Analysis

Comparing Boyhoods Storyline to Jean Paul Sartres Self Development

Both Mason from Boyhood and the young Jean Paul Sartre developed a certain
existential trait, anxiety known as bad faith during their upbringing. This paper will
demonstrate the following; the background of both the film and the beginning of Sartres
novel, the examples of how specific existential traits were demonstrated in both stories,
and in conclusion, specific examples that I found to support my thesis.
The thirty-seven time gap between Jean Paul Sartres first publication of his 1977
biography, Sartre by Himself and Richard Linklaters modern 2014, Boyhood convey
subtle similarities of male youth development in the terms of existential anxiety.
Linklaters twelve-year project and one of a kind cinema masterpiece, Boyhood (2012),
showcases an eight-year-old boy, Mason, growing up in front of a camera up until he
enters college. It is an epic film that has it all: the stunt, the state, the car; the suffering
mother, the rocker father, the absent daughter the holy son; and above all, the cinephile.
(Rich) Linklater gathered his hired actors each year for a weeks time to film for twelve
years. This type of existential film technique has never been done before, and if ever, it
has never been quite so successful and critique as much as Linklaters 181 wins and 156
nominations finished product according to IMBD.
Boyhood lets its audience contemplate the cultures fetishizing of movie stars, the heavily
cosmeticized bodies that cinema is accustomed to showing, and the bravery of these
actors who made a decision twelve years ago, to submit themselves to Linklaters vision.
(Rich)
Boyhoods first filming started in 2002, when main character, Mason (Ellar
Coltrane) was eight years old. The film is about a divorced family, consisting of the

mother, and her two young children, Samantha and Mason, while her estranged husband
sees the children on the weekends and rarely speaks with the mother. Growing up, Mason
encounters the normative milestones and events that many children will face, like the first
glances at porn magazine or staying up late and doing rebellious activities. During these
moments of growing up Mason reminds us, the audience, about our own lives and makes
us think back on it. New York Times movie critic, David Edelstein expresses the
similarities he felt while watching the film in a Vulture online magazine article. Oh,
right, this is how it was when I was young and every atom was in flux, when I felt
something new every second of every day and didnt have a name for iteach moment is
fleeting and, for that reason, momentous. (Edelstein)
First published in 1977, Sartre By Himself was originally a film about the French
philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. The film was translated from French to English, into a easy
manuscript of sorts. Publishers Weekly described the book in their own words, Sartre
consistently holds the spotlight in a sequence of rap sessions that fascinate by their
arguments and counterarguments, their reassessments of Sartres thinking about
philosophy, politics, writing, moral commitment and the meaning of freedom. Instead of
focusing on the entirety of the book, the portion being concentrated on for the purpose of
this argument is the timeline storytelling of Sartres physical and mental growth from
childhood to young adulthood just like Masons twelve-year progression timeline.
The purpose of taking two of these examples of physical and mental development
stories, one being a biography of sorts as it may, demonstrates how we can analyze our
own upbringing in reflection through an existential lens. It is something that will allow
the reader to get truer with their own selves by allowing them to evaluate specific events

during their upbringing and what caused each of them to happen. Or to think in
retrospect, what existential trait(s) were evoked a specific event. That being said, an
example of an event that somebody can learn to analyze after reading this argument could
be; why didnt I go for the chance to ask that girl out in junior year rather than leaving
the party early so I could calm my nerves? For the people who can relate to this it is
fully due to experiencing a case of existential anxiety, which descends from the rooted
term, Bad Faith. When we are in Bad Faith we feel anxiety and flee from our
responsibilities. (Kanouse) In return, many can relate to this specific feeling for a similar
event and learn how to distinguish what exactly happened in the delicate framework of
that decision.
For this analysis it is appropriate to associate Bad Faith, a creation of Jean Paul
Sartre as the existential lens tool. That being said, it is appropriate merely due to the fact
that these two stories deal with growth and development, and along with these two comes
examples of Bad Faith through textual evidence. Sartre discusses the idea of Bad Faith in
his book, Being in Nothingness through an example of a waiter that is serving him.
Let us consider this waiter in the cafe. His movement is quick and forward, a little
too precise, a little too rapid. He comes toward the patrons with a step a little too quick.
He bends forward a little too eagerly; his voice, his eyes express an interest a little too
solicitous for the order of the customer. Finally there he returns, trying to imitate in his
walk the inflexible stiffness of some kind of automaton while carrying his tray with the
recklessness of a tight-rope-walker by putting it in a perpetually unstable, perpetually
broken equilibrium which he perpetually re-establishes by a light movement of the arm
and hand. All his behavior seems to us a game. (Sartre)
Jean Paul Sartre was not the primary genius behind coining the term, rather, his
long time lover Simone de Beauvoir aided with the generation. Sartre was thought of as
Kierkegaard's wayward twentieth-century disciple, as he described the term as a state
of human inauthenticity where one attempts to flee from freedom, responsibility and

