Passages Implicating Existential Ideas in Stoner

Existentialistic ideas (from “The Legacy of Passages in the novel (implying the ideas)
Existentialism”)
Existentialists speak of a feeling of the 1. Except for Edith’s absence from it, his life
“anguish,” “anxiety,” or “nausea” that comes was nearly what he wanted it to be (Chapter
from confronting a brute world of “being” devoid VI Author about Stoner)
of any built-in design or purpose 2. He had been unable to discover for her any
meaning in their life together, in their
marriage (Chapter VIII Author about Stoner)
our being suspended over “an abyss of 1. and they would become a meaningless part
meaninglessness standing face to face with our of the stubborn earth to which they had long
own “being-toward-death” (In the end of ago given themselves (Chapter VII Author
Existentialism Today section) about Stoner’s parents)
2. that in the long run all things, even the learning
that let him know this, were futile and empty,
and at last diminished into a nothingness
they did not alter (Chapter XI Author about
Stoner)
Existentialists have characterized human 1. “In the world you would always be on the
existence as involving a profound tension or fringe of success, and you would be destroyed
conflict, an ongoing struggle between opposing by your failure.” (Chapter II Masters to Finch)
elements (Beginning of Human Existence 2. “Well, in the world you’d fight the world.
section) You’d let it chew you up and spit you out, and
you’d lie there wondering what was wrong”
(Chapter II Masters to Stoner)
3. Their lives had been expended in cheerless
labor, their wills broken, their intelligence
numbed (Chapter VII Author about Stoner’s
parents)
For existentialists, then, we are what we do in 1. You must remember what you are and what
the course of living out our active lives. We are you have chosen to become, and the
self-creating or self-fashioning beings. We define significance of what you are doing (Chapter II
our being through our ongoing choices in dealing Sloane to Stoner)
with the world (Towards the end of Human 2. He suspected that he was beginning, ten years
Existence section) late, to discover who he was; and the figure he
saw was both more and less than he had once
imagined to be (Chapter VII Author about
Stoner)
For the existentialists, life is a task and a 1. And we shall survive—because we have to
challenge. We can either recoil from our (Chapter II Masters to Finch and Stoner)
responsibility for our lives, pretending that we 2. Even though he had a high fever, he had
are forced to act in certain ways by circumstances started out early in the morning to get some
beyond our control. Or we can embrace our planting done (Chapter VII Author about
responsibility for self-fashioning and seize on Stoner’s father)
our lives with clarity, integrity and courage 3. Though he was to teach only the fundamentals
(Last para of Human Existence section) … he looked forward to his task with
enthusiasm (Chapter II Author about Stoner)
Existentialists make an effort to try on hold on to There are many instances that shows that Stoner
the “passion” or “engagement” that normally has a passion towards everything he does
makes manifest the significance and value of 1. He had a vague notion of saving money to go
what we encounter in actual life (Towards the abroad, so that he could show Edith the
end of Being-in-the-World section) Europe she had given up for his sake
(Chapter V Author about Stoner)
2. William fell instantly in love with her; the
affection he could not show to Edith he could
show to his daughter, and he found a pleasure
in caring for her (Chapter V Author about
Stoner)
3. “Mr. Walker, you should know this is a rather
specialized class, and I don’t encourage
people to enter it unless they have a
particular interest” (Chapter IX Stoner to
Walker)
William James says, even to refuse to make a 1. You do have a choice, and you’ll have to
choice is to make a choice. Because I am the make it for yourself (Chapter II Sloane to Stoner)
totality of what I do … According to 2. He [Stoner] met Masters and Finch and
existentialists nothing compels us to choose one told them that he would not join them to fight
course of action over others (Beginning paras of the Germans (Chapter II Author about Stoner)
Freedom section) 3. When Stoner refuses the post of
Department Chairman Finch offers him – “I
hadn’t thought about it, but—no. No, I don’t
think I’d want it” (Chapter X Stoner to Finch)
Existentialists generally believe that it is our own He saw it as the great University library, to which
freely chosen stance or orientation that new wings might be built, to which new books
determines how the world will show up for us might be added and from which old ones might
(Middle of Freedom section) be withdrawn, while its true nature remained
essentially unchanged (Chapter II Author about
Stoner)
We are ultimately responsible for giving our He found himself wondering if his life were worth
lives a meaning (Middle of Authenticity section) the living; if it had ever been (Chapter XI Author
about Stoner)
Authenticity is what we might call “self- it was himself that he was slowly shaping, it was
focusing”: giving coherence and integrity to himself that he was putting into a kind of order,
one’s life, creating oneself as a work of art, by it was himself that he was making possible
imparting a unifying style to everything one does (Chapter VI Author about Stoner)
(Towards the end of Authenticity section)
Schopenhauer’s cycle of life It’s like it all just goes around and around and
keeps on going. It makes you wonder (Chapter VI
Finch to Stoner)