Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre in Comparison to Some Other Great Works

For my independent reading project, I chose to read Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre. Nausea is about a man named Antoine Roquentin, a historian who lives in Bouville, France. Antoine starts writing in a journal about the strange feelings he has been having over the past few days. He calls these feelings Nausea. This book is about how Antoine deals with his Nausea and tries to prove his existence in a world that is too afraid to do so itself. Antoine had been studying a man named Marquis de Rollebon before his Nausea took over. He realized that he had been using Rollebon and the past as a whole to justify his own existence. Now he is trying to prove that he exists without that help.

Nausea is very much alike the works that we have read in class. In the book Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, both of the main characters, Estragon and Vladimir, are waiting for this man, or thing, named Godot. They have little to no proof of his existence, and yet they are still waiting. They use things like what the boy has told them in the past to figure out what happens in the future. Antoine does the same thing by trying to prove to other people that he exists. Both of the tasks are close to impossible, but the main characters in each story persist in trying to succeed.

The beginning of Nausea is also related to the book The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. In Nausea Antoine has this fear of doing things that are completely absurd, like holding a stone or looking into a beer glass. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor and his family spend most of their time worrying about what they're going to do, and more specifically Gregor. In general any human turned into a giant pest should have an extreme sense of paranoia. Paranoia was all that Antoine and Gregor were experiencing, and that's how they are related.

In Nausea, Antoine's notes in his journal resemble the mind of Mersault from The Stranger (written by Albert Camus), and The Underground Man's notes as well. Antoine writes down notes in his journal that make little to no sense, and for those that do, they are of little to no importance. Mersault also liked to comment on things that had no significance whatsoever. The Underground man is also part of this because he said that the only reason he was writing was so that he felt like he was accomplishing something. Therefore he probably wasn't focusing on what he was writing, but more of the basic fact that he was writing. These three are all related because of their insignificant comments and/or notes.

In Nausea, Antoine goes to Paris and meets up with Anny, one of his ex - lovers who he hopes will want him back. They talk for a while but eventually he tells her about the Nausea that he has been feeling. They don't communicate very well and he has a hard time trying to explain this Nausea that he is feeling. This feeling of being misunderstood is conveyed very well in Nausea, as well as in The Stranger. Mersault has problems with bright light and with heat that makes him act differently than he normally would. He ended up killing someone because of how miserable he was. The prosecutor at the trial Mersualt has repeatedly asks Mersault why he did it, and Mersault cannot explain it to him, just like Antoine cannot explain the Nausea to Anny. I found that the inability to explain feelings to others was one of the links between Mersault and Antoine that stood out the most.

Overall I enjoyed reading the book. I liked it most because Sartre wrote this on a more balanced scale. Most existential readings I know have more existentialism than plot, but Sartre seemed to find his happy medium in Nausea. This balance made the book easily readable and at the same time I was able to take a considerable amount of existentialism from it.

Nausea was also different from the other existential books that I have read because it has some suspense in it. It was suspenseful when I was waiting to see how Antoine would deal with his Nausea. Waiting for Godot had some suspense in it, but it wasn't the same because it was spread out over time. Vladimir and Estragon weren't in any hurry to find Godot; they were simply waiting for him/it. In Nausea, however, Antoine faces a situation but has to deal with it immediately. These differences are what make Nausea a better read than any of the other existential books I have read.

Nausea can be compared as well as contrasted to many of the other existential books I have read. Some characters have similar traits, and there are things like the journal in Nausea that relate to people like Mersault. Feelings like being unable to convey something and to be alienated in society are common throughout all of our existential reads and are connected in many ways. I liked the book Nausea, and I hope that whoever the current reader of this paper is will be able to go to their library and pick up a copy. Remember, "Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal." -Jean Paul Sartre