In Jean Paul Sartre’s 1938 novel, Nausea, the protagonist, Antoine Roquentin questions the existence and purpose of objects and himself. He ultimately discovers the answer to be nothingness for one creates their own meanings and connections to the past and reality. Roquentin is a victim of self-deception and through the narrative point of view and word choice conveyed, it is clear that he lies to himself that he must exist in the present to escape the meaningless past.
Roquentin speaks in the first person narrative, which conveys his attachment and curiosity about the link between time and existence. Furthermore, he questions then tells the audience what they should do, providing them with certainty and confidence that Roquentin’s belief is true. As he speaks in first person, he explains that he does not necessarily belong to a certain time, but rather moments of time. He thinks “the feeling of adventure” (INTRODUCTION ) is when time passes by and time causes the moments to just happen. Roquentin believes he did not see in the past because of his self-deception and constantly lies t...
Wiesel’s community at the beginning of the story is a little town in Transylvania where the Jews of Sighet are living. It’s called “The Jewish Community of Sighet”. This is where he spent his childhood. By day he studied Talmud and at night he ran to the synagogue to shed tears over the destruction of the Temple. His world is a place where Jews can live and practice Judaism. As a young boy who is thirteen at the beginning of the story, I am very impressed with his maturity. For someone who is so young at the time he is very observant of his surroundings and is very good at reading people. In the beginning he meets Moishe the Beadle. Moishe is someone who can do many different types of work but he isn’t considered qualified at any of those jobs in a Hasidic house of prayer (shtibl). For some reason, though young Elie is fascinated with him. He meets Moishe the Beadle in 1941. At the time Elie really wants to explore the studies of Kabbalah. One day he asks his father to find him a master so he can pursue this interest. But his father is very hesitant about this idea and thinks young E...
“In a dark time, the eye begins to see…” When analyzed literally, this quote appears to contradict itself. After all, doesn’t darkness impair vision? However, when applied to Elie Wiesel’s Night, this paradox certainly rings true. It implies that in times of despair, humans often view life in a different light. Sheathed in darkness, the truth becomes illuminated. In Night, the Jews’ “dark time” entails being stripped of their freedom, rights, family, food, shelter, religion, and identity. With the loss of each of these precious possessions, the Jews begin to recognize the worth of such elements. Wistfully, they realize that these belongings should not be taken for granted, that they are truly priceless. As stated by Elie on page 23,“Our eyes were opened. Too late.”
Many people don’t care about something or an issue until it happens directly to them or to their loved ones. Even if it were nations becoming alienated, they wouldn’t want to go near the problem or the unfairness and instead, they choose to runaway. Elie Wiesel addresses this problem in a short paragraph by saying: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere…. Action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.” Elie Wiesel asserts that the world community is responsible to interfere when acts such as mass murder or genocide occur. He says that “silence encourages the tormentor” and “indifference is the most insidious danger of all”. One must speak out against oppression so there can be a difference. When one remains silent and doesn’t act, they are encouraging the person responsible for the genocide, not the victim. Thus, at times when one thinks that they are just being neutral, this neutrality invites more oppression, and even worse, if one were to have a whole nation with this type of mindset. That is why I agree to Elie Wiesel’s contention about standing up against oppression.
Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.
Night is a horrible tale of murder and man’s inhumanity to man. Wiesel saw his family, friends, and fellow Jews degraded and murdered. Wiesel also states in his book that his God, to whom he was so devoted, was also "murdered" by the Nazis. In the novel Wiesel changed from a devout Jew to a broken young man who doubted his belief in God.
“Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death” (Conrad 1). From the beginning of the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist Eliezer is portrayed as a very religious person, and his belief in God is absolute, but as the novels proceeds this sense of faith ends because of the circumstances Eliezer has to go through. One can infer that the changes in Eliezer’s belief were due to several reasons. This essay will be focusing on how Eliezer’s journey of the holocaust causes drastic changes of his views and beliefs in the benevolent God. Some of the reasons why Eliezer loses faith and belief in God include: the cruelty and evil that Eliezer has to witness at the German concentration camps, the selfishness that he sees from people on his journey, and the loses faces due to the war. Therefore, Elie Wiesel has attempted to portray the holocaust as the driving force for the protagonist’s disbelief in God, and has also pointed out how cruelty and evil affects Eliezer’s faith and his belief in the Benevolent.
