Practice Essay

Garcin became adept at tuning things out.  He was spending eternity with a room full of people he despised, so naturally it became important to him that he heard as little as possible from them.  Down in hell, he was used to hearing all types of odd noises from the outside.  But this scream had a certain resonance with him.  He had heard the voice before, sometime in his childhood.  The voice brought back a sense of sentiment that he hadn't felt since he entered the room.  Suddenly, the door was thrust open.  The scream occurred again, this time louder.
Garcin froze.  Clearly something had to be done.  His conscience started to beg him to take action.  But he had forgotten what it was like to feel, to take action on another’s behalf.  He starts pacing the room terrified by the screams that he hears, trying to peek out the door to see who is causing them.  But he can’t summon the courage to step outside of the room.  Estella and Inez laugh and call him a coward, and in his heart he feels that they are right.  He tries to prove them wrong but every time he starts to leave his heart races and he panics.
This situation epitomizes Garcin’s character.  He is tremendously indecisive and afraid to take action.  Sartre characterizes him through his past life and his dialogue.  In his past life, he fled when he was called to duty.  In his dialogue, he seeks acceptance from his peers, he wants them to tell him that he was not wrong in doing what he did.  This is why he never takes action.  Not only is he in trepidation of the unknown, but also he cannot bear the judgment of others.  All of his actions are either dictated be the interest of himself or the judgment of others.    He begs and screams for the door to open.  As if to call his bluff, it swings wide open.  Despite his clear desire to go outside, he doesn't for two reasons.  One, his is deathly afraid of what could or could not be out there.  He is uncomfortable in any situation where he does not have control.  The second reason is because of the reaction he receives from Inez.  She feels leaving the room would be cowardly, and he wants to prove that he is not a coward in the afterlife, since he was incapable to do it during his first life.
Garcin’s situation parallels that of the slaves from Plato’s allegory of the cave.  Both are confined by their fear of the unknown.  The slaves of the cave are shackled to and have reason to be afraid of the outside world.  Garcin’s situation is a little bit different.  He was never shackled against his will, but one could argue he is a victim of his circumstance.  There is not enough evidence about Garcin’s life to really prove that his situation led him to be afraid.  But the metaphor in Plato’s allegory connects the slaves to the entire human race.  We are all shackled, by tradition, by fear, by hate.  Garcin was never rescued by an enlightened soul, and surely he won’t be encountering any in hell.  So he must save himself independently, which as Plato illustrates, is very difficult to do.  No one will drag him into the light or out that door, he must find the courage to do it himself.  I believe that if he ver found the courage to aid that scream, he would end up in a much better place.
Based off his characterization, even the most touching of occurrences would not uproot Garcin room his room of confinement.  Like a prisoner of the cave, he will stay there with th shadows until someone else drags him out.  It is the courage and selflessness that is lacking.  Garcin needs to have more passion for others in order to summon the courage to help the terrified person outside the door.  The prisoners of the cave need assistance to be freed from the cave and dragged out into the light to be enlightened.  The human race needs individuals who have both the courage to seek enlightenment and the compassion to share it with the rest of us.