What Samuel Beckett would think.

Samuel Beckett was a playwright, poet and novelist who wrote about the social relations between people and their struggles to achieve possessions, titles and sexual conquests viewing them as the result of simply existing; furthermore, he believed these struggles masked the essence of an anguished human condition (Edward, 2017, Pg 1). Similarly, the gun violence epidemic aligns with Beckett’s philosophy that humans are anguished beings as firearm violence is occurring at an alarming rate and mankind continues to exhibit self-destructive behaviors in their use of firearms against themselves and others. Samuel would have agreed that gun violence was a social epidemic.
Samuel Beckett loved to use dark humor and symbolism in his writing and through his absurd writings on human behavior, he liked to repeatedly highlight the dark nature of humans, as well as the horrible deeds that people do and continue to do because we ignore the important problems. Beckett once wrote, “The earth makes a sound as of sighs and the last drops fall from the emptied cloudless sky. A small boy, stretching out his hands and looking up at the blue sky, asked his mother how such a thing was possible. Fuck off, she said” (Samuel Beckett Quotes 1). This is a jarring example Beckett used to highlight the harsh nature of human beings. That a mother could be so abrasive with her son is a particularly a stark reminder to the reader of the capacity of humans to cause harm with their words and actions. With this quote Beckett was simply attempting to illustrate the depravity of the human condition and the word choice is especially jarring to the reader. Beckett’s belief in the dark nature of humans, allowing them easy access to firearms would likely be seen by Beckett as insane given his believe in society’s propensity to behave in depraved, dark and dangerous ways.
Another example of Samuel Beckett thoughts is that he stated believed that humans are inherently illogical and nonsensical creatures stating, “We are all born mad. Some remain so” (Samuel Beckett Quotes 1). This quote implies that we are all born mad, and many people remain that way for the duration of their lives. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines mad as “arising from, indicative of, or marked by mental disorder” (“Mad”). The dictionary goes on to describe “mad” as “completely unrestrained by reason and judgement; unable to think in a clear or sensible way” as well as “incapable of being explained or accounted for” (“Mad”). Understanding these definitions are paramount to understanding the magnitude of what Mr. Beckett mean when he quoted those words. His belief that many humans are unrestrained by judgement or unable to think in a clear sensible way would align with the research conducted by Ludwig which implied that much gun violence is committed by those acting in the moment. Ludwig, stated that “By implementing a potential waiting period within each state and reinforcing it, we could drastically drop the homicide and murder rate with gun violence” (Ludwig, J. 2017). Samuel Beckett would likely agree that the propensity to not act with judgement or sensibility would contribute to the gun epidemic currently facing this country, and he would likely agree that an extended waiting period would be necessary to put a stop to man’s nature for acting illogically.
Mr. Beckett would not want us to sit idly by and not actively address the gun epidemic as he later wrote “Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better.” (Samuel Beckett Quotes 1). Sammuel Beckett believed in action and would have agreed a addressing the gun violence epidemic is required to prevent additional gun violence from occurring. Beckett encouraged that if we have the time and resources to prevent such catastrophes, we must act! In 2022, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published data showing that in the United States there is an average of one death occurring every eleven minutes from firearm violence and during that year there were a total of 48,117 who died from gun violence (Hopkins p. 1). Given the total number of lives being impacted by firearm violence, Beckett would agree that we must act to address this social epidemic!
Samuel Beckett once stated, “Nothing is more real than nothing.” (Samuel Beckett Quotes 1). This quote implies that he believed that doing nothing would bring the reality to bear that nothing would change. Beckett would likely believe the gun violence social epidemic is in large part a result of American’s doing nothing to solve the problem. Throughout Beckett’s absurd fictions works, he displayed similar beliefs of the loss of human life, for example, in the essay, Proust, he says “Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to his vomit. Breathing is habit. Life is habit. Rarely does one experience the moment when the boredom of living is replaced by the suffering of being” (Samuel Beckett Quotes 1). His analogy, though jarring, is clear to the reader highlighting that the habits of our day to day lives gives way to any desire to act. Most people live their lives on autopilot leading to complacency and lack of meaningful action on things that are important repeating and becoming accustomed to the way things are. If gun violence has not directly impacted a person or their family, it is easy to ignore the ongoing gun violence epidemic and ignoring it leads to complete inaction to address the issue. Beckett would not be surprised by the inaction of humans but would certainly agree that we must address it.
Shortly after his eightieth birthday, “Beckett was asked by author Richard Stern if his outlook on life was different now than it had been twenty years ago. Beckett replied resolutely stating, "Yes, it's darker. Much darker” (STERN, R. 1991, pg. 2). This interview solidified Beckett’s belief in the dark nature of human behavior and showed that throughout his life, he did not waiver from his position and belief in the dark nature of humans. Given his unwavering belief in the potential for catastrophe, one can surmise his stance on addressing the epidemic of gun violence would have only increased throughout his life.
Throughout Becketts’s writings, he reveal his belief in the darkness of human’s and to illustrate fully his ideas and reasons for his beliefs. Ultimately, Samuel Beckett would have agreed that the gun violence epidemic within America is a result of our dark nature and propensity to self-destruct. He would agree this issue puts us all at risk every single day. He likely would have a firm stance on gun violence and how we would be able to prevent such disastrous loss of life given the understanding that humans will always resort to darkness. Beckett would likely point out the fact that humans are inherently dreadful and that our habits of ignoring problems has resulted in the social epidemic of gun violence in the United States, which will ultimately lead to the death of thousands of Americans annually.





Works Cited
Albee, Edward. “Samuel Beckett.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 68, no. 1–2,
2007, pp. 429–30. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.68.1-2.0429.
Accessed 1 Aug. 2024.
Hopkins, J. “Firearm Violence in the United States.” Center for Gun Violence Solutions,
publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/research-reports/firearm-violence-in-the-united-states. Accessed 23 July 2024.
Ludwig, Jens. “Reducing Gun Violence in America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 114, no. 46, 2017, pp. 12097–99. JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26486531. Accessed 5 Aug. 2024.
“Mad Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/mad. Accessed 4 Aug. 2024.
“Samuel Beckett Quotes (Author of Waiting for Godot).” Goodreads, Goodreads,
www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1433597.Samuel_Beckett?page=1. Accessed 30 July 2024.
STERN, R. (1991). Samuel Beckett. Salmagundi, 90/91, 179–190.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40548277