Bojack Horseman Research Paper

Bojack Horseman is an animated Netflix Original Series that takes place in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live together. It revolves around the life of Bojack Horseman, a middle-aged horse who’s a has-been actor. His career peaked in the 90s when he starred in a popular family sitcom. Since then, his life has spiraled into drug addiction, alcoholism, and constant shenanigans that distract him from bettering himself. Throughout the series he attempts to reclaim his former fame by playing the Hollywood game and participating in projects that he thinks will advance his career in the hopes that it will finally bring meaning and happiness into his life. In this paper, I argue that Bojack Horseman should be considered an existentialist

In one episode, he describes himself by saying, “Sometimes I feel like I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now it’s all gone.” (BH; season 1, Ep. 9). Bojack constantly blames his problems and his destructive behavior on others or on some essential characteristic that he has and that he cannot change. But this isn’t true. Sartre would argue that humans are not born with any essential characteristics, as we have no creator, no god, to imbue us with those traits at birth. Sartre writes, “To begin with he [man] is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself…there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it.” (pg.207). A key theme in existentialist thought is that “Existence Precedes Essence” which means that humans have no inherent human nature and that it is up to the individual to decide who they will become (pg.206). On this, Sartre writes, “Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterwards.” (pg.207). Unlike inanimate objects that are created according to a specific premed design and with a function in mind, humans have the burden of defining themselves through their