Nausea Themes

Nausea Themes

Madness

Antoine is falling down the rabbit hole, but unfortunately there's no Cheshire Cat to tell him that "we're all mad here."Our man spends the first quarter of Nausea wondering if he is going insane,...

Isolation

It's not easy being green, and it's really not easy thinking that you're the only person in the world who understands the truth about existence. As you can imagine, it can also get a little bit iso...

Appearances

Antoine basically believes in two things: stuff that exists and stuff that doesn't exist. No, not like "adorable kittens" (does exist) vs. "a delicious bowl of pea soup" (does not exist).For him, t...

Time

One of Antoine's many, many issues in Nausea is his messed up relationship to time. Basically, he believes that the world is constantly changing, and that everything is constantly disappearing into...

Life, Consciousness, Existence

From the first page of Nausea, we know that Antoine ain't a happy camper. He's a miserable camper… but at least he's a curious one. This guy has a lot of questions about the meaning of life and e...

Mortality

Hey, what's a good way to make a mopey philosophical treatise like Nausea even more mopetastic? Throw in some death.When—like our man Antoine—you have a tough time believing in the meaning of h...

Memory and the Past

Antoine spills a whole lot of ink thinking about the past. A (hopelessly inadequate) summary of Nausea could be: "Dear Diary, Stuff Happened. Am Sad. Xoxo, Antoine."Antoine takes no comfort at all...

Sex

For many people, sex is one of the most beautiful ways that two people can express their love for each other. But for Antoine Roquentin in Nausea sex can be a completely loveless—and often violen...