JeanPaul_Sartre_JeanPaul_Sartre_Basic_Writing

Sartre in the world15Mathieu was in no hurry. He kept his eye on this man; he had plenty oftime. The German army is vulnerable. He fired. The man gave a funnylittle jerk and fell on his stomach, throwing his arms forward likesomebody learning to swim.(Iron in the Soul, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1963, p. 216)In the narrative, Mathieu’s shooting of the German infantyman is a freelychosen and deliberate act for which he alone is responsible. It is a deeplysignificant act metaphysically, personally, and politically. Metaphysically it isthe termination of a life. Personally it is Mathieu’s recognition of his ownfreedom; ‘For years he had tried, in vain, to act’ (p. 217) Sartre reminds us.Politically it is the commitment to resist the forces of right-wing totalitarianism.The Germans shell the clock tower and one by one Mathieu’s comradesare killed. Mathieu is alone and becomes infused with the feeling that he isgoing to die. Facing death alone, as in a profound sense we all must, herealises his own freedom:Just time enough to fire at that smart officer, at all the Beauty of theEarth, at the street, at the flowers, at the gardens, at everything he hadloved. Beauty dived downwards, like some obscene bird. But Mathieuwent on firing. He fired. He was cleansed. He was all powerful. Hewas free.(ibid., p. 225)In the play Men Without Shadows (Morts sans Sépulture, 1946), one ofSartre’s most poignant pieces, captured French resistance fighters arebeing tortured and interrogated by Nazi collaborators. Even under torture,Sartre has his characters choose whether to talk, scream or remain silent.Sorbier deliberately throws himself through the window to his death ratherthan disclose the location of the group’s leader. Canoris chooses to talk.Even under the most extreme duress we still have a choice according toSartre. Indeed, under duress, the agonising reality of our freedom of choiceis inescapable. Bad faith or the denial of freedom is then impossible.Our freedom is a burden that confronts us. It is a source of profoundanxiety because it carries with it a terrible responsibility. I and I alone canmake my choices and I and I alone am accountable to the rest of humanityfor my actions. Sartre illustrates this with an episode from his own lifeexperience in a passage in Existentialism and Humanism. During the SecondWorld War one of his pupils approached him with this dilemma: His elderbrother had been killed by the Germans in 1940 and the young man burnedto avenge his brother’s death and fight in the struggle against Nazism. Onthe other hand, the young man’s mother was sick with grief at his brother’s