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Existentialism research
Existentialism research paper
Existentialism research paper
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre was an existentialist philosopher. The questions of his philosophy
often come out in his readings. Existentialism questions why we exist.
Existentialists deny the existence of God. Existentialist writers such as Kafka and
Sartre often use prisons and solitary confinement to tell their stories. Often, neither
the reader nor the protagonist is aware of what crime has been committed.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Wall” reflects his philosophy and personal experiences.
He worked for the French resistance and was imprisoned by the Germans during
WWII. The story takes place during the Spanish Civil War in an old hospital being
used by the Spanish Fascist’s to house prisoners. “The Wall” is told from a first
person, stream of consciousness point-of-view, and uses existentialist philosophy,
to illuminate the follies of totalitarian governments like Fascism, and Nazism.
Like most existentialist writers, Sartre chooses to tell the story of “The Wall” form
the first person stream-of-consciousness point-of-view. We get dialogue from other
characters, but the dialogue is filtered through the mind and thoughts of Pablo. The
terror in the story slowly unfolds from Pablo’s mind. In the beginning, Sartre only
gives us a hint of terror. The reality of the situation has not yet set into Pablo’s
mind:
They pushed us into a big white room and I began to blink because the light hurt
my eyes. Then I saw a table and four men behind the table, civilians, looking over
the papers. They had bunched another group of prisoners in the back and we had
to cross the whole room to join them. There were several I knew and some others
who must have been foreigners. The two in front of me were blond with round
skulls; they looked alike. I supposed they were French. The smaller one kept
hitching up his pants; nerves. (7)
The emphasis on the “round skull” foreshadows a scene that later brings terror into
greater effect. Tom tells Pablo while they are waiting to be executed, that they aim
for the eyes and head to disfigure your face. The emphasis on the perfect round
skulls in the first paragraph draws attention to faces and heads. “The smaller one
hitching up his nerves,” tell us from the beginning that Pablo should be nervous
himself. Pablo knows he is in trouble at the beginning. He just does not realize the
amount yet.
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... middle of paper ...
...out truth or a person’s innocence. Juan is
guilty of know crime and is put to death. Garcia who Pablo meets in the courtyard
after he gives his false testimony, “had nothing to do with politics” (36). When
asked why he was arrested, Garica responds “They arrest everybody who doesn’t
think the way they do”(36).
The Nazi’s and the Fascist’s used mental torture and the threat of terror to get
people to question their own existence, their own sanity. They do not think, they
just take orders and obey. Therefore, it is perfectly ironic that Pablo sends them to
a place devoid of reason or thought. The further irony is that Gris is hiding in the
graveyard in the gravediggers’ shack and is killed in a gunfight.
Pablo says after learning of Gris’s death, “everything began to spin and I found
myself siting on the ground: I laughed so hard I cried” (37). Pablo laughs until he
cries because he realizes he never will understand why one man dies and another
lives. In spite of all his thinking and mental anguish over the question, every
answer he discovers leads back to Descartes; the only part of his existence he can
not question is the one truth, “I think, therefore I am."
In regards to the narrative style Garcia Marquez used in this scene I believe he used hyperbole, imagery and allegory. First, one can notice the use of hyperbole when the reader finds out that there has been more than three thousand people dead from the massacre. From my perspective the number of dead people is an exaggeration to cause a powerful emotion on the readers. Then, the author used imagery to describe this scene: “Suddenly, on one side of the station, a cry of death tore open the enchantment:
It is true that he used his money to help the poor of his country, but he never forgot to take care of himself. He had multi-million dollar mansions built, where Escobar and members of his cartel went to relax and make business deals. These included the Hacienda Nápoles, and multiple houses on the Islas Del Rosario, islands dotting the coastline of Colombia. After the fall of the cartels in the 90s, the Colombian government had mostly let the once impressive buildings crumble into the ground. Today, these show places have become part of a very lucrative plan to bring tourism to Colombia. The home of Escobar in particular has become a very popular tourist destination. Visitors there can explore the luxurious mansion, which had its own nightclub, a mosaic-lined pool, three movie theaters, and a beautiful view of the Cartagena coastline. James Nye of the Daily Mail said, “the irony is that now you can hire a kayak to paddle around waters that 20 years ago would have cost you your life just for being near.” (Sanchez, 2008, p.38) The breathtaking homes that Escobar had built to reward himself for his success now serve as tourist destinations to remember the fascination of Escobar’s legacy in
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, the man that ruled cocaine distribution around the world, and devastated it in the process. Pablo Escobar’s influence and fame were so vast and reaching he outgrew his britches. Escobar’s vision and narcissistic approach which rose him to become the most intelligent, violent and influential political figure of narcotics and the Medellin cartel; which, led to the fatal bullet ending him on the rooftop of an abandoned house in his home town.
