Pride and Existentialism Essay

The celebrated existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre claims that being precedes the kernel of human existences. This existentialist claim holds the position that human existences are the highest signifier of animals and that no God or any other greater being exists.

Human existences are created without intent and are entirely responsible for their actions and determinations in life. They are free to make anything they intend to as they are all to fault for the effects that may originate. Simply put. a human being is entirely in this planet and everything depends on this individual ; hence. a individual must keep himself/herself above all the other animals.This manner of believing necessarily includes the construct of pride because a human being considers himself/herself to be above the others. The fact that an existentialist point of position does non hold any respect for a God reveals that adult male himself/herself is god.

Pride. therefore. is an indispensable component of existential philosophy. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Notes from the Underground” . Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Difficult to Find” and Thomas Hardy’s “Hap” all have the common subject that insinuates the construct of pride.Note that non all these writers are existential philosophers but their plants reveal similar constructs which reveal pride in its characters. Pride in Dostoevsky.

O’Connor and Hardy’s Works Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground is considered to be one of the first existential philosopher novels of all time written in history. The fresh revolves around the character of the Underground Man who deems himself to be above all others. This is really apparent in the manner he narrates and speaks to the readers.He is a character who has alienated himself from the populace due to his belief that his rational ability does non fit those of the populace. “Oh. gentlemen. make you cognize. possibly I consider myself an intelligent adult male.

merely because all my life I have been able neither to get down nor to complete anything” ( Dostoyevsky 32 ) . He claims that he I bored with his life due to his inability to move. However. he defends himself by warranting his inactivity as a signifier of intelligence because he tends to believe and analyse things foremost before moving and doing determinations.

His pride reveals how he holds himself to be better than others. “ . . .

a adult male in the 19th century must and morally ought to be preeminently a nondescript animal ; a adult male of character. an active adult male is preeminently a limited creature” ( Dostoevsky 6 ) . Furthermore. he besides tries to warrant that the disdain that he feels towards other people who are able to move on certain things is due to the fact that their think less ; hence. he considers them to be lesser of a individual than he is.The grandma in Flannery O’Connor’ A Good Man is Difficult to Find has certain biass of the young person after her coevals as she steadfastly states that in her clip. “children were more respectful of their native provinces and their parents and everything else” ( O’Connor 34 ) .

This shows her colored belief that “People did right then” which seems to propose that everything is incorrect in her grandchildren’s clip ( O’Connor 34 ) . She ever takes pride in the “rightness” of her clip and denounces the behaviours of the present coevals. She is besides observed to be a racialist when she comments. “Oh expression at the cunning small pickaninny” ( O’Connor 34 ) .

The usage of the word “pickaninny” suggests a rather violative term for a little Negro kid. It seems here that she is ever incognizant of the lip service that her actions and statements are showing. Hence. the complexness of her character lies in the thought that she thinks everything that she says and does is best for everyone around her. This sort of pride that the grandma insinuates is similar to the pride that the Underground Man radiates.

They both consider themselves to be better than others. It seems that everything they do and believe about are right and of the best grounds.In Thomas Hardy’s verse form “Hap” . an existentialist position is evident. The talker clearly does non believe that there is a God but he prefers to hold one so he could at least have something or person to fault his agonies for. Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy. that thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting! ” Then would I bear it.

clench myself. and dice. Steeled by the sense of anger unmerited ( lines 3-6 ) ; The talker tells how agony is much suffering to bear with to believe that it happens by opportunity and without any grounds or intent.The 2nd stanza of the verse form. “Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I / Had willed and meted me the cryings I shed” ( lines 7-8 ) shows how the talker believes that there is no other animal more powerful who is responsible for all of the “tears [ he ] shed” ( 8 ) . Similar to the Underground Man and the Grandmother.

the talker considers himself/herself the greatest of all existences. The lone difference is that the talker prefers to hold person above him/her to take the incrimination. Conclusion Dostoevsky. O’Connor and Hardy’s works portion a similar subject of ego. Ego is an indispensable value in the doctrine of existential philosophy.

However. inordinate valuing of the ego can be considered pride. Pride.

in this mode. is related to existential philosophy because it intensifies the fact that human existences are the highest signifier of being on Earth. Works Cited Dostoyevsky. Fyodor.

Notes from the Underground. Ed. Mary Tattam. Plain Label Books. 1986.

O’Connor. Flannery. “A Good Man is Difficult to Find. ” A Good Man is Difficult to Find.

Ed. Frederick Asals. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 1993. 31-51.

Hardy. Thomas. “Hap.

” Thomas Hardy. Ed. Lance St. John Butler. Australia: Cambridge University Press.

1978.