Comparing Absurdity in The Trial and Nausea

The Element of Absurdity in The Trial and Nausea

One of Sartre and Kafka's most effective tools in presenting their philosophies through a work of fiction is the implementation of events and characters with overwhelmingly absurd natures. This technique allows the author to state a very definite point by using a situation that is so obviously exaggerated compared to actual life that the reader is much more apt to understand the author's intentions than if the events presented were more realistic.

In Nausea, Sartre develops a character whose only vocation is the quest to read every book in the library, alphabetically by author, regardless of subject matter. Everything that "the Self Taught Man" knows, he learned in a book. He does not feel that any thought that runs through his mind is valid unless it has already been confirmed by someone else, and written down in a book. In one instance, the Self Taught Man comes to this revelation: "'No longer do people believe what the eighteenth-century held to be true. Why should we still take pleasure in works because ...