to reveal himself, knowing that he will not reveal himself. Sor Juana continues on to
they thought something bad could be happening, they would talk to that friend and tell
all others. The way we started, grew as a society, and live now, are totally
Colombian citizens experience and live through the good and bad things Pablo does, when Americans only hear about the negative actions Escobar commits. Hearing versus seeing plays a vital role in the difference of perspectives between the Colombians and Americans. In the United States, only hearing about Pablo Escobar leads to confusion among different people as “For what, exactly, isn’t easy to understand without knowing Colombia and his life and times” (15). American civilians not knowing personally know why they hate Escobar reflects poorly on the United States. The media does not inform the general public about all the great and generous things Escobar accomplishes for Colombia, and only publishes the stories of his cartel killing innocent people. From the perspective of Colombians, they only know Escobar as a hero of Colombia as “At his death, Pablo was mourned by thousands. Crowds rioted when his casket was carried into the streets of his home city of Medellin” (15). Colombians create a national mourning day for Escobar after his death, when the Americans celebrate their success in killing him. This represents the difference in opinion of Escobar between the two countries. Pablo made promises and he conqueres them; he said he would end poverty as he provided education and housing to the poorest people inside of Colombia. On the other hand,
Moreover, Maria’s courageous behavior is shown when she met the drug traffickers and asked for her money as well as Lucy’s. Maria and Blanca were kicked out after Lucy’s sister found out that Lucy was already dead while she was working as a drug mule. Blanca and Maria who lost their place to stay eventually made an agreement to return the drugs to the drug traffickers and receive their money. It was very dangerous for them to meet them again because they threatened two girls frightfully. The scene where they meet again shows how much dangerous it was. The drug traffickers offensively attacked two girls. One guy pushed Maria to the wall and yelled and the other guy grabbed Blanca’s hair and threatened to take the drugs back. The traffickers
...all want to believe that the crime was truly “foretold”, and that nothing could have been done to change that, each one of the characters share in a part of Santiago Nasar’s death. Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes about the true selfishness and ignorance that people have today. Everyone waits for someone else to step in and take the lead so something dreadful can be prevented or stopped. What people still do not notice is that if everyone was to stand back and wait for others, who is going to be the one who decides to do something? People don’t care who gets hurt, as long as it’s not themselves, like Angela Vicario, while other try to reassure themselves by thinking that they did all that they could, like Colonel Lazaro Aponte and Clotilde Armenta. And finally, some people try to fight for something necessary, but lose track of what they set out for in the first place.
The main setting of the story is along the border towns of the United States and Mexico. Characters Julio is a kid that Victor meets in one of the border towns. Julio leaves Victor because he doesn't agree with his idea on how to cross. He attempts to cross through a drainage tunnel, and Victor never hears from him again. The last character is a man named Miguel.
At the time of his death on the fifteenth of April, 1980, at the age of seventy-four, Jean-Paul Sartre’s greatest literary and philosophical works were twenty-five years in the past. Although the small man existed in the popular mind as the politically inconsistent champion of unpopular causes and had spent the last seven years of his life in relative stagnation, his influence was still great enough to draw a crowd of over fifty thousand people – admirers or otherwise – for his funeral procession. Sartre was eminently quotable, a favorite in the press, because his statements were always controversial. He was the leader of the shortly popular Existential movement in philosophy which turned quickly into a fad for the disillusioned post-World War I generation, so even when the ideas criticized were not the ideas of Sartre’s Existentialism, he still came to the public mind. Sartre was alternately celebrated and vilified, depending on which side of the issue the speaker or writer was on, and whether or not Sartre had early espoused – and possibly later turned against – the ideals in question. Despite Sartre’s many political and philosophical about-faces, fellow Marxist political philosopher Herbert Marcuse said of him, “He may not want to be the world’s conscience, but he is.” [Hayman, 458]
Jean-Michel Basquiat was, and still is, an artist whose paintings opened people’s minds and influenced others. While I was watching this documentary, I didn’t really understand the meaning behind his work. I thought it was just him randomly painting these meaningless pieces that looked like something a five-year old did. Also, I was shocked by how rude he could be to others. However, I found that the more I continued to watch, the more I began to understand what he was trying to do.
When family and personal honor taints, the aftermath escalates into a major threat stemming from the nature of revenge forming in order to protect a principle. In order to save the family’s honor, which the town holds of the utmost importance, the Vicario brothers seek vengeance on Santiago Nasar. Pablo Vicario’s betrothed Prudencia Cotes, “knew what they were up to […] and [she] didn't only agree, [she] never would have married [Pablo] if he hadn't done what a man should do” (García Márquez 62). The quote characterizes not only Prudencia as unsympathetic, but also much of the town, whose indifference comes in part from its belief that the men have a duty to protect the women from disgrace. The House of the Spirits’ arguable protagonist, Esteban Trueba, tries to save his daughter from what he thinks of as disgrace in a similar manner-murder. The time passes “since the fateful day when Trueba had made him pay for his daughter’s virginity with an axe. Pedro Tercero remembered him as an angry giant” (Allende 360). The simile comparing Trueba to a giant emphasizes the lasting impact the encounter has on Pedro Tercero. Both accounts of vengean...
He was penalized for 5 years without bail. Pablo decided he wasn’t going down so he attempted to run away. He was posted all over Colombia. There was a special reward who brought Pablo to the Colombian police alive or dead. They needed to get this man out of Colombia and sent to the United States for jail time. There was a search set out to find Pablo. He was always good at hiding because he never showed his face, he had so many workers to do the dirty work for him. He was found hiding near his hometown where he was surrounded by the Colombian police and asked to surrender. He would not surrender and was gunned down one day before his 44th birthday. Some say it was the police who killed him, others say it was a self-inflicted bullet. His death was what lots of families wanted. Before we end this, I will tell you about some of the damage this man did. He killed more than 4,000 people including 200 judges, more than 1,000 policemen, journalists, and government officials. This man killed anybody who interfered with his business, family, friends, it doesn’t matter who you were. If he felt anyway threatened by anybody, consider them already dead. He was a dangerous man with a mixture of hate and love in his heart. His family had no idea of the crime life he lived, they were pretty much blindsided until they were forced to go into hiding. His wife was angry with him and planned to leave him with their