According to Sartre, the answer to my title would be our existence is just a pure accident, but we invent “a necessary, causal being” (131) or an essence in order to explain our existence.
In other words, the necessity cannot define our existence which overrules the traditional thought of our existence; rather, Roquenitn claims, in order to exist, it merely means “to be there”, not like we exist for a certain purpose, necessity or essence. (131) Moreover, Roquentin asserts that “[we] can never deduce anything from [existence]” which implies that nothing can be derived from our existence and thus, there is no derived purpose or essence from our existence. (131)
The principle of Sartre’s “no essence from our existence”, relates to Roquentin’s conversation with the Self Taught Man at a restaurant. The Self Taught Man claims that he ought to love every human being as a socialist and Roquentin inquires if the Self Taught Man loves the couple who is sitting behind him. (119) Although the Self Taught Man wouldn’t recognize them if they were in the street, he still states that he loves them for their youth. (119) And, Roquentin responds that the Self Taught Man loves only the “symbols” such as “the Youth of Man, the Love of Man and Woman, [and] the Human Voice” which according to Roquentin, the essence such as the Youth or the Love from one's existence does not exist. (120) And yet, the Self Taught Man exists to love the symbols since “all men deserve [his] admiration.” (120) As a result, the Self Taught Man covers up his existence or hides from his existence by replacing essence in the place of his existence.
In addition, the “contingency” of our existence is “the perfect free gift”, however people “hide from themselves”, themselves meaning their existence by creating an essence to justify their being while “they are entirely free.” (131) Moreover, Roquentin tells when he was thinking about his existence, nothing was in his mind and his mind was empty. (127) And, if someone was to ask him what existence was, he would answer existence is “nothing, simply an empty form which was added to external things” (127) which leads back to Sartre’s principle that essence cannot precede existence since existence is nothing but an empty form.
However, Sartre claims existence precede essence since we are “entirely free” (131) we can create our own meaning of our existence rather than following what seems to be the essence of our existence. Therefore, we have the absolute freedom over our lives and in the end of Nausea, Roquentin commits himself to write a novel since writing the novel is only way for him to “succeed in accepting [himself.]” (178) Therefore, a purpose or an essence doesn't make us to exist, but we exist and then, we understand our absolute freedom and create our own meaning of life.