anguisha paradoxical ultimately schizophrenic attempt at self-deception. (Sartre)

Sartre described that Bad Faith or Inauthenticity appeals in two main forms: I cant do
anything about it or the I can do anything by just wishing for it. These two are both
examples of false realization of realistic problem solving strategies in our daily lives.
For this unique analysis regarding the similarities of childhood-adolescence upbringing in
both film and biography, I will be using Bad Faith and the associated terms that coincide
within: Authenticity and also Anxiety.
Existentialism is a philosophical theory that arose out of the anxiety and
uncertainty produced in the wake of the violence and absurdity of World War II. As
Western Europe attempted to make sense of the mass genocide of European Jews and the
apocalyptic vision brought about by the dropping of the atom bomb, philosophers,
religious leaders and everyday individuals alike tried to piece together an explanation or
justification for such violence. Through his adaptation of the work of the great German
Philosopher, Martin Heideggers, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, himself a
prisoner of war during World War II, constructed a theory which reformulated the
meaning of existence through the concept of authenticity, and its interconnected concepts
of bad faith and self-deception, existential anxiety and freedom (Kanouse, Lecture notes,
2015).
Bad Faith has three concrete forms that explain its significance to existentialism.
In its first form, Bad Faith manifests when people pretend that they are something, or that
we have an essence. For Sartre, human beings were to be understood as ontologically
free, or without any definition or destiny outside of the decisions one makes for
his/herself (Kanouse, Lecture notes, 2015). Thus, if we treat ourselves as though we have

an essence, such as being an artist, an athlete, a Christian, a German, etc, instead of as

an individual who chooses to act in specific ways, we can lose ourselves to the roles and
their attendant expectations, forfeiting ones freedom to choose for him/herself. Thus, one
is in bad faith when he or she performs this essence as an effort to avoid anxiety and
responsibility humans must bear because they are free; it is by this process that an
individual deceives him/herself in order to avoid the awareness of their responsibility.
(Kanouse) Lastly, the third form is when people deny others the same freedom they
would have for themselves. (THE LIMITS OF ETHICS)
Sartres Authenticity definition relates closely towards Heideggers, however
Sartres conception of the term is thought to encapsulate a more clear and practical
consequence. His coined terminology is positive, which expresses that we have the most
infinite freedom that allows us to make authentic choices that levies us out of Bad Faith.
Another Existential philosopher, Sren Kierkegaard, explained that true existence
is achieved by an intensity of feeling. Kierkegaard insisted upon the experience of
anxiety, which can be compared to an internal dizziness, as a revelation of the
possibilities we can attain through our choices. Kierkegaard criticized the modern,
scientific, rationalistic age and what passes for Christianity in it in terms of selfdeception. He argued that the modern world lulls people into a self-deceptive state in
which they pretend theyre leading meaningful lives predicated on faith and reason, when
really they are steeped in a deep despair or malaise. (THE LIMITS OF ETHICS)
Another term that will be applied in the analysis section of this essay is the
concept of Existential Authenticity. This applies when one accepts the responsibility for
who they are or what they are becoming, and working towards acting purely on what they

