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Chapter 30: Sunday
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
Roquentin’s encounter with Anny marks the end of his efforts to find a reason to live. He dwells on his utter freedom and loneliness, thinking that his life has effectively come to an end. Roquentin climbs to the top of a hill and looks down at Bouville, feeling like a total stranger compared to the people going about their predictable, working-class lives below. Their lives follow a pattern and schedule, but Roquentin conceives of a threat lurking in the city. He imagines what would happen if it took hold and everyone in Bouville felt the way he has, entertaining grotesque visions of body parts becoming insects and pimples becoming extra eyes. He compares himself to Cassandra, unable to warn the city of what might come.
Roquentin is just as free as he was at the beginning of the novel, but he now has a better understanding of what freedom means for humanity. With freedom comes the obligation to make choices that determine the meaning of one’s life. Now, Roquentin observes the city from a new vantage point, and he imagines that the same hideous awareness of existence and its burden that he endured will eventually strike everyone in Bouville. As Roquentin imagines this, his warning to the man in the cape takes on new significance.
Themes
