I Am An Existentialist Forum & Chat Board | Existentialism and Sypmathy/pain

Hey! Hopefully some of you readers will be able to help me?

I'm studying the level of Existentialism in Hemingway's fiction.
In The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway focusses quite a lot on the extent to which the old man is hurt. Almost as if he is asking for sympathy for him?

This contradicts an Existential view point, right? Becuase the focus should be