Sartre wrote The Flies as a freedom allegory for occupied France

Evidence

The difficulty of being free was the theme of the play Sartre was rehearsing when Camus introduced himself: The Flies. It opened on 3 June 1943, Sartre’s first real play, if you do not count skits written for his fellow POWs in Stalag 12D. He later called it a drama ‘about freedom, about my absolute freedom, my freedom as a man, and above all about the freedom of the occupied French with regard to the Germans’. Again, nothing about this seemed to faze the censors. This time it may have helped that he gave the play a classical setting — a ploy other writers also used during this time. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 510

Categorization

• XREF: The classical-setting-as-censorship-dodge echoes how other occupied-France writers smuggled politics through allusion. — connects to: Sartre wrote philosophy in literary, novelistic form centered on human freedom — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 25; Sartre made freedom and personal responsibility the burden of his resistance allegory — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 511; Sartre’s freedom obsession intensified under Nazi occupation — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 493 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Sartre made freedom and personal responsibility the burden of his resistance allegory #corroborates (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 511
• Sartre’s freedom obsession intensified under Nazi occupation #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 493