The Significance of Institutions: Nadja, The Stranger, and Waiting for Godot Anonymous 10th Grade

The Significance of Institutions: Nadja, The Stranger, and Waiting for Godot Our human society is ruled by institutions. We cannot even fathom a life without them. We might think we have freedom, but there is only a certain amount of freedom we are granted before we are labeled as crazy or insane and put somewhere where society cannot see us. In André Breton’s novella Nadja, Nadja herself was put into an insane asylum. In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Meursault was sentenced to death by the French justice system. In the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett there is a complete lack of institution, that absence of a system makes the play very circular and based on free will. In all three works, institutions play a key role throughout the different stories - from the resistance of the institution in Nadja, the acceptance of institution in The Stranger, and the complete lack of institution in Waiting for Godot.

In Nadja, towards the conclusion of the novel, Nadja is placed in an insane asylum. Breton makes it clear that Nadja was institutionalized because of her social condition and of her atypical attitude: “Nadja was poor, which in our time is enough to condemn her, once she decided not to behave according to the imbecile code...