Analysis
The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett is very unusually written as it has no distinct plot or character development. Thus, the story resonates with Beat Generation writers, such as William S. Burroughs. Similar, to Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, the plot, what little exists of it, is the meandering thoughts of a series of consciousnesses. The Unnamable has no real distinguished identity. Instead the writer considers the very reality of humanity and what it means to be one’s self. Are we ever really just one person? Do we have free will over our beings? These are the questions this text elicits. The Unnamable, the narrator, has three consciousnesses that are intertwined throughout. At times these consciousnesses are distinct, at other times they are molded into one. Mahood, Worm, and Basil bounce between recognizing one another as separate entities to being combined. It could be read as a a man’s attempts to make sense of himself. Below he alludes to such:
Dear incomprehension, it’s thanks to you I’ll be myself, in the end.
Like the quote suggests, the thoughts of the Unnamable often recognize absurdity and confusion. He thrives in incomprehension and this is where he is most at home. Often times the narrator will say one thing and backtrack to say something different. For example,
You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.
Here he not only bounces between definitive thoughts, he also changes the tense in which he is speaking. It is made unclear here, yet again, who the Unnamable is speaking to or if he is merely thinking. It reads as a stream of consciousness between multiples of the same person. It is truly unique in its style, subject, and form.
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