value (Kanouse, Concept Definitions, 2015). In order authentically, one must realize the
structure of the self. This is the process of understanding both an ego and reflexive
voice. (Authenticity Handout) Secondly, one must then analyze what is exactly
influencing them, and the awareness of their free and erasing unwanted influences.
Lastly, choosing to act in a manner that accords to what they value as an individual,
which then translates to choosing to live in an Authentic manner.
Bad Faith, Authenticity, and Inauthenticity will act as a tool to measure the
severity of specific events that both Mason and Jean Paul Sartre demonstrated during
their physical development from childhood to young adulthood. This will be done by
using important developmental points in both of their lives through Boyhoods storyline
and through Sartres autobiography, Words, and On Sartre, a published screenplay
translated in English. By doing so I will be segmenting both of their lives from young
childhood, pre-pubescence, adolescence and young adulthood.
Both Boyhood and Sartres autobiography, The Words, force the viewer and
reader to become transported into their own self-analysis regarding their childhood and
upbringing. The communicative style of both works exemplifies Soren Kierkegaards
concept of indirect communication. For Kierkegaard, communications and their content
are not always objective in nature, specifically with the content is of existential import.
In his book Training in Christianity, Kierkegaard writes:
Indirect communication can be produced by the art of reduplicating the
communication. This art consists in reducing oneself, the communicator, to
nobody, something purely objective, and then incessantly composing qualitative
opposites into unity. This is what some of the pseudonyms are accustomed to call
double reflection. An example of such indirect communication is, so to
compose jest and earnest that the composition is a dialectical knot-and with this to
be nobody. If anyone is to profit by this sort of communication, he must himself
undo the knot for himself. Another example is, to bring defence and attack in such

a unity that none can say directly whether one is attacking or defending, so that
both the most zealous partisans of the cause and its bitterest enemies can regard
one as an ally-and with this to be nobody, an absentee, an objective something,
not a personal man. (p.132-133)
The aforementioned is precisely the riddle at the core of Boyhood and The Word. Each
are treated as a mere form of entertainment or information transfer, the true form of their
existential import is lost. Through engaging the texts with the intent to undo the knot
oneself, one can access his/her own moments of childhood, ones own narrative and
understanding of the meaning of those events in his/her life.
Examples like the fighting with siblings in the back of the car or stealing franks
from his mothers purse to buy pastries, (like Jean Paul), are examples of analyzing ones
childhood experiences. Everyone can relate to these sorts of memories and childhood
experiences. It leads views down the path of self reflection.
In a darker sense to think about the bullies at school, or, a drunken parents
violence; it can give us a too-close-to-home shiver. The point is, is that by reading in to
the textual evidence we can conclude, and analyze our own past doings and experiences
in terms of a legitimate existential flawing. By watching the film we can see Masons
absorbing all of this experience but not passively like a sponge but thoughtfully and
oftentimes somewhat aloof, as if he is above it all (Balick).
Because of his experience of Existential Anxiety he could not live in the moment.
He can only live behind the curtains and let time and his life flutter onward. He is merely
afraid and cannot bare the responsibility of acting out, which is his flawed authentic self.
As mentioned before, this is could be argued that his step-fathers own flawed authentic
self rubbed onto Mason.

Existential anxiety (angst) is the key manifestations of the human existential

predicament Park thinks that some persons of spirit are so devastated by existential
anxiety that escaping their experience becomes the main point of their lives. These
individuals take drugs, become depressed, and look for distractions or anything to get
away from their constant existence riddled with anxiety. He goes on to say that it can
pervade a whole persons being . Existential anxiety can be an unlimited menace and
touches everything in a suffering individuals life.
During Masons young childhood, he deals with time split between two divorced
parents: a childish father who only sees him once a week and a stressed out mother who
goes back to school in order to support her two children. In the beginning of the movie,
Mason is in bed while his mother fights with a man who is trying to build a relationship
with her. He tries to rip her away from her children and instead she stands strong. You
have an immature life. You have no responsibility...You have no idea what it feels like to
be a parent and have responsibility. She fights to expose his lack of responsibility and
absence of full understanding. Only a person responsible for lives other than their owne
can fully understand her pressures as a mother.
He rebuttals back, Why am I responsible for your mistakes in life? (Boyhood,
Linklater). At this point of the argument Mason is staring out of a doorframe. Little will
young Mason know that every single man that his mother attracts, marries and divorces
suffers from Existential Anxiety. This is evident because, each man suffers from
alcoholism, which results in them to flee from their parental responsibilities. Having
Mason be exposed to such behavior for years could be argued that he himself could be at

