly observed that his spirit was trapped at the roots, entangled, but he never quite knew why.