And there the matter might rest, if Sartre's evident intention could exhaust the meaning of "The Wall." But in the formal structure of the story, and the sensitive accuracy of his description of Pablo's experiences in the death cell and later, the artist has powerfully (though unwittingly, to be sure) suggested a very different interpretation. No doubt because, as a creator, he is subliminally aware of certain realities he cannot accept as a thinker, Sartre has symbolized here not only man's inescapably solitary ego but that profound and inescapable link with others which is equally man's destiny. And instead of the meaningless world of Sartrean thought he conveys to the reflective reader a suspicion that the universe may be expressive of stern and sometimes fateful meanings.

One reason why Sartre has fallen into this trap of his own making is to be found in the very nature...