The Words

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his autobiography, The Words (1963), when he was 59 years old. It covers the first 10 years of his life. Often compared to Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, critics claim it is a masterpiece of self-analysis. Although it is an autobiography, The Words explores how words, language, and books connect to the human experience. Sartre was a French novelist, dramatist, and existentialist. Remembered as a leading 20th-century existentialist philosopher, he paved the way for the later structuralism movement. He is also known for turning down the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sartre wrote The Words as his final farewell to literature. Books and words played a huge role in Sartre’s life, and he believed that they defined his very existence. The Words is his attempt to distance himself from writing. Wanting to find out who he truly is, he must return to his childhood.

There are two sections, “Reading” and “Writing.” Sartre begins by briefly describing his family history. He then moves on to his early childhood and how reclusive he was. He was very young when he developed an all-consuming fear of death, and he struggled with feelings of worthlessness.

In the second part of the book, Sartre discusses his earliest writing and his fondness for the written word. Finally, he considers to what extent his childhood influenced his adult life, and whether it is possible to separate himself from his writing. At the end of The Words, Sartre mentions that he is writing a new book, but he dies before he completes it.

Sartre was an unusually self-aware child. Extremely self-conscious, he always thought people were judging him. He was highly reclusive and introverted, preferring his own company to playing with friends. Words and books were his main source of companionship, and he liked it that way.

From an early age, he felt life is a performance. He was convinced that we all go through life wearing various disguises and that it is easy to forget who we truly are. As a child, Sartre played various roles, but none of them reflected his true self. For example, some people only knew him as the famous grandson of Charles Schweitzer, a teacher and philosopher related to a once-great medical missionary. Others only knew him as a son, or a student, or a shy boy who didn’t speak much. No one knew the true Sartre—not even Sartre himself.

Sartre talks about his immediate family, especially his father. His father died when Sartre was too young to remember him, and so his father had no impact on his life. His grandfather had the most profound effect on his life and philosophical leanings. His mother, Ann Marie Sartre, returned to her family home after her husband’s premature death, and Charles became a father figure.

Looking back, Sartre believes his mother lost her own sense of identity when she returned to her childhood home. She became like a child who had outgrown the family home but had nowhere else to go. Sartre wonders if his mother’s lost sense of self shaped his own lack of identity growing up.

Without many friends or family to rely on, Sartre turned to books and writing. He spent hours reading books from Charles’s extensive library. He didn’t understand the books because they were too advanced for a child, but he loved pouring over old books, trying to make sense of the world. Many of Sartre’s early childhood memories involve the library.

Charles and Ann Marie praised Sartre for spending his time reading. They assumed that he would grow up to become a genius. Even when he couldn’t be bothered reading books, Sartre visited the library, just so that someone would catch him reading and give him compliments. This is all part of the character role the young Sartre played. He became the prodigal son.

Sartre notes that, if his family were the type that didn’t notice him reading and if they didn’t praise him for it, he is not sure he would have visited the library as much. After reflecting on such questions for many years, Sartre now wants to separate himself from words and books—he wants to know what is really him and what is an act.

In the book, Sartre makes it clear that he loves his family. They cherished him, and he loved them in return. Everyone made Sartre feel special, though he is not sure that he deserved their praise. He does know that somewhere along the years, the line between play-acting and reality blurred. He stopped treating reading as a job, becoming passionate about it. Sartre concludes that it is too late to know for sure who he really is, but books played a monumental role in shaping his true self. He can’t ever separate himself from the words.