The Wall - This is the title of the book, not of the book review

 by Sonia G.

"The Wall" by the French author Jean-Paul Sartre is a compilation of three short stories published in 1939. The First story, titled "The Wall" depicts  three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. The story is set in the time era of the Spanish Civil War. The title refers to the wall used by firing squads to execute prisoners and also symbolizes the unknowing death the prisoners faced during this time. The author gives this feeling of a black and white film noir while reading which makes it easy to picture it in your head. The story is about a friend looking out for another by telling the police a fake whereabouts and then taking a dark turn.

The second short story is titled "The Room". The title foreshadows the story because it is about a woman whose husband is being sent to an asylum for being deemed clinically insane. The reader is able to easily see into Sartre's existential beliefs with this story because  it is  colorful and fairly realistic in the way it depict the ridiculous, repetitive or futile behaviors people exhibit.

The last story is a novella titled "Childhood of a Leader" and Sartre tells a story about a boy, Lucien Fleurier's journey from age 4 to adulthood of finding his true identity through his own sexuality through Freudian psychoanalysis. This is another story that shows the way Sartre believes human nature is and his strong beliefs in Freud theories. Even though the"The Wall" is more a popular novella, I believe "Childhood of a Leader" is more groundbreaking for it's time. This story explores gender identity, class systems, sexuality, homo-eroticism, antisemitism, and social-constructiveness. This is my personal favorite out of the three stories.