THE SARTREAN LOOK AND THE OTHER IN THOMAS WOLFE’S OF TIME AND THE RIVER

Abstract

Thomas Wolfe’s second novel, Of Time and the River, is a tale about a young man, his clash with the world outside his hometown, and the people inhabiting it. The current article will make use of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Look” and examine Eugene Gant’s relations with the existential Other as an attempt at justification of his own being-in-the-world. Eugene’s Faustian hunger is present throughout the book: it creates a problem of purpose that can only be answered through the verification that Others can give. This study is an overview of his attempt at such acknowledgement.