Existentialism In How You Became You, By Edward Arlington Robinson

To build an understanding of what existentialism means is crucial before writing about how it is used within literature. Existentialism is a philosophy or the thought that humans exist to experience multiple episodes of self-discovery and to change or adapt through these events; existentialism is the thought of learning one’s true meaning of life (Perras and Currin, 305). The path of what makes an entity a being can be found throughout literature and how do different pieces explore this topic. Within this essay I will be using two examples of existentialist pieces: “How You Became You” by Bill Bryson and “Richard Cory” by Edward Arlington Robinson to explore the ways existentialism is used in both pieces and how existentialism is important and impacts people.

Bill Bryson uses his background …show more content…
Existentialism and identity tie closely together as they may cycle back and forth in a never ending loop of: the purpose in life is to be identified and to be identified is to have found purpose. Bryson talks about the physical creation of human existence while Robinson explores a missing component in having the epitome of societal desires both work in conjunction to create the thought of existentialism. Both of these pieces lend well together as Bryson not only creates the world but also the people while Robinson displays the thoughts of society.

Bill Bryson’s narrative “How You Became You” explores this theme of existentialism through a scientific lens while Edward Arlington Robinson uses a microcosm of the world in a small community. In both cases, there is a definitive collusion that there is something special that is not physically tangible that creates people as they are but what is existence or