Book 15: No Exit and Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre
Wow!
My goal for the foreseeable future is to hang out with minds like Sartre. Reading this book has freed a suppressed urge inside me to read, what they call, tough literature. This book had my mind bent, and put a big smile on my face. How is it possible to be so intelligent, have such vivid ideas about life and the hereafter, and make engaging dialogue about this?
Most existential literature I’ve read of (and about) has focussed on the burden of being alive. This, however, has been so refreshing to read about human freedom, and about the freedom that we have as humans. All of Sartre’s characters wrestle with their own actions as separate from their environments, and live in extremely complex situations. They are not free from consequences, but from the burden of their decision making.
Perhaps this book, which has been lying in my book cupboard for years, came to me at a time when I am contemplating what I want my life to be; what do I want to do now that I am done being afraid and following a set plan, and want more than what’s on offer. Sartre responds to all these questions of life, living, death, and beyond death in a playful and human way.
My favourite scene is in the play titled The Flies which is a retelling of the story of Orestes and Electra. There’s a scene in which he discusses how all humans are free but they don’t know it yet. Zeus explains how all humans are free in their hearts, and once they find this freedom even Gods cannot intervene. I found this academic analysis of The Flies, which I highly encourage reading. Of course, I also urge you to read the play if not all of them.
In No Exit, he describes Hell and this is the play where his famous line “Hell is other people” comes from. No Exit is a play about three people who die and are put together in a room in the afterlife; this is hell as it were. In Dirty Hands he explores the freedom of youth and the prison of society, and how the youth want to repair society by participating in politics. In The Respectful Prostitute he shows American society a mirror, but really that kind of hypocrisy exists almost everywhere today. All these plays, the dialogue, the angst, and the wisdom is as relevant today as it was when they were written.
I am reaffirmed that books come to people when they need them. I needed this book at this time in my life.
🌟4.5/5
amarllyis 
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