The Concentration Camps of Waiting for Godot >>> Hannah Biggs Samuel Beckett was a literary master who forever revolutionized existentialism, absurdism, and theater. His prose and plays take humankind on a journey into the realms of self-discovery, self-evaluation, and emotion. They also provide literary critics with much fodder for criticism. His absurdist plots, sparse stage, and lackluster characters give little to analyze on the surface, therefore making criticism all the more inviting to the curious thinker. Beckett himself, however, warned against focused, academic critique—one that blatantly and erroneously goes against the soul, heart, and theme of the piece for argument’s sake. Hugh Kenner, one of his many critics, notes that: [Beckett] denied … the presence in his work of some hidden plan or key … He … suggested that over interpretation, which appeared to trouble him more than erroneous interpretation, arose from two main assumptions: that the writer is necessarily presenting some experience which he has had, and that he necessarily writes in order to affirm some general truth … [If this happens in his works, it] happen[s] … without the author’s [Beckett’s] knowledge. (Kenner 9-10) Despite Beckett’s warning, we know Beckett wrote most of his works in the aftermath of World War II, a war that changed the course of Beckett’s life and work. Beckett wrote about the tragic human condition, a haunting reality during WWII, in his best-known work, Waiting for Godot. Although Becket may have purposefully written Godot as a timeless piece, it was Beckett’s experiences in World War II—a war that destroyed his Parisian home, took two of his friends to their deaths in the concentration camps, and introduced him to the tragedy of human suffering and loss of faith—that affected the creation of Godot.1 Many critics claim Waiting for Godot was only partially influenced by Beckett’s experiences in World War II. Lois Gordon insists Beckett’s knowledge of philosophy and Existentialism had greater influence on the Godot (39), while Jerold Savory defends Christian texts had greater influence (9). But, I would argue that Godot was shaped entirely by Beckett’s experiences during WWII. After all, Beckett spent “virtually half of his life witness to human degradation, suffering, and humiliation [resulting from WWII] … The world might have seemed to Beckett an unrelenting campaign of slaughter rising out of religious and ethnic prejudice” (Gordon 35). How could WWII, a war that made him flee his Parisian home twice when the Nazis invaded (Black 552), took two of his best friends to the concentration camps (O’Toole), and showed him the suffering of humankind in the V. A. hospital of Saint-Lo in Normandy when he volunteered there (O’Toole) not have affected his writing, especially that of the “siege of the room” following WWII, the period that produced Godot (Gordon 32)? The war did affect his writing, namely what some would call the climax of all his works, Waiting for Godot. Beckett’s experiences in the war began on June 14, 1940 when Germany invaded Paris, France (Grun 516). By this time, Beckett and his soon-to-be-wife, Suzanne
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