Waiting for Godot and Absurdism: A Philosophical Analysis

A primary complaint against existentialism is that its analysis of freedom and responsibility generates paralysis or immobility because these concepts seem so big, deep, and overwhelming. Sartre responds by arguing that paralysis itself is a choice, and since freedom has no a priori basis for our choices, we must choose our attitude toward this reality. The condition of radical freedom is not necessarily an occasion for paralysis but rather an opportunity to become the artist of one's existence, creating meaning and direction for life. This response transforms what could be seen as a weakness into a call to action, emphasizing that existentialism exhorts individuals to take up the reins of their lives in a deeper, more fundamental way than deferring to ready-made answers.

From childhood, Sartre suffered when he couldn't control how others perceived him. The experience of shame reveals we are always under the eyes of other people, and our self-consciousness is shaped by being observed. The implication is that comfortable human relations are impossible - there is always conflict between being an agent and an object. His play 'No Exit' declared 'hell is other people.' He carried his ideas into personal life with Simone de Beauvoir, maintaining 'necessary love' while allowing 'contingent relationships.' Between 1958-1968, 'liberty' vanished from his writing as he became less interested in the individual. The only freedom he believed in was collective freedom. In 1964, he refused the Nobel Prize. During May 1968, he helped students protest, convinced that conflict in human affairs was inevitable and the main threat to freedom came from the state.

Jean-Paul Sartre's play 'No Exit' presents three characters discovering they are in hell because each identity depends entirely on others' validation, leading to mutual torture. The existentialist insight is that true freedom comes through personal choices rather than external validation. However, radical non-duality goes further by pointing out that even the ego is an appearance - there is no one home doing any of this. There is just life happening, with radical freedom for things to be exactly as they are without any feeling that it could be otherwise.

Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism presents consciousness as fundamentally free—like a torch that highlights objects but remains separate from them. For Sartre, our true selves are this free consciousness, transcendent and unencumbered by emotion, masks, or external scripts. He argued that no matter our circumstances, we are always free to choose otherwise—what we do determines our identity, not the reverse. This radical freedom leads to 'bad faith' when we avoid honest examination of ourselves and our situations, telling convenient stories and finding comforting excuses. This creates tension with Kierkegaard's view that too much reflection prevents action. Meanwhile, thinkers like William James showed that people have multiple social selves adapted to different contexts, challenging notions of a single authentic core.

Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher who developed existentialism, argued that humans are 'condemned to be free' because once thrown into the world, we are responsible for everything we do; he believed that freedom is not given but must be actively chosen and exercised, and that we must create our own meaning and values in a world without predetermined purpose, as exemplified by his novel 'Nausea' and his play 'No Exit' (where 'hell is other people').

After World War II, literature underwent a global shift toward reflexivity: mass production of works questioning values of progress and asserting individual identity, beginning of the 'era of conscience' and reassessment. The atomic bomb created a global information society and determined global power distribution. This period differs radically from pre-war times because man-made apocalypse became tangible, transforming humanity's view from 'benefactor of the world' to 'destroyer of the world.'

Antonio Gramsci's observation that 'the challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned' becomes central to understanding post-WWII artistic response. Survivors of concentration camps and atomic bombings faced the difficult task of not becoming disillusioned while building a new modern society. The post-war period inspired profound reflection on how to assimilate war lessons in Europe and Japan while recognizing the question among the colonized for the end of colonial empires. Both victors and vanquished had to institute programs ensuring smooth transition from bellicose to peaceful periods.

Modernist writers confronted reality's instability and post-war disillusionment. The novella abandoned clear structure for random life slices, entering at arbitrary moments with unresolved narratives. Franz Kafka depicted individuals trapped in incomprehensible systems, leaving readers similarly confused. Rainer Maria Rilke's stream-of-consciousness technique captured subjective experience. Bertolt Brecht developed epic theater rejecting emotional identification, demanding critical analysis. After World War II, writers grappled with Adorno's question: 'How can one write poetry after Auschwitz?' Early rubble literature featured sober, stripped-down prose. Germany's division into East and West produced contrasting trajectories—East German social realism required positive role models, while West German writers experimented freely. Günter Grass's 'The Tin Drum' grotesquely revisited Nazi Germany. Thomas Mann's 'Doctor Faustus' explored demonic bargains. The literature confronted guilt, trauma, and responsibility while navigating Cold War divisions and the ongoing struggle to reconcile with historical atrocities.

