Postmodernism and Jean-Paul Sartre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Postmodernism and Jean-Paul Sartre - Essay Example The essay "Postmodernism and Jean-Paul Sartre" discovers postmodernism. Before modernism, there was a very distinct line which separated humans from machines. However, increasing industrialization has transformed us into automatons without feelings. Death was not an abstract thing as long as people remained people and acknowledged the value of social relationships. Transition into mere objects can be explained by increased industrialization which has made human life increasingly mechanical. A mechanical lifestyle has made us â€Å"lose touch with the pulse of life†. Postmodernism has not only introduced us to an absence of social relationships because we have gone beyond that. We have also lost ourselves. Through No Exit, Sartre forwards this argument that we abuse the right to gaze at others so much that we restrict their freedom in addition to objectifying them. All three damned souls in the play also are so infuriated with each other’s gaze upon themselves that they desperately look for mirrors or anything that could help them avoid the burning effect of gaze. It is claimed that in a postmodern life, â€Å"reality itself—i.e., what we have conventionally understood as real—is in a process of disappearance†. In the past, people were considered human beings. Now, they are gazed upon as objects. People are judgmental and they view others as objects. Such is the culture found around the globe in the current postmodern era in which we witness â€Å"the disappearance of the human, the social, and the real† .