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Chapter 12: Saturday noon
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nausea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Existence vs. Essence
Time
Love and Sexuality
Art and Legacy
Summary
Analysis
In the morning, Roquentin sets out on a long walk. He imagines the crowds of people preparing to walk into the city for church. As he turns onto the Rue Tournebride, he joins a mass of other men walking. Roquentin considers the history of buildings and shops as he passes them. Noticing that the president of the Chamber of Commerce is walking next to him, Roquentin also starts to observe the people around him. Stopping for dinner, Roquentin tries to read a book, but finds himself continually absorbed in the gossip and flirtation of a husband and wife at a nearby table. Roquentin leaves the restaurant and starts to walk again.
Today, Roquentin seems to try to blend into the rhythms of those around him as he joins the crowd of people walking through the city. Unlike those around him, though, Roquentin doesn’t have any real destination at the end of his walk. He strolls just to stroll and observe, embodying the modernist concept of a “flaneur,” or a gentleman who walks through a city at leisure. Again, Roquentin takes particular notice of the couples he encounters. Here, he seems to grow either disgusted or envious with the husband and wife’s companionship, which drives him to leave.
Themes
Roquentin strolls down the Rue Bressan, observing the rhythms of the people around him. Thinking himself free to do as he pleases, Roquentin turns to walk toward the sea, a “puddle of light.” He realizes that the working-class crowd around him is resting on their one day off, while he is restlessly driving forward. Observing couples, children, and young women looking at the sky and sea, Roquentin briefly feels fond of the people surrounding him before he reminds himself that he stands apart from them. Suddenly, Roquentin senses a call to adventure and begins walking toward the Sainte-Cécile.
The language in this section, including Roquentin’s description of the sea, grows increasingly impressionistic as he breaks the city landscape down into its component parts. Roquentin’s thought process sheds some light on his persistent sense of solitude during the week. He can only join this crowd of working-class people on the street today because it’s Sunday, the only day of the week that the whole city has off from work. It’s a helpful reminder that Roquentin is a member of a higher socioeconomic class, and it suggests that his lack of work could be one reason why his life seems to lack meaning and adventure. For Roquentin, every day is roughly the same.
Themes
Happy and purposeful, Roquentin reaches out and touches a milestone in the street. He feels a self-awareness that’s at once the same as the Nausea and the opposite of it. Sensing more calls to adventure, Roquentin struggles with whether to proceed to the Place Ducoton or to try going through the Passage Gillet. Ultimately, he decides to go to the Place Ducoton. When he arrives, he makes his way to the full Café Mably and looks through its windows. He sees a female cashier inside and feels suddenly that time has stopped, and that his day has become meaningful in a moment of happiness. Later, Roquentin walks the Boulevard de la Redoute with a feeling of regret, wondering if his brief flashes of adventure are signs that he has wasted his life.
Roquentin’s contact with the milestone contrasts with his inability to touch the stone by the sea at the beginning of the novel. It’s unclear where exactly Roquentin’s brief, manic sense of adventure comes from, but it seems related to his consciousness of time passing. After all, walking in the crowd has made him particularly aware that today is Sunday. This leads him to feel aware of his own place within the context of the city and the world, too. It’s also unclear what exactly happens to Roquentin between looking at the cashier and walking back to his hotel. The omission highlights both the subjectivity of time itself and the fallibility of Roquentin as a narrator.
Themes
