Hegel sold Snow Crash to children

To prove that Snow Crash is indeed a Hegelian novel, we must look first to the subject-object relationships as they unfold in the story. Hiro's actions throughout the novel are clearly determined by the passions of his soul. Hiro's soul - his subjectivity - created the reactions that determined the reality of his actions - his objectivity. There can be no question that, at many points in the story, Hiro is faced with forks in his road that demand a response. The responses we see from Hiro are not ones that are determined by economic conditions alone, "more than anything he has ever wanted to do, Hiro wants to get into the zodiac and get away from this person. He knows that in order to go up and help him, or put him out of his misery, he's going to have to shine the flashlight on him, and when he does that he's going to see something he'll never be able to forget" (Stephenson 359), but we see in Hiro that he has a soul that has been shaped and formed in a way that is, well...protagonistic. Time and again, Hiro might have walked away, taken the easy way out, taken the cheap shot - but he does not.

The presence of what many readers would interpret as actions motivated by his soul adds weight to the argument for a Hegelian interpretation, and as Boal interprets Hegel's characteristics of dramatic poetry, "it offers the continually moving spectacle of struggle between living characters who pursue opposite desires in the midst of situations full of obstacles and dangers" (Boal 88). Hiro demonstrates his personal character in the scene above by returning to help someone who had, only moments before, been trying to kill him. Not able or willing to allow a wounded person to suffer extreme agony, Hiro returns at grave peril to himself - either to help or finish his vitim; Boal offers, "the event [writes Hegel] does not appear to proceed from external conditions, but rather from personal volition and character ...." (88). Clearly Hiro might have left to continue his mission without returning to aid his victim; in the heat of a battle it is not considered morally wrong to advance the mission over the needs of an individual.

We see the internal movements of Hiro's soul freely exteriorized - here as in many other places - without limitation or restraint (Boal 88). In true Hegelian style, Hiro "is the absolute subject of his actions" (Boal 88).