Sartre The Wall

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A Preview of “The Wall” By Jean-Paul Sartre
In the short story “The Wall” by Sartre, the author views the universe as a cruel place where human beings are not certain about whether they’ll be alive or dead in future. The universe always has a way of shaping our lives. Although the writer had been sentenced to death together with his colleagues Tom and Juan, eventually he’s left in his cell when Tom and Juan are taken out for sentencing. He is only questioned for a few hours and intimated to give up the location of his friend Ramon Gris. The author didn’t have any intentions to give up Gris’ hiding place. Unfortunately, he lied to the officers about his friend’s location not knowing that Gris had changed his hiding …show more content…

The author didn’t know that Gris has changed his hideout, so it wasn’t his intention to get his friend killed. The author believes the universe seems to have a way of controlling everything, hence the reason Gris ends up although he tries as much as possible not to reveal his real hideout. Therefore, the universe decides who gets to live or die. The author gives the officers a random hideout where he knows Gris is not hiding, and puts his own life in danger, but luckily it’s the right location and he saves his own life. After knowing that Gris had changed his location, the author says that, “everything began to spin and I found myself sitting on the ground: I laughed so hard I cried.” (Sartre,15). At that moment, the author realizes how uncertain death is and how clueless people are when anticipating what’s coming next in life. Nonetheless does the author really value his life seeing as he …show more content…

Human beings yearn for wholeness and meaning in their lives and failing to achieve these values puts them in a state of anguish and futility. However individuals are capable of shaping their lives and characters whenever they wish to by making decisions that can shape their own values. Pablo, Tom and Juan are locked in the same room waiting to face punishments for the crimes they have committed against the current regime. They are all facing an existential crisis, but each of them exhibit’s different characteristics as a way of coping with the situation they are facing. Juan doesn’t want to face the fact that he is set to be executed, so he refuses to walk forcing the guards to drag him to the courtyard. Therefore, he puts his fate in the hands of the guards who drag him out to the courtyard. On the other hand, Tom is also afraid to die, but he is courageous enough to walk himself out of the cellar accompanied by two officers. The fact that Pablo is left alone in the cell when his cellmates are taken out for execution also indicates the alienation between him and his cellmates. Besides that, the author also has a difficult time figuring out his own life, since he is offered a chance to give out his friend’s hideout and have his life spared but he decides to lie to them. At first he thinks that he shouldn’t give out Gris’s location since he has a

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