Sartre, starts his "autobiography" by talking about his family tree, dating back to the 1850s in Alsace. He starts on his mother's side--not the Sartre side--to make it imminently clear that his originally-German-speaking ancestors or Alsatian tribe had a greater overall influence on him. He tells of the Schweitzers and especially of his Schweitzer grandfather, Karl, who as a teacher of languages and linguist, had the greatest of influences on his life. For example, off-the-cuff, Sartre mentions that his mother is a close cousin of Albert Schweitzer, one of the most famous Alsatians in all of history. Then, without skipping a beat, Sartre moves on--as if to say simply "That is another story": This narration is about me--just as any self-centered child might focus on in his own self-centered narrations.
http://www.opednews.com/populum/http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=15738
In short, Sartre, in his first two pages of writing The Words appears to be giving us a somewhat straight forward and linear autobiography--one in which he might be anticipated to tell us as balanced and evenhandedly as possible about key events in his early years, which in turn affected him and forged him into whom he has become.
However, Sartre's initial paragraph in this biography goes on for more than five pages. By the end of it, one knows that Sartre is not in handing us a traditional progressive autobiographical narration. This author is a philosopher, who is interested in language and is interested in multiple levels of narration and introspection. Nevertheless, within this very-long (five-pages) introductory paragraph, we are shown characters in Sartre's family tree who were destined to be aesthetics, ethical, and religious--all themes of Sartre's life and evident throughout this book.
Similar to the first person "I narrator" in The Bluest Eye, I--as the reader--eventually dismiss Sartre's childhood self reflections as narrator with an authentic childlike voice. I can hardly believe that a child had so deep a knowledge of the cycles of life in literature, reading and writing, or that the voice of Sartre is in any way an accurate depiction of the world and thoughts of the child-Sartre, i.e. who is, nevertheless, the official voice or narrator of The Words. This is because Sartre is suggesting throughout that the book, especially in the WRITING section, that he fairly clearly perceives his world over time as a child and from early youth onwards feels called of the destiny to become a writer--an author, e.g. like many of his heroes who created either the works his grandfather enjoyed or who created the works of fiction, film or comic books that he also swallowed up whole, i.e. as an impressionable and opinionated (but pleasant) child.
An example of Poulou's thinking that is not-at-all-akin to most children is found near the end of the novel when Sartre is criticizing other authors who have proven formative to him in his pre-teen (and possibly later) years. Sartre writes, "Those children lived in a state of terror. They thought they were acting and talking at random, whereas the real purpose of their slightest remarks were to announce their destiny. The author and I smiled tenderly over one another over their heads." [p. 204]
On the other hand, the randomness or rambling stream-of-consciousness with which children speak (or retell events) is certainly part-and-parcel of Sartre's self-narration of his childhood in The Word. This sort of reification or rambling in self-narration is present and insightful in The Words. This rambling may even at time be true for most children pretty much of the time.
From the same paragraph cited above, here is another stream of thoughts or quips by Sartre speaking as a very young teen, "And then everything turned upside down: I would find myself on the other side of the page, inside the book. Jean-Paul's childhood resembled that of Jean-Jacques and of Johann Sebastian, and nothing happened to him that wasn't broadly premonitory." [p. 204] Because Sartre was now inside the book, a la Alice in Wonderland, Sartre as a child or youth could claim that he "shuddered" as he saw for the first time his own future death as witnessed by his grand children reading of it in some future narrative.
While it is true that children and especially young teens do begin to ponder death a bit, it is not often that they can so easily put themselves into the shoes of others--except in games played on the playground or on stage. However, for most children, i.e. without psychological problems, the moments of fear and trepidation passes. For this reason, most children do not know how many times they have died when playing war nor how often they have been killed trying to save their friend or themselves from defeat while fighting to be King of the Mountain. Most everyone shakes off such deaths and then move on. That is what children do well, i.e. in contrast to adults and older teens. Children, as a whole, can forgive, forget and move on. It is older teens and adults who seem more reticent to forgive, forget and move on in the case of disaster or life-changing events. In overcoming his fear of death, Sartre could eventually move on, too.
