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| Selected Reading by Eric Yahnker.; Sartre's Nausea (1938) |
Why do you think such freedom might nauseate him?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Chapter 45, #2: Freedom? I Think I'm Gonna Hurl
Why do you think such freedom might nauseate him?
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This "freedom" would be nauseating for Campbell because it isn't real freedom. In the world, he would continue to be hated, despised, and treated differently regardless of the trial's outcome. Yet, in prison, there is no one there to judge or despise him. Another thought could be that he doesn't have anyone left out in the world. Those that he surrounded himself with are either dead or in prison. He would be alone; he would have to completely start over. I don't know about you, but the thought of having to start life over alone AND being surrounded by people who despise me is unpleasant and not my definition of freedom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kendall, and add that perhaps he was nauseated because his choices had, in some ways, often been made for him. This is something that I’m not very sure about, but it might be not totally off the wall. While not directly ordered to do things, maybe he felt that his choices were dictated by his circumstances. It may be the same fear that comes with the transition from childhood to adulthood – the previous choices were either made for him, or they were not really choices at all, times when he was technically presented with options but felt that there was only one real choice. Because he did not often make choices entirely on his own, the thought of dictating his own life without thought to his past might be frightening.
ReplyDeleteI believe that he felt "nauseated" at the thought of being free because he had nothing left to do with his life. He couldn't go back to America because Americans believed he was a Nazi, he couldn't go to Germany because they probably knew by then that he was an American spy. His best option would have probably been to follow through with the plan Resi and Kraft thought up which was to escape to some tropical island and change his name. But why even bother? He had noone to live with and nothing to live for at this point in his life. He would have just sat there waiting to die because, as he said, he would never write again.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Campbell believe that Resi loved him? Do you believe she did?
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Kendall. How "free" would he be if he were still hated and rejected by the people of his own country? And, even if he did leave the trial as an innocent man, what choice would he have but to simply return to the way of life he had during the previous 15 years? He would only go back to the boring, lonely, routine of his life.
ReplyDeleteSo how free would he have actually been?
This is Cerina Stiles.
ReplyDeleteFreedom nauseates him because he has been a prisoner for so long. He hasn’t necessarily been in a physical prison for a long time but a mental prison and the shock of finally being free from that is too much for him to handle. It makes him worry about what will come next because being a prisoner is all he has known for so long.
Freedom would nauseate me if I were to be hated for the rest of my life. That wouldn’t feel like freedom at all. Also, he’s never really been free to himself. He’s always had some duty to live up to for something other than his own will. Freedom consists of pleasure and praise one can do at any moment. He never seemed to find pleasure, although he did get praised here and there. But he never praised himself. He’s never felt free, and to finally be free in a legal sense, it’s a world he doesn’t recognize.
ReplyDelete