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Chapter 1: Editors’ Note
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
Worried that he has undergone a “change” (which he doesn’t directly describe), Roquentin considers journaling. He muses that if he keeps a detailed diary describing the objects and people around him, he can tell once and for all whether he has changed. Roquentin briefly details the events of Saturday and the day before yesterday. On Saturday, he picked up a stone to throw into the sea, but became abruptly disgusted by it, dropped it, and left. A group of children playing nearby laughed at his erratic behavior. Roquentin still doesn’t know what about the sea or the stone disgusted him. He doesn’t record exactly what happened the day before yesterday—only that he felt an inexplicable fear. Roquentin reassures himself that his confusing feelings toward objects do not make him insane, although he isn’t certain of this.
Roquentin decides to document his perceptions of the world around him, scrutinizing his own mind in the process. He finds that he has begun to see mundane things very differently. Even something as simple as a stone now inspires feelings of fear and disgust, and at this point in the story, Roquentin can’t pinpoint why that is. Roquentin’s notice of the crowd of children mocking him highlights his loneliness and paranoia. Isolated as he already is, a single man in a big city, he is afraid of people thinking that he’s insane. Even in his private journal, he finds himself unable to confront the idea.
Themes
Sometime later, Roquentin feels much better. He watches the street traffic outside his window and describes it in detail, feeling comfortable in his observation of the world. Hearing the footsteps of a familiar stranger ascending the stairs of his hotel, Roquentin feels completely reassured by the routine of the night. He decides that he is cured of whatever problem he was experiencing and prepares for bed. Roquentin plans to abandon his diary. The entry trails off mid-sentence as he ponders what would make a journal interesting.
Roquentin is experiencing bursts of a completely unfamiliar mental state, so when the world’s rhythms are recognizable to him, he’s relieved. For all that Roquentin has only taken up journaling to document his concerns, observation seems to be natural for him. His lack of active participation in society makes him attentive to the details of his surroundings.
Themes
