No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre | Analysis

No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre | Analysis Analysis of No Exit No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre is a play that symbolizes the German occupation of France. He was a soldier in the French Army during World War II and had to face the humiliation of defeat and the suffering of war. No Exit takes place in a room which is supposed to be a part of hell occupied by three people who cannot stand being around each other. This is an allusion to the relationship between the French and German people living amongst each other during the war. In this play, Sartre discusses issues such as freedom, reliance on others, deception, and â€Å"bad faith† (Spark Notes, analysis). In this essay I will discuss the different ideas and symbolization that help the reader understand Sartres conveyed messages about how he views death and how one must handle the present. Also, I will discuss the characters in depth to understand why they handled the situations they were in so differently than the others by comparing and contrasting their personalities. Sartre also was a fir m believer in either a â€Å"being-in-itself†, a being that lets other people control them or a â€Å"being-for-itself†, a being who makes their own choices. Existence precedes essence† was the theme to his belief that a humans consciousness was centered on a being-for-itself, or a being-in-itself (Spark Notes, analysis). Humans have the power to control their choices, thoughts, characteristics, values and certain traits. With this power also comes responsibility for ones choices. This anxiety of responsibility causes people to step back and let others chose and control what they think and do. It is a way to cope and not take responsibility for ones actions. This in turn creates the idea of a â€Å"being-in-itself† instead of the humans usual â€Å"being-for-itself†. In this paper this idea will be discussed and compared with the characters reactions to their own personal reality in hell. The four characters that Sartre portrayed in this play are the valet, Inez, Estelle and Mr. Garcin. Garcin is a journalist from Rio and the first to be introduced to the story and enter the room. His cause of death was execution by a firing squad for trying to desert during a war. The war was not specified exactly, but his excuse for deserting was that he was a pacifist and was standing up for what he believed in. During the play, it is clear that Garcin is able to deal with the idea of their hell better than the other two characters in the room. He sees and understands that the three of them were not put together by chance but actually brought together on purpose to torture each other with the others existence. He stated that the best way to cope with this predicament was for each person to keep to themselves and leave the other be in hopes of being able to coexist peacefully. Throughout the whole story, Garcin looks back into the past and looks at Earths present and tries to make p eace with himself about the evil things he had done to his loved ones on Earth. He completely understands why he is damned to hell and does not question anything about where he is. Inez is the second person to enter the room and is the most destructive of all of the characters. She makes it her mission to cause the most hostility and problems towards the other two people in the room. Her past occupation was as a postal clerk. She believes she is in hell, because she seduced her cousins wife and practiced adultery. The reason for her death was that her lover, her cousins wife, left the stove on while they were sleeping and the gas killed them both. She clearly dislikes men and automatically hates Garcin. In many instances she is obviously competing with him. However, she quickly finds Estelle very attractive and pursues her for the rest of the story. She tries to find any way possible to be closer to Estelle and actually scares her. Estelle is the last person to enter the hell. She i s the most skittish and frightened person in the room. She relies on mirrors to remind her that she is actually there, and when she realizes there are no mirrors in the room she agrees to rely on Garcin and Inez to define her existence. She also strongly believes that she does not belong in hell, being only willing to admit to her cause of death: pneumonia. She refuses to use the word dead but asks everyone to instead use the word absent. Inez pursues her but Estelle informs them that she can only be with a man and favors Garcin. Garcin is briefly interested in Estelle but then quickly puts all of his energy into focusing on Inez and her actions. Estelle finally confesses that she had an affair on her husband and killed her illegitimate child. Lastly, the most mysterious of all characters is the valet.He was the person to lead each individual into the room, rarely answering any questions and only supplies brief, cryptic answers. He informs Garcin of the bell in the room with which h e may be summoned, but it rarely works. The valet is reminiscent of a devil picture. He gives Garcin a chance to escape but knows that because of his personality, he would never leave in fear of Inez passing judgments on him for leaving the room. The characters think that the valet toys with each of them indirectly and causes them great annoyance and problems, such as the furnishing of the room. Existentialism is the rejection of any traditional approach to objective understandings of human behavior. Existentialists choose to study and look at individual humans who exist independently of any sort of community, tradition, or law. In No Exit, it can be a perfect place for existentialism to be observed because