The Wall Analysis
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– The narrative voice
First person
Author’s intention to communicate in a concrete way the existential choice that the character makes
Limited perspective
There is an unbreachable disparity between what he knows and what Pablo thinks he knows
Open future with the experience of the character is indefinite
– The significance of the wall
The wall of the title could allude to several walls or barriers
The wall the prisoners will be shot against
The wall separates life and death
The wall that separates individuals from one another
The wall that represents brute matter, which contrasts with consciousness, and to which the men will be reduced when shot
The Wall itself symbolises the inevitability and unknowing of one’s death.
– The ironic ending
Existentialism
Unpredictable fate/future
To the extent that Pablo is free in his mind the can be theorized as immortal, then there is no future and past; his future cannot be predicted from either his past or from any kind of reasoning
The river in Siddhartha is unpredictable and only exist at the present
“Everything began to spin and I found myself sitting on the ground: I laughed so hard I cried.”
Pablo’s laughter could be interpreted as his realization that life is fundamentally unpredictable, hence absurd, or his sudden understanding that his previous abdication of freedom had been irresponsible, given the unknown nature of human events.
Submission to the laws of fiction/unabashed fictiveness
By pointing to the story’s artificiality and dramatic ending, that it asserted its limitations as fiction. (Powerful ending)
Cemetery
Symbolizes meaninglessness and nothingness
Pablo sends the soldiers away out of spite “thinking about the spectacle they would make” and he can see them “lifting up tombstones, opening the doors of the vaults one by one.”
– The death/execution
Fear of unknown
The death is in principle nonexperimental and not something can be anticipated
Like Tom, is incapable to understand what will happen after he is propped against the wall and shot.
Example: “It made no sense. I only found words or emptiness.”
Pablo’s