Meanwhile, concerning Sartre's childhood views of the world, i.e. as exposed in The Words, Sartre's childhood respect for Napoleon is mentioned passingly in The Words. Sartre felt he was destined to become a hero of stature--both in France and abroad. Therefore, some of his exposed childhood fears appear to have had little influence on the long shadow of his life of writings and action. This, too, appears to be a realistic part of the narration--and a personal triumph for Sartre that he came slowly to become a little more comfortable with (despite his overt rejection of the Noble Prize).
Let's focus on young Napolean as a swash-buckling figure in Sartre's childhood as an example of how images powered his self-image. Napoleon, like Sartre, was a physically short man but a giant of his age. It is said that Napolean carried himself tall. When he entered a room, it is claimed that people actually felt that they looked up to him. Like Napolean, Sartre never died in war and was barely five feet tall. This disadvantage (and a bad eye) did not stop Sartre from joining the military in the months leading up to WWII). In fact, after imprisonment in Germany, Sartre successfully worked with the underground along with the French Resistance inside occupied Paris. In short, although Sartre was fearful as a child of many things, including a fear of boredom and a fear of death as a failed author, but inside he was a fighter and hero--often with both action and words as his weapons.
- Discuss both the unique and common experiences of Sartre's childhood and identify which ones seemed to have a determining influence on his development and later, on his choice of career (philosopher and writer).
In some ways, it is difficult to speak of common childhood experiences. Some children are dragged out of their homes and are forced to beg on the street for their parents. Others have to work as migratory laborers. Others are spoiled with more video games every week. Others still have a full family living in their home. Others are divorced and never see one of their parents. Likewise, a typical childhood in Kansas of the 1970s is also not the same as that of the 80s, 90s, 00s, or 10s.
Therefore, I can best compare my own childhood experiences and recollected thoughts or memories to that of Sartre's. My household was not a mixed-generation house hold as Jean-Paul grew up in. My grandparents lived very far away. Likewise, neither did my parents die or separate after I was born. On the other hand, I did have many of the same sort of intense experiences with reading early on that Sartre experienced. Nonetheless, despite my massive exposure to reading early on, writing came to me only after I had finished high school.
Like Sartre, my early world of books was filled with picture books, including the Children's Bible with its fantastic colored drawings. Unlike Sartre, I do not remember adults forcing me nor pushing books on me at an extremely early age (before age 5), but I do know that by the time I was attending school regularly that my mother would come up to my (brother's and) my bedroom to read to us at night. She was reading books that were aimed more at adults or young adults, but the stories were moving and enlightening for ones so young. My mother continued doing this until we were almost into our teens.
Meanwhile, due partially to my family having picked up (uprooted us children) and moved to a new town when I was 9 years-old, I didn't have many friends in my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade years. So, at that time I became an avid reader of not only books--but of encyclopedias, just as was the case for Sartre. Later, in the 5th and 6th grades I came to enjoy doing extra credit by copying out texts from these encyclopedias (and other non-fiction works from the libraries) for my social studies teacher, my history teacher, and my English teacher. I, therefore, early-on practiced the art of plagiarism which Sartre practiced in his formative years of writing tales. In short, I practiced taking out paragraphs from encyclopedias and non-fiction books and enjoyed changing them slowly into my own words.
I should note that similar to Sartre's home, my mother and father had bought an inexpensive, but colored, encyclopedia set before I even went off to kindergarten. So, in a way, I grew up with an encyclopedia as a joy and pal. I could browse through each volume at home before going to sleep at night. Those encyclopedias had interesting photos to look at from all around the world. It was very important to turn one-page-at a time on rainy days or hot summer afternoons. It enabled my fantasy and mind to wander. Importantly, this encyclopedia-set at my home soon proved to be only the beginning.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