of how each character is taken out of his or her element to be picked apart and analyzed. Since there is no way out and no mirrors, the characters are left to decide for themselves if they are really there and have an essence. Sartre questions the differences between existence and essence with each character. Each person has died on earth and is left to only survive off of what they have left of their souls. They are able to see for themselves who they really are due to their closed off situation. A mà ©nage a trios has been created in this play where each character must either ignore or accept the judgments of the others in the room. In the beginning, both Inez and Garc in have a conflict about the way Garcins face looked. She did not like the way his mouth turned and she demanded that he stop. He chose to believe her opinion and tried to stop. This is one of many examples of how these characters agree to rely on the opinion of others to define their existence. Garcin allowed Inez to define his essence. Another interesting point about this work is that Sartre did not describe hell as being a definitive place. He allows you to see that hell could be a state of mind. Sartre most likely wrote this play during the German occupation of Paris and so one can conclude that he compared the eyelid-less stare of the valet to the Nazis and their surveillance of the French people. Garcin is deeply bothered by the valet staring at him because of his fear of being judged by others questioning eyes. Sartre practices the technique of exposition, or giving a detailed background to each character, to introduce each character by placing them in an awkward and strange situation. Sartre also foreshadows many of the major points of the play before they occur later on. For example, every character is already dead and yet they still are in denial and continue to think of themselves as alive. They continue to make comments like nothing is different about their lives and refuse to accept where they are at first. Also, there is foreshadowing of the character development between Garcin and Estelle. In the beginning when Estelle first sees him, she recognizes him and connects him with her lover on earth. This foreshadows their relationship later on in the story. Existence and essence is also talked about with the example of how Estelle relies on a mirror to believe that she is really there. She relies on material things to define her existence. Inez on the other hand refuses to let other peop le define her existence or essence. â€Å"She claims that she is always painfully conscious of herself† (Spark Notes, analysis). Hell is other people is also a main topic portrayed in this play (Scridb). Estelle needs Inez to be her mirror but it is not possible for her to assist Estelle fully because they have different opinions about appearance. There will always be a difference in the way they would see each other. Inez greatly dislikes the way Garcin looks at her, and feels like he is always judging her. Garcin also hates the idea of other people judging him for what he has chosen to do and would stop at nothing to prove them wrong, even if it means him staying in the room forever. Both Estelle and Garcin refuse to let go of their pasts and accept what has already been done. They each cause their own hell, and it seems like a never ending cycle of personal torture. They still both act like they are in the past and refuse to look at the here and now, unlike Inez. She clear ly sees her present and understands that the past cannot be altered, and so she decides not to linger on it. â€Å"All you own is here† is an evidently true quote said by Inez that greatly emphasizes the idea of acceptance (Spark Notes, analysis). Garcin, towards the end proves that he has the least amount of self understanding and worth. He is unable to decide on his motives as to why he ran from the war and whether he considers himself a coward or not. He asks Estelle to tell him what her opinion is and relies on her to convince him either way. Just like Inez, Garcin is extremely worried about others laying judgments on him, and fears a lack of control. He believes that now that he is gone, he has left his memory and legacy in other peoples hands to do what they please with it. He gives his freedom to define himself to others. He has now became a being-in-itself. This is the whole reason why he chooses to not leave when the valet opens the door for him. He believes that peo ple will always judge him from the choices he has made in his past, and decides to damn himself to the room for eternity. Sartre powerfully shows that hell could simply be other people by putting Garcin, Estelle and Inez together. Hell can be a mindset and not just a physical place. Just the power of each persons gaze on one another takes away from each persons individuality as a whole. There is no need for physical torture when the mere existence of the other causes enough anguish. Each character loses and ignores their given freedom and responsibility. No Exit is an extremely interesting piece of literature which I recommend to anyone who wants to see an abstract way of looking at life and its many important themes. Responsibility for ones actions, acceptance of others, self-reliance on defining ones self, existence, concentration on looking at the present and not dwelling on the future are very important ways of operating life which are echoed throughout this work. Each character symbolizes weaknesses in which many people have and can relate to. Bibliography 1. Scribd. â€Å"No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre.† Non-commercial copyright. 9 May. 2008. . 2. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on No Exit.† SparkNotes LLC. n.d..17 Nov. 2009. .

