Sartre’s Student Character Analysis

Sartre uses the anecdote of a former student’s moral dilemma during World War II to illustrate both the limits of making decisions based on a defined moral code and the erroneousness of blaming “passions” for people’s actions. The French student’s brother was killed in 1940 by the Germans, but his father nonetheless later abandoned the family to collaborate with the Germans. The student had to choose between staying in France with his mother, who “found her only comfort in him,” and leaving to fight with the Free French against the German occupation. After realizing he was caught between moral principles—family and nation, or the obligation to care for his mother and the obligation to avenge his brother’s death—he came to Sartre for advice. The philosopher told his student that there was no correct or incorrect decision. Neither moral codes nor the strength of his affections for one or the other party could determine what to do; rather, the student had to “invent” his own solution to the problem.