Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Jean Paul Sartre's 'What is Literature" and how his ideas and concepts apply to Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms." Jean-Paul Sartre believed that human beings were responsible for the choices they make in life and that without these personal goals life had no meaning. Sartre's philosophy possessed a Zen-like quality in that meaning could only come from detaching oneself from that which he or she regards as meaningful. Sartre applied his existentialist's views to literature in one of his best known literary essays, "What is Literature." The paper then compares this essay to the writing of Ernest Hemingway. The writer believes that both authors are from that "lost generation" of artists and intellectuals that lived in Paris after World War I creating some of the twentieth century's greatest artistic works.

From the Paper:

"In his essay, Sartre expressed that painting, sculpture and music were simply things, "One does not paint meaning; one does not put them to music. Under these conditions, who would dare require that the painter or the musician commit himself" (Sartre 28)" Sartre believed that writers must be committed politically and socially. A writer's duty is to enlighten the world, give it meaning, according to Sartre, to educate the ignorant. Poetry to Sartre was the same as art and music. The only true writer was the author of prose."

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