"The Unnameable"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, although Samuel Beckett's novel, "The Unnameable" poses many challenges for the first time reader, there are a few concepts that can provide a basis of unification during the reading experience. It looks at how, although there appears to be no apparent plot, there are multitudes of textual interactions the storyline. The paper also examines how the story surrounds a narrator who is a World War II veteran, who has lost all four of his extremities during combat and now contemplates suicide.

From the Paper:

"Keeping in mind the World War II veteran subplot, let us ponder the Worm. First, consider the garden-variety earthworm an unthinking, unemotional subterranean creature, mindlessly processing decay. The earthworm has no sense of persona nor is concerned with any cultural or ethical moralities. The earthworm could possibly be the ultimate expression of freedom. Indeed, the legless narrator also ponders, what is a worm; " The Worm ... being less than a beast, before he is restored, more or less, to that state in which he was before the beginning of his prehistory" (357). The Worm is described as less than a beast, a non-human entity with origins rooted in the primordial ooze of history. For the narrator, the Worm metaphorically exemplifies complete freedom from modern intellectualism, which can be interpreted as the cause of terminal, mental angst. Further, the narrator yearns; "... to stir from where he is (Worm), in search of a little calm in something of the silence of old" (358). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beckett, Samuel. (1955). The Unnamable. New York: Grove Press, Inc.

More papers on "The Unnameable":

• Book Review # 114439 : "Race and Identity in Ellison's "The Invisible Man"
• Poem Review # 47470 : "W.H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen"
• Comparison Essay # 7673 : "Blindness" and "The Plague"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: