Philosophers throughout the ages have had to come to terms with the existence of God. If God exists, then philosophical ideas such as determinism and a perfect ideal of existence are concepts that can be discussed effectively. However, if there is no God, then there is no higher moral power to strive for, no meaning of life beyond life itself. Although many philosophers starting in the 18th century began to conceive of a world in which God did not in fact exist, most were not willing to give up the idea that a code of being still existed in a perfect, objective form. What existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre did was expose the falsity of any value system in a world where God does not exist. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In “Existentialism and Humanism,” Sartre writes that there is no possible concept of values ​​existing a priori to what we do with them. He describes a French movement that attempted to postulate that even without the ideal of God, values ​​could still exist: “nothing will have changed if God does not exist” (“Existentialism and Humanism,” 40). However, as Sartre postulates, the nonexistence of God changes everything. If God does not exist, then there are no a priori notions of good or evil, nor ideals of existence that men do not create for themselves. While many critics of existentialism argue that this philosophy takes away freedom and power from man, making all actions and thoughts arbitrary, Sartre instead sees this philosophy as a power: while man does not determine his own existence, he has the power to use your own life. in any way you choose. Sartre's first and most famous philosophical novel, Nausea, tells the story of a man coming to terms with this subjective reality of his life. Antoine Roquetin, the hero (or anti-hero) of the novel, must confront the central assertion of existentialism: that if there is no God, then man's existence precedes his essence: "man exists, he presents himself, appears on the scene, and only then defines himself... Man is nothing other than what he makes of himself" (36). Roquetin feels "nauseated" when he begins to realize the idea that in everything existence precedes essence, or that he, as a man, is capable and responsible for defining everything he sees; that there is no essence, whether of objects, feelings or memories, which is not what a subjective individual sees ago Nausea is a visceral, undigested realization that becomes less and less physical as Roquetin begins to accept this realization and live his life accordingly. essence, through its connection with the color of objects. Color plays a very important role in this novel because color is the essence of essence. When we describe an object, its color is often the first thing we refer to, yet what is more subjective than color? How do you know that your definition of red is the same as someone else's? It is impossible to know that when I say something is red, and another person agrees with me, they are not actually seeing what I call blue. Antoine writes about an experience in his favorite bar?. He observes the bartender and notices his suspenders: "the suspenders are difficult to see against the background of the blue shirt...but it is false humility; in fact they do not allow themselves to be forgotten...as if, starting to turn purple, they stopped somewhere along the road without giving up their claims... Nausea is... in the braces" (Nausea, 19). Antoine's nausea physically reminds him that he is trying to define suspenders as purple, as if purple were an objective reality and themeaning of their existence. However, the purple color of the braces is entirely subjective: they are purple because Roquetin makes them so. His statement that Nausea exists within the braces demonstrates his refusal to accept the responsibility that comes from admitting the control he has over the essence of these braces. However, we see his acceptance of this fact later in the novel. In the climactic moment, when Antoine fully accepts that existence precedes essence and that color itself does not exist, he writes: "Adolphus's suspenders...were not purple" (130). Saying that the suspenders were purple as he initially did suggests that purple can be considered an ideal of purple that exists for all men. Saying that they were not purple does not mean that they were another color, but that their existence has nothing to do with their being purple, the braces, like all objects exist without any value that defines them, those values ​​are assigned by every man as he chooses. The nausea Antoine feels outside himself looking at the braces becomes a nausea he feels inside himself when he begins to consider his attempts to write a biography of a historical figure named Robellon. He spent much of his life writing about this man, trying to understand who he was. But just as he notices that the braces in the café? they simply exist, without any value that objectifies them, also reaches the same conclusion regarding Robellon's life. At the beginning of the novel he comments that in the ten years he has spent studying this man he still cannot define him objectively: "what is missing in all the testimonies [about Robellon] is firmness and coherence... they do not seem to concern the same person" ( 13).What Roquetin is realizing is that he will never find a higher truth about Robellon than he chooses to believe about him. In fact, he realizes that all historians define history; that there is no more objective truth in the past that in the present. A biography of Robellon's life would be no more truthful than a fictional account. This sickening realization that the last ten years of Roquetin's life were spent trying to find an ultimate truth from the past leads him to another important one. principle of existentialism, what we could call presentism: "the true nature of the present has revealed itself: it is what exists... The past did not exist... things are entirely what they seem and behind them... there is nothing" (96). Immediately after accepting this knowledge Roquetin thinks he feels nauseous again, but instead he writes "it wasn't as if...Mr. Robellon had just died for the second time" (96). The past does not exist, it lives only through subjective memory, so Roquetin must accept the idea that he will never truly "know" Robellon, just as he will never truly know himself in the past. He believes he feels Nausea because it is his usual reaction to the realization of existence, but in this case he has already accepted that the past is a void, so he does not replace his conscious realization with physical pain. The past is a void also leads Roquetin to realize that the future means nothing objectively. If we cannot gain anything from the past, then looking to the future is equally useless, because any action we take with an eye to the future will no longer exist once the future is present. The very idea of ​​the future implies that the past remains alive, this becomes clear to Roquetin even in his personal life. He receives a letter from a past lover, Anny, who wants to see him in a few weeks. As he thinks back to his relationship with this woman, he tries to recapture the feeling of love he felt for her in the past. He particularly insists on his notion of "perfect moments", or moments of perfection..