Lagerkvistian Existentialism

There's No Light At The End Of It All

c. 1994

This was an essay I wrote as a senior project in high school, cementing my status as class freak.  It is a general overview of themes in the works of writer Pär Lagerkvist.  I had hoped to expand on it further in later years, but just never got around to it.  Still, it was a joy to write as it was a topic I was (and still am) quite interested in.  In hindsight, I think that if I were to rewrite it I'd change the title, because upon repeated readings of Lagerkvist (especially as an adult), I DO find that there is a light at the end of it all to him.  His existentialism was not without hope. Just with a hope that wasn't so shining and obvious.