Fog Symbol Analysis

To Roquentin, fog is a powerful symbol of derealization, the meaninglessness of existence, and the social alienation Roquentin ultimately suffers as a result. Heightening Roquentin’s sense of oblivion, loneliness, and confusion, the fog makes him completely uncertain of how objects relate to one another in physical space. Everything seems elevated and on the brink of metamorphosis. Roquentin is deeply threatened by this sensation, which begins as a literal fog: he wakes one day and finds that the city of Bouville is blanketed in mist. For once, the thing that’s frightening Roquentin seems to affect everybody in the city. Monsieur Fasquelle stays in bed, café customers complain about the weather, and the reading room patrons all seem to be reluctant to leave the safety of the library. Roquentin gets progressively more upset as the day continues, until he believes that Fasquelle may be dead and that the library is transforming around him. His experience ceases to be a shared one when he starts to have visions of the fog inside of the library, making everything around him look uncertain and unfamiliar. There, it ceases to be literal and becomes entirely figurative, representing Roquentin’s internal confusion.