Bright Summaries - The Words by Jean-Paul Sartre (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

The Words is divided into two sections titled Reading and Writing. Aside from this single division, the book takes the form of a continuous text without chapters or sub-sections. It is an autobiographical work which is narrated by the author himself, and it tells the story of his childhood in Paris in a family from the Alsatian industrial middle class.

Sartres father died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Anne-Marie, and his maternal grandparents, whom he collectively referred to as Karlmami. This was a portmanteau of his grandfather Karl Schweitzers given name and his nickname for his grandmother Louise, Mamie. The young Jean-Paul or Poulou, as his family called him therefore grew up surrounded by adults, but without a father figure. As a result, he was granted a certain degree of freedom as a child, and his only duty was to make his guardians happy, which meant trying to become whatever they wanted him to be. For example, they reminded him of the supreme importance of books and reading on a daily basis, which was incomprehensible to him, as he had not yet learned how to read. According to Sartre, this led him to start resorting to pretence, as he was at an age when books were still a source of nothing but mystery for him, but he felt obliged to develop an attachment to them nonetheless. He also describes books as standing stones (p. 40) and notes that he was in awe of his grandfathers library, mentioning his fascination with reading and the pristinely ordered shelves on multiple occasions. Books also helped him to find his vocation: to ascend to priesthood (p. 67) and become a sentinel of culture ( ibid .) just like his grandfather.

Poulou gradually taught himself to read, all while lying to both the adults around him and to himself on a daily basis. For example, he pretended to read works by great French authors each day, while secretly just reading summaries of their works in the Larousse encyclopaedia. However, he also regularly shut himself away in his grandfathers study and forced himself to read the works of classic authors, despite never liking them nearly as much as he enjoyed reading adventure novels. Knowing that his taste in literature diverged significantly from what was considered great fiction, he began ignoring his own preferences in order to fit more closely into the persona he had crafted for himself.

Sartre also describes some of the more elaborate deceptions he tried to pull off as a child because of this narcissism. For example, when a friend of his mothers called Mme. Picard came to visit and gave him a handful of questionnaires, telling him Fill it in and have your little friends do the same. You will be building happy memories (p. 107), he decided to try and impress whoever read the questionnaire by making up his answers. However, Mme. Picard immediately saw through his dishonesty, saying, You know, my dear, its interesting only if youre sincere (p. 108).

One day, while on holiday with his mother and grandmother, Poulou wrote a poem to his grandfather, who replied with a poem of his own, starting a chain of correspondence in verse between them, which all of the adults found very touching. By the time they returned to Paris, the young Sartre had practically established himself as a writer. He threw himself whole-heartedly into this new pretence, and would ceremoniously settle down at his writing desk just so that everyone nearby could marvel at him, while not actually doing anything more impressive than thinking about the illusion he was projecting. However, the young Sartres natural fascination with writing developed into something much more profound because of his grandfathers reaction to this behaviour. Karl respected his efforts, but constantly declared that the life of a writer was incredibly difficult, which deepened Sartres resolve and convinced him to truly dedicate himself to writing. His grandfather therefore played a pivotal role in this decision, as noted by Sartre himself: he drove me into literature by the care he took to divert me from it (p. 16).

Writing became a game to him, and he began to love it both because of the enjoyment he derived from it and because of its usefulness. Moreover, it was one of the few hobbies he was able to indulge in: Being an only child, I could play it by myself (p. 143). Sartres story of a habit developed out of necessity could not be further removed from the fanciful tales that more readily spring to mind when we imagine how authors find their calling.

At the age of nine, having accepted his new role as a writer, Sartre was nevertheless assailed by doubts that he could not share with anyone else, particularly about the role of writers and literature. These doubts led to a conversation with the Holy Ghost in a vision (p. 185), which he interpreted to mean that he had been chosen and that he must accept his literary vocation. From that point on, his persona as a writer took on a newly mystical air, and he eventually felt as though he was becoming one with the object of his childhood dreams: My bones are made of leather and cardboard, my parchment-skinned flesh smells of glue and mushrooms, I sit in state through a hundred thirty pounds of paper, thoroughly at ease (p. 194).

In this way, Sartre became one with literature as he became a man. He goes into great detail about the ways that this pretence eventually became part of him, and how the people who watched him and read his work gradually created a persona for him that he no longer had any control over, concluding: I became my own obituary (p. 206).