"The Look"

     In Sartre's ontological work Being in Nothingness, he tackles existentialism: the notion that there's a nauseousness that goes along with existence that drives us to create meaning in our lives.  If you don't have any meaning in your life, there's no point, so you might as well kill yourself. We are incomplete without meaning, without value or purpose.  By restoring meaning in life, order is returned to the world that's plagued by the "nothingness" that takes over.  Compared to the other creatures that crawl on the earth, humans have this incredible ability to make decisions and manipulate their fate.  The decisions we make in the present have a great impact on what happens to us in the future.  People are aware of this, therefore, they  have to be for themselves throughout their existence in order to create meaning in life.  

     

     All humans are a type of being, but it is no secret that some people are more successful than others, that's just the reality of our society.  More often than not, however, those people who are successful are making a spectacle of themselves; thus, they are no longer being for them, but are being for others.  What stems from this spectacle, is something Sartre calls the Look.  According to Sartre, the Look is very detrimental to one's state of being.  The Look prevents one from being for oneself because they are too busy being for others.  This results in being objectified by others who see you as a spectacle.

     But is being objectified really that bad? Sartre would give a resounding YES if he was asked that question.  The Look definitely has consequences because there is a tension between what one thinks to be true about oneself and what the look has reduced oneself to be.  This tension tricks people into thinking they have meaning and purpose when they really don't; if one creates all of one's meaning with the expense of others, the "meaning" one has attained isn't genuine.