Philosophy I Think Therefore I Am Essay

‘Cogito ergo sum’, meaning I think therefore I am, Rene Descartes is the man credited to these few words. The quote originally written in French, comes from The Discourse on Method, but also appears written as the famous Latin, â€Å"Cogito ergo sum,† in his Meditations on First Philosophy, which was an attempt to find foundational truths for knowledge. The book contains six meditations that attempt to discover what is real by first doubting absolutely everything and starting from scratch. In this way, Descartes starts at the bottom and works his way up into believing in the existence of worldly things. For Descartes the essence of the self is the ability to think, in order to actually have an identity, you must be able to think. In many of Descartes works he emphasizes this point. In order for one to have an identity, you would have to be aware of your thinking, reasoning, perceiving processes. If someone was consistently unconscious of all of the for-mentioned things than it is impossible to actually have a perception of the self. Cogito, ergo sum is one principles of Descartes theory, where he is basically saying that if someone can not think, or have a conscience mind then they do not exist as an individual. It was the foundation upon which knowledge could be built. Although we can doubt our senses, we cannot doubt our thinking as doubting is a thought. And as one cannot think without existing and as we think, it follows that we exist. Many people now reject Descartes’ point of view, but I completely agree. If we can’t not think how can we truly understand our surroundings and adapt as all humans are naturally born to do. Our ability to think is completely dependent on all of the things we perceive with our minds. Though sometimes our senses can be a deceiving it is completely up to our minds and our thinking ability to be the decipher, the clear thought in the sea of confusing and discourse.

L’oreal and the Globalization of American Beauty

MGO403 HW4 <L’Oreal and the Globalization of American Beauty> How did L’Oreal become the world’s largest beauty company? What was the role of acquisitions in the growth? The global strategy of Loreal started first from European countries like Austria, Italy, and the Holland providing hare care and hair color products. After the launch in the USA, they decided to expand their market share by mainly M&A of many similar but way smaller companies. With proper acquisition strategy over the years, they finally became the largest company in beauty industry. L’Oreal offers consumers worldwide â€Å"American† and â€Å"French† concepts of beauty.Are there any limits to the national beauty images it can globalize? There may be some limits for Lorear to go more ‘worldwide’ even if they have huge branches and offices over the world. I think it may be related with ‘racial issues’. The society for ‘minority’ is changing faster than ever before, but still, the ‘majority’ of American and European countries are white but Asian, African American, and Hispanic. Thus, if they really care about optimal ‘globalization’ in all ways, they should probably consider making their diversified strategy in other markets (minorities)What are the global opportunities for Kiehl’s? What are the limits, if any? Even though Kiehl’s were taken over by Loreal through M&A, their products are not easily found at many stores, unlike there are so many producsts of Lorean in any store. And this is mainly because their products line are simply expensive targeting luxury market, so I think if they really want to go ‘global’ they should find proper way to make their products easily available to the customers through mega-stores like walmart, or target.

The Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Development Essay

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.†¦show more content†¦This trend was also prevalent in the right hemisphere for bilinguals however not seen in monolinguals (x = 56, y = -53, z = 42; Z-score = 3.4; P0.001). Voxel-based morphometry revealed that overall proficiency correlated neg atively with age of acquisition (P0.01; r=-0.855) and second-language proficiency correlated with grey-matter density in exactly the same left inferior parietal region previously identified by a different study (x = -48, y = -59, z = 46; Z-score = 4.1; P0.05). (Mechelli, 2004) Bilingualism itself can be held responsible for increased levels of executive control and higher brain plasticity. In order to maintain a balance between two languages, the bilingual brain depends on executive functions, a monitoring system of general cognitive abilities that includes processes such as attention and inhibition. Laurent et. al 2010 aimed to determine bilingual experience enhances the development of phonological awareness. Children were exposed to early learning of a second language between the school grades 3-5 in primary school, ages ranging from 8 to 10 years old. 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