THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment? Enter Sartre's space more fully and imagine how it would feel to live there endlessly, night and day:

My personal hell would be somewhere I can not be happy. No matter what I did, there would be no way that I could achieve happiness. My hell would be a place people are meant to be happy but I can not. I think that hell can be found even in the most beautiful place in the world. "Hell" is different for each one of us. If a person has a strong mentality, it is possible for them to endure a hellish physical environment. 

Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex?

I think if you have too much of something, you will eventually stop wanting it and since you can not stop having it, it will become hell.

How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?

Sartre creates a sense of place when the characters find that they are there to torture each other. I think that staying awake all the time with the lights on is kind of when you are trying to sleep but the lights are on or when the sun is hitting your face. Garcin is surprised by the room and feels like he needs to gain Inez' approval(?)

 compare how Plato and Sartre describe the limitations of our thinking and imply solutions to the problem.  Be sure to analyze their literary techniques, especially their use of allegory and extended metaphor.

Plato shows that a student is limited by the way they think. If a person wanted to be intellectually free, they could be. Sartre shows the limit to our thinking lays on the information we have and whether or not we accept it.