The

Wall by Jean Paul Sartre Review

The short story A Wall by Jean Paul Sartre set in Spain during the social
conditions of the Spanish Civil War. It is described in the @irst person point of view of
the protagonist, Pablo, who is of one of three political prisoners, on the night prior to
their execution following a brief interrogation. Pablo internalizes his emotions while
the other two prisoners, Juan and Tom, go through a range of externalized emotions
and outbursts. Eventually Pablo loses all feelings and inhibitions, no longer caring
for his friends, girlfriend, and even desire to live all together.
A doctor and two guards spend the night with the prisoners in order to ease
their last night alive however Pablo sees it as an empty gesture. When daylight
draws, the prisoners can hear constant gunshots in the courtyard and they conclude
their execution is nearing. Juan and Tom are escorted out of the cell to their
imminent dooms while Pablo is taken to an interrogation room and is forced to
make an antagonizing decision.
Written prior to Sartre's activism in political causes, "The Wall" was Sartre's
personal response to the Spanish Civil War during the period he felt hopeless about
the growing forces of fascism in Spain. The story highly embodies the theme of
Sartres philosophy of existentialism, as re@lected by Pablo battling his person vs. self
con@licts and facing his execution, which can only be described as existential
anguish. Followers of this philosophy believe, as did the protagonist, that the
individual is alone in a godless universe and that the basic human condition is one of
suffering and loneliness. The protagonists narration in the rising action thoroughly
delivers Sartres philosophy of freedom and existentialism.

The central theme of the story is most notably displayed through a person
versus society con@lict where Pablo is presented with an antagonizing choice at the
end of the story. Another dominant theme is death. When the protagonist is
sentenced to death, Pablo looks at life in a completely new way. The people that had
once meant so much to him no longer mattered. He also views his remaining few
hours as the beginning of his death. He concludes that death is not natural, for
people lead their lives under the presumption that they will continue to live; as he
puts it, people maintain "the illusion of being eternal."
For Sartre, there is no afterlife, no trace of individual human passage on earth
except for the sum total of accomplishments to be recorded after death. Pablo
stubbornly persists in preserving his code of honour, in his implied commitment to
the liberal cause and in his determination to die cleanly and well, in contrast to
his fellow prisoners ([Juan] ran across the whole cellar waving his arms in the air
then fell sobbing on one of the mats.) The experience is disconcerting but Pablo has
lost all sense of fear and feels that, death or life, all amount to the same for him. He
has nothing to live or die for so, even the promise of a reprieve from execution does
not excite him: I wondered how Id been able to walk, to laugh with the girls: I
wouldnt have moved so much as my little @inger if I had only imagined I would die
like this. My life was in front of me, closed, shut, like a bag and yet everything inside
of it was un@inished.
The wall of the storys title is the wall of the prison courtyard against which
the prisoners are lined up to be shot, however, it comes to symbolize the boundary
between life and death. Pablo crosses this wall before he even dies.

The story was an excellent illustration for a seemingly abstract philosophy

and idea. The prisoners mental descents are charted in exquisite, often harrowing
detail. This short story is de@initely a mature read. I would recommend reading this
after prior research on the author, Jean Paul Sartre, his philosophies and how they
came to be. I would not recommend this for those seeking a calm read with a happy
ending in a world with rainbows and unicorns. The Wall has given me a grimmer
outlook on life, but has torn away at my self-image of being eternal.
As dreary as it sounds, my favourite parts of the story were the protagonists
shocking and thought provoking descriptions of his loss of purpose. The protagonist
was my favourite character, as I would behave the same as he did, (as opposed to the
other two characters). I too, long for a clean death for a hopefully memorable life.