A Life Without Meaning Jean-Paul Sartre's short story The Wall chronicles the story of Pablo Ibietta, a man captured by falangists during the Spanish Civil War. Ibietta is sentenced to death along with two other unfortunates: Juan, a young man whose brother is an anarchist, and Tom, an Irishman who served in the International brigade (253). During their time waiting for execution, Ibietta comes to terms with death and starts to take up a viewpoint in which life is devoid of meaning. The Wall is full of symbolism that suggests Sartre is not speaking only about Ibieta, but also upon the entire state of humanity; by focusing his philosophy through the lens of a man about to die, Sartre effectively conveys a sense of futility about life. Sartre uses the narrative of a man before execution to effectively convey the sense that all humanity is going to die, horribly and with no purpose. As Ibietta points out about …show more content…
Ibietta asserts, “I didn't want to die like an animal. I wanted to understand” (261). This theme of finding, if not meaning, then at least dignity in a harsh world, is important to Ibietta. When the time comes for him to die, he wishes to be fully authentic and face death bravely. This is a conundrum, however, as in the world in which Ibietta lives, there is no dignity in death. He muses that “it's not natural to die” (260). There is an absurdity about this. Ibietta believes that life is devoid of meaning and wishes only to die with dignity, but even this wish is inherently meaningless, as it is impossible to die with dignity. Ibietta's pride ultimately leads nowhere, and it is only after he relinquishes it that he is saved (267). At first glance, the plot twist at the end of the story is not only absurd, but cruelly absurd, ironic, sadistic, and poorly contrived. This initial thought, however, can be examined further and found to have redemption in