risk for developing bad faith and existential anxiety when he himself is faced with large
amounts of responsibilities or choices.
After the fighting occurs, about fifteen minutes into the movie Masons father
picks him and sister, Samantha up from their grandmothers house. Are you back for
good now, not in Alaska anymore I see? She states. The father replies with a smug grin,
We will see (Boyhood, Linklater). Throughout the entirety of the movie Mason is
surrounded by men who are afraid, cannot commit, flex or take responsibility for neither
Mom nor her children. This Existential Anxiety that Mason observes impacts his own
self, as he becomes a quiet, reserved adolescent who suffers with relationships and
bullying in the near future. He is experiencing this anxiety simultaneous with his
newfound freedom through self-understanding. He lets go of his negative feelings toward
his stepfathers (which behaved in bad faith).
Mason is a timid and shy boy just like the young Jean Paul Sartre. Alike from
Sartre his family moves into a house that is more suitable for their income. He is forced
to start over. In one short Mason is seen under a bridge, age eight, with a friend who
around the same age. Mason runs up, as Tommy is spray-painting a drawing on the
concrete wall of the drainage ditch. Tommy hands Mason the can of spray paint. Mason
begins to spray-paint a letter on the wall. (Linklater, Boyhood, Screenplay 3) It can
certainly be inferred that Mason was doing this in order to impress his new friend for
acceptance. This action acts as a form of Existential Anxiety, dealing with a Conscious
effort to please and a sliver of Fear to impress Tommy with his matching rebellious
behavior.

Joe Reid of Vanity Fair argues that even though hes a bona fide teenager now,
and prone to the kind of faux-wise philosophizing that teens are prone to, Mason is still a
keen observer of the world around him. During the year 2012, Mason is eighteen and
shows his existential self like many teenagers do. This is the last portion of the movie and
he is driving with his girlfriend Sheena. During the ride he gets down and dirty with
heavy speculation about how humans have become Pavlovian consumerist automatons
and how college is merely the next pre-ordained step on the teenage treadmill. (Reid)
During this age, the last year of the films production, it seems like this is the part of the
movie Mason finds his authentic self and becomes most comfortable with himself and
where it is headed. His mother is happily single and earning good money, his father,
happily married, and his sister Samantha has graduated college. He himself is just about
to enter college. His life is no longer a chaotic mess intertwined with unhappy family
members and self-curiosity and doubt In the end he is free, he is starting a new
chapter.Which is something that everyone lusts for, a change, a new slate.
Alike from Mason, the young Jean Paul did not live in a nuclear family setting.
His father died a year after Jean Paul was born which led to his mother to remarry.
Instead, he spent a lot of his time with his maternal grandfather, Carl Schweitzer, an
academic and film actor. Schweitzer and Jean Pauls mother, Anne Marie influenced
books heaving on the young philosopher during his early childhood. So much so, he
would pretend to read before he even knew his syllables. I pretended to readI told
myself a story aloud, being careful to utter all the syllables (Words, Sartre) Not long
after he began to teach himself how to read, instead of half reciting and half
deciphering. This early integration with a knack of literature misguided Jean Paul to act

freely, in terms of how a young child his age should act. He stated in his autobiography,
Words, I began my life as I shall no doubt end it: amidst books. (The Words, 40)
While writing this section of the autobiography he thoroughly questioned his validity,
Am I therefore a Narcissus? Too eager to charm, I forget myselfAfter all it doesnt
amuse me very much to make mud-pies, to scribble, to perform my natural functions: in
order for these to have value in my eyes. (The Words, 40)
Young Jean Paul could not find happiness in the routinely status quo childhood
activities that most children his age enjoy. He questioned himself, secluded himself in
libraries and empty rooms with just books and himself, alone. He travelled and explored
and experienced new things, by just reading. Lying on the rug, I undertook fruitless
voyages through Fontelle, Aristophanes, Rabelais: the sentences would resist me the way
objects resist. (The Words, 50) Sartres young childhood was ridden with Bad Faith. He
admitted himself that he began to confuse the disorder of my bookish experiences with
the random course of real events. (The Words, 51) And admitting that this habitual
upbringing caused him harm in a way that he could not decipher real life versus text for
over thirty years, and thus claiming that daily life was merely just cloudless.
Viewers and readers experience the movie while reflecting on their own
adolescence years. These years are embodied with self-discovery and rebellion. For Jean
Paul Sartre, he rebelled sneakily. After moving from Paris to La Rochelle, he found that
making friends was a difficult task. Instead, he chose to try and impress his peers in order
to reap their satisfaction, acceptance and friendship. He would lie that he had a girlfriend
in Paris waiting for him, that he had the wildest orgies, and that women would write him
letters frequently. (On Sartre, 10) Not only was Sartre acting in Bad Faith, he was also

