The Wall | The Wall: Sartre’s Metaphysical Trap
The author finds in the following essay evidence that despite Sartre’s conviction of the isolation of individuals, ‘‘The Wall’’ conveys ‘‘a greater truth’’ about the solidarity of man.
I
It has now and then been noted that in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre ‘‘The Wall’’ holds a singularly privileged position. First published in 1939, this short story compresses into one vividly rendered situation nearly all the major themes with which Sartre the existentialist philosopher and ‘‘engaged’’ writer has later been concerned. It is thus a veritable epiphany of Sartrean man’s predicament in an absurd universe; and as Walter Kaufmann points out in his Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, it is the best introduction to the ‘‘heart of...
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