This section explains modernism (modernizm) as a literary movement that emerged in response to the devastation of World War I and World War II. Modernism derives from 'moda' (fashion), meaning what is currently valid, and involved rejecting traditional literary rules. Writers questioned the validity of traditional morals and values that had failed to prevent catastrophic events. Modernist literature focuses on individuals who are skeptical about reality, feel alienated from society, experience crisis and depression, and may be drawn to suicide. These characters feel disconnected from society despite living within it. Modernist writers broke away from traditional narrative structures, with plot and setting taking secondary roles. Key writers include Nezih Meriç, Bilge Karasu, Yusuf Atılgan, Oğuz Atay, and Ferit Adalet Ağaoğlu.

Modernism (1890s-1950s) was a radical literary movement emerging from post-WWI disillusionment, characterized by a break from Victorian morality, pessimistic views of societal decay, and experimentation with narrative form; key features include radical disruption of linear narrative, focus on individual consciousness through stream-of-consciousness techniques (exemplified by Joyce's Ulysses and Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock), and interior monologue, along with heavy symbolism and everyday language fragments.

Albert Camus's philosophy of absurdism teaches that since the universe is silent and indifferent to human longing for meaning, we should not seek escape through religion, nihilism, or invented meaning, but instead embrace this confrontation with the absurd by living fully, loving fiercely, acting ethically, and creating passionately without illusions; this rebellion against the void represents a form of freedom and dignity rather than resignation.

Albert Camus begins with the idea that humans constantly seek meaning in life, but the world remains silent in response. This confrontation between our desire for understanding and the world's silence is what Camus calls 'absurdity.' The world does not provide answers because it makes no promises to us. Camus's concept of absurdity is not a catastrophic event but our everyday reality - the world is indifferent and does not provide meaning, structure, or purpose. Camus believed there are three responses to absurdity: escape into religion or ideology that promises meaning, physical or internal suicide (giving up on life), or rebellion - living despite absurdity without denying it or embellishing it. The famous example is Sisyphus, who finds meaning in his struggle despite the absurdity of his task. The solution to meaninglessness is that since there is no meaning, we are free to create our own. We must create meaning through our actions because there is no final truth.

Albert Camus described the human condition as fundamentally absurd—the gap between our desire for meaning and the indifferent universe. Using the myth of Sisyphus, he illustrated humans eternally struggling against an uncaring cosmos, rolling boulders up hills only for them to roll back down. Camus rejected suicide as surrender to absurdity; instead, he proposed rebellion: looking at the indifferent universe and smiling anyway. The rebel accepts there is no inherent meaning but chooses to live fully regardless. Camus argued that the very recognition of absurdity—the awareness that our efforts ultimately matter to nothing—is itself the highest form of meaning. By embracing our mortality and the futility of seeking external purpose, we become truly free.

Albert Camus' philosophy of absurdism addresses the discrepancy between humanity's desperate search for meaning and the universe's irrational, meaningless nature. Once aware of this absurdity, humans have three choices: return to daily life and ignore the problem, commit suicide, or rebel by accepting the absurd and finding happiness anyway. Camus illustrates this through Sisyphus, who recognizes his eternal punishment yet chooses to be happy in spite of it. The Baboon jogging up the same hill every day represents embracing the absurd by carrying out meaningless tasks with happiness. The show shows that the task becomes easier each day, though one must do it every day. The Wild Horses represent absurd heroes who run purely for their own sake rather than toward any goal. The show presents family as a potential solution to the void created by existential meaninglessness, with BoJack's attempts to connect with family members representing his desire for belonging beyond self-destructive tendencies.

Albert Camus found the mismatch between our desire for meaning and a silent, indifferent universe to be absurd. Rather than replacing the Absurd with fabricated meaning, he advocated for embracing it fully. This means accepting that life has no inherent meaning, recognizing the futility of searching for it, and living anyway. The approach is to rebel against the Absurd by living fully in each moment, doing things completely because this moment is all there is.