Jean-Paul Sartre is most well known for his theory of existentialism, and his claims to clear up the common misconception about the idea in his essay “Existentialism is a Humanism.” However, defining the term is somewhat difficult because there are two types of existentialists: the Christian and the Atheistic (Sartre 115). “What they have in common,” Sartre explains, “is simply the fact that that they deem that existence precedes essence, or, … that one must start from subjectivity” (116). What he means by this is that, unlike a designed object such as a letter opener, human beings have no pre-established purpose or nature, nor anything that we have to or ought to be. For Sartre, essence is unknown prior to existence. Atheistic existentialism believes that there is no God, and that a man defines himself after he is created on Earth. I take this to mean that the point of life is to find our purpose, the reason why we exist, which stems from the idea that when we first come into the world we are nothing. According to Sartre, “man will only be what he projects himself to be” and that we are responsible not only for our existence, but also for all mankind (116). He relates this to a sense of freedom that we innately have and reiterates the duty we have to create and be passionate, acting on it with full responsibility in the name of the future of our race. He claims that believing in a heaven that holds the future is false, because such a thing is not possible (119). The parallel between forelornness (the realization that God does not exist) and anguish the way we interpret our future to be will be the one that is true. In his reference to Descartes, he quotes “conquer yourself rather than the world” and claims that we should “act without hope” (119). Humanism is a general term usually referring to anything that puts human beings at the center of things. It has the positive belief in being humane and staying optimistic and emphasizes the significance of human choice for the creation of values that guide the future. Existentialism is humanism because of the time it takes for man to build character, by losing himself and pursuing transcendent goals. That is why he exists. He is entirely responsible for who and what kind of a person he becomes, which makes the future of humanity solely up to the people.
Twenty One Pilot’s song “Kitchen Sink” from their 2011 digital album, “Regional at Best,” deals with this same concept of finding purpose to one’s life. It’s no secret that Tyler Joseph struggles with depression as most of his songs reference it and one of the ways he believes to help endure through it is by finding and expressing your passion. Tyler uses the concept of a kitchen sink as a message to himself to keep living. In the first verse of the song, Tyler sings “I’m a kitchen sink/ You don’t know what that means/Because a kitchen sink to you is not a kitchen sink to me” (6-8). He explains in a later interview that “humans are always struggling all the time when it comes to purpose, what purpose even is, what’s the point, justifying your own existence” (SoundScenePress). He uses the meaning of the band’s logo, which are three lines crossed (similar to the letter H) with right side line slanted to the right, to exemplify this. Tyler says, ”when someone asks me what the logo means to me, [it] means something to me because I made it mean something to me. I created something that only I understand. When you’re in the room by yourself trying to decide whether to stay alive, you can tell yourself ‘I should probably stay alive because I’m the only one who knows the meaning of that thing.’ So the logo is an encouragement for people to create” (SoundScenePress). Tyler identifies himself as a Christian but, like many followers of Christianity, he often has doubts. He doubts his path following Jesus and God and accepting Him as his savior. Sartre would say that Tyler is positioned somewhere in the middle of the two types of existentialists. He has uncertainties about Heaven and God, but also believes man has to work to define himself and determine the reason for his existence. In the song, the lyrics beg the listener to write something, paint something, even though it may seem worthless because “no one else is dealing with your demons, meaning/ Maybe defeating them could be the beginning of your meaning, friend” (15-16). This is why it is unclear to Twenty One Pilot’s fan base what the significance of a kitchen sink means to Tyler, and it is very likely that we will never know for sure. Sartre would agree that Tyler has found songwriting and playing music to be his reason for living. His songs leave a great impact on his ever-growing fan base, not only providing an outlet for his emotions but also helping others to do the same. The song “Friend, Please” from the same album also addresses the same issue and more sings more directly to the listener. While Sartre’s text doesn’t really touch on the subject of suicide and depression, the topic is relative to existentialism because many victims of depression and suicide feel as if they don’t have purpose. Being valued for something that only that person can create is an important thing. He sings “I feel for you, but when did you believe you were alone?/You say that spiders crawled inside and made themselves a home/ Where light once was” (1-3)acknowledging people’s individual feelings and the idea that everyone’s thoughts are different. Since Sartre believes that the people control their destiny, he would want for the person continue living and make sure that what they do has meaning.
Sartre would argue that existentialism means that every person has the ability to make a contribution to humankind during their life and that wasting that opportunity is failure to yourself and the rest of the human race. He believes that people do not have a pre-existing purpose and must discover the “essence” of living during their lifetime. Twenty One Pilots both acknowledges the notion that some people might feel alone and encourages his listeners to find their passion, to create so that they can see purpose to their life and make a difference that will benefit the world in some way.
wayves: Critical Theoretical Inquiry 