The wall Essay Example

The wall Essay The short story, The Wall, by Jean- Paul Sartre, is a story told infirst person stream of consciousness. The main character in the story , is a political prisoner. The characters name is Pablo, and he is being held, along with three other prisoners, during the Spanish Civil War. The prisoners are imprisoned in a hospital that is being used by the Spanish Fascists.The story is a refection of, Jean- Paul Sartres philosophical beliefs in existentialism. Evidence ofSartres, beliefs can be found in his use of: setting, character, theme, literary devices. Sartre was an exponent of atheistic existentialism: Existence is prior to essence. Man is nothing at birth and throughout his life he is no more than the sum of hispast commitments. To believe in anything outside his own will is to be guilty of bad Faith. Existentialist despair and anguish is the acknowledgment that man is condemned to freedom. There is no God, so man must rely upon his own fallible will and moral insight. He ca nnot escape choosing. The setting in the story is a prison cell containing two other men, Tom and Juan. The cell is a dark cold place. As a matter of fact, our cell was one of the hospital cellars. It was terrifically cold there because of the drafts. We shivered all night and it wasnt much better during the day;There was a bench in the cellar and four mats. When they took us back we sat and waited Page 2 in silence.;The setting is significant to the existentialist view, because Sartre believed that humans were ;condemned to freedom;, and by using a cell, Sartre could be representing the world, in which he, believes is reality . The idea of prison is often linked to being a place of confinement, and to be imprisoned is to be locked away from freedom. Based o