“It is better to encounter your existence in disgust, then never to encounter it at all.” What Sartre is saying is that it is better to determine who you are in dissatisfaction, rather than never truly discovering yourself. Sartre’s worst fear in life would be to realize that you have never truly lived. For example, if you were to land a career that you were not interested in and you were just going through the motions of everyday life, Sartre would say that life was not a life worth living. Sartre’s goal in life was to reach the ultimate level; he said life was “Nausea” , because we are always trying to reach the next level, we are always in motion. Sartre had two theories that determine our way of life, Being-In-Itself and Being-For-Itself. Being-In-Itself is the ultimate level, if you reach this level you have fulfilled yourself completely, you have lived your life to the fullest. Being-For-Itself is where we as human beings are, we are always trying to work to become perfect. Our goal in life is to find an authentic existence, and we get there by saying no. Sartre’s philosophy of freedom is obtained by saying no, when we say no we are giving ourselves the option of what we do in our life. By saying no, we receive freedom of our life. “You should say no about every belief if there is a doubt about it.” Sartre also says our human existence is always in
In order to explicate Sartre’s notion of intersubjectivity I will follow the progression that Sartre takes in Being and Nothingness. I will first distinguish between “being-for-itself” and “being-for-others”. Second, I will provide an explication of the subject’s encounter with the Other as an object. Third, I will explain the significance of “the look”. Here I will show how the look provides the foundation for the self. I will also show how the look of the Other affects the subject’s freedom.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, humanity is a theme seen throughout. Humanity can be defined in many ways. It can be the disposition to do good, or it can be the human race. In the Night, the theme of humanity is the disposition to do good. In the book, Elie loses and finds his humanity. At the end, he holds on to his humanity, but loses some of it after events like his father’s death. Elie succeeds in retaining his humanity because he holds on to his father, he feels sympathy for people at the camps, and he keeps faith. Elie retains his humanity in the end even though he loses it in the middle of the book.
The book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a horrifying, historic account of Wiesel’s time in multiple German concentration camps. His work gained him a Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech and further lectures enlightened many other readers. Elie Wiesel’s eye-opening Night is very relevant for real life. This stunning book is applicable because of its education about World War II for the Jewish, inspiration to the human race in their day-to-day lives, and because genocide still goes on today in places such as Darfur.
Now what is the reader to make of all this? A brief summary of Sartre's description of consciousness may help. According toSartre man exists on the level of being-in-itself(as a body in a world of objects) and on the level of being-for-itself(consciousness ). The key to understanding Grendel's view of the world is this distinction between the in-itself and the for-itself.Since, for Sartre, being-in-itself is uncreated(he can find no evidence of a creating God) and superfluous("de trop"), it reveals itself as a sort of absurd, meaningless outer reality. But being-for-itself, on the other hand, is the awareness that consciousness is not the being of the in-itself. Its being is revealed in a more paradoxical way-- as an emptiness in the center of being. How can it be aware of itself as an object?Impossible says Sartre. Simply put, the for-itself is the absence or the lack(thus Grendel's "lack") of the objectness of the in-itself . It reveals itself as the nothingness that remains when you realize that your consciousness is not an awareness of an object(such as your body), but rather an awareness of the lack of an object; or,to put it another way, it is an awareness of a nihilated presence.Grendel is proof that only an
In life it is necessary to have fantasy, because without it, life would be dull and meaningless. Life would be so different without dreams, since they are what motivate humans to keep on moving forward in order to achieve their goals. This is what Jorge Luis Borges is trying to explain to the reader in the book Ficciones which is very confusing, but also very deep in meaning. These stories demonstrate a theme of reality vs. fiction which is fascinating because in many of the readings fantasy is required at some point to accomplish a purpose or goal. Each unique story hides a meaning in the text which is a lesson to be learned. The confusion that is caused is similar to a labyrinth in which the reader gets lost. The message is hidden within the story so; it causes confusion to the reader. Events in the story suggest that the story is fiction, because most of the stories have existent scenery. The timing in some stories is from an event or tragedy that has occurred around that date. The reader realizes later on in the stories that unrealistic events began to occur which are impossible to take place in real life. This is when our minds become entangled with facts from our world and others form the impossible.
13th March, 2014 In the poem “Mirrors”, by Sylvia Plath, the speaker accentuates the importance of looks as an aging woman brawls with her inner and outward appearance. Employing an instance of self-refection, the speaker shifts to a lake and describes the discrepancies between inevitable old age and zealous youth. By means of sight and personification, shifts and metaphors, the orator initiates the change in appearance which relies on an individual’s decision to embrace and reject it. The author applies sight and personification to accentuate the mirror’s role.
To begin with the chosen poem is the street written by Octavio Paz in 1963. The poem style is written in free verse consisting of 14 stanzas, the poem does not consist of rhyme patterns or many literary devises. The meaning behind The Street by Octavio is about how Octavio is not sure what he wants exactly sure out of life, After Octavio resigned from being Mexico’s’ ambassador he was not sure if he made the right choice or if what he is going to do now. Although By the end of the poem he is trying to come to terms with his decision so he finally confronts "nobody." The street, by Octavio Paz uses an extended metaphor and imagery to convey the struggle which he has inside of himself. In his poem, “The Street”, Octavio Paz uses the literary devise of an extended metaphor, and imagery, and a mysterious, foreshadowing almost tone to capture the reader’s attention.
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)