not acting authentically to himself. He was beaten frequently by peers for when they
caught him in lies. He was socially awkward. I internalized it in a number of ways; for
example, my closest school friends were crazy about pastries, and so I began to steal
change from my mothers pocketbook so as to buy pastries for them. (On Sartre, 10)
The purpose of this task was so he could please these two or three friends that he valued
higher than others and even himself. His rash behaviors that were unusual for his usual
demeanor eventually tarnished ties between his grandfather over time. Sartes behavior
not only deleted his grandfathers trust he also displayed an eroded authentic self towards
his peers for their acceptance.
These two examples of physical and self-development during childhood through
adolescence remind ourselves, the reader, about our own experiences growing up. The
struggles we faced, overcame, or perseverated by analyzing specific events stuck in our
memory vault. Eventually, we can learn how these events can be coded into an existential
sense, and better be evaluated through terms like Bad Faith, Authenticity and
Inauthenticity. By being able to do so we can not only analyze our past events but also
recognize how we are acting in the present and validate the truthfulness of our actions.
When we do something to please others the next time, take time and try and think of what
the motive is and whether you are acting authentic or not.

Works Cited

Edelstein, David. "Richard Linklater's Momentous Boyhood Is an Experiment That

Makes Time Visible." Vulture. New York Media LLC, 10 July 2014. Web. 01 June 2015.
"Boyhood." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 02 June 2015.
Rich, B., Ruby. The Time and Place: Richard Linklaters Instant Epic. Film Quarterly.
University of California Press, Fall 2014. Journal. 26 May 2015.
Dockterman, Eliana. Forget the Boy: Watching Patricia Arquette Age in Boyhood Is
Astounding. TIME. Web. 26 July 2014. 26 May 2015.
Seaver, Richard, trans. Sartre by Himself. New York: Urizen, 1978. Print.
Sartre by Himself. Dir. Alexandre Astruc and Michel Contat. Perf. Jean Paul Sartre.
Editions Gallimard, 1977. DVD.
Kanouse, Brian. Comm 479: Senior Project Existentialism Concept Definitions. N.d.
Heidegger, Martin, and David Farrell. Krell. Martin Heidegger Basic Writings. New
York: Harper and Row, 1977. Print.
Philips, D.Z. "Bad Faith and Sartre's Waiter." 56.215 (1981): n. pag. JSTOR [JSTOR].
Web. 3 June 2015.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Words: Jean-Paul Sartre. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1969. Print.
Balick, Aaron M. "The Elusive Experience of Youth." Mindswork. N.p., 21 July 2014.
Web. 16 June 2015.
"Sartre by Himself." Rotten Tomatoes. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2015.
Sartre, Jean-Paul, Alexandre Astruc, and Michel Contat. Sartre by Himself: A Film
Directed by Alexandre Astruc and Michel Contat with the Participation of Simone De
Beauvoir, Jacques-Larent Bost, Andre Gorz, Jean Pouillon. New York: Urizen, 1978.
Print.
Boyhood. By Richard Linklater, Richard Linklater, Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring,
John Sloss, Cathleen Sutherland, Lee Daniel, Shane F. Kelly, and Sandra Adair. Perf.
Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, and Lorelei Linklater. N.d.
Linklater, Richard. N.d. MS. Boyhood INC., Austin. AMC Networks. Web. 17 June
2015.
Reid, Joe. "Boyhood by the Numbers: Which Mason Is the Best Mason?" Vanity Fair.
Cond Nast, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 June 2015.