Nausea Appearances Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

[Jean Parrottin's] dazzling eyes devoured his whole face. Behind this glow I noticed the thin, tight lips of a mystic. (21.32)

Even with people who have been dead for decades, Antoine feels like he can tell everything he needs to know about them by looking at their faces. In this case, he feels that beneath a pair of dazzling eyes, he can see that this man was a mystic at heart. This observation is kind of ironic, though, since Antoine has absolutely no way of checking whether or not this is true.

Quote #8

I give them a good look at my face so they can engrave it in their memory. (24.288)

When he notices that a bunch of people in a restaurant are staring at him, Antoine gets up to leave. Before going, though, he makes sure to give them one long look at his face so they won't forget him. After all, he wants them to remember the face of the person who figured out the truth of existence— the one and only Antoine Roquentin!

Quote #9

It's really she. She lets her arms hang, she has the morose face which made her look like an awkward adolescent girl. But she doesn't look like a little girl anymore. She is fat, her breasts are heavy. (28.3)

When he meets Anny for the first time in nearly ten years, Antoine realizes that she has gained weight. He also finds that she still has the same look on her face that makes her seem like an adolescent girl. But she's not a girl anymore; she's gotten older, and Antoine's impressions of her appearance will eventually prove true for her personality, since her experiences in the past ten years have made her very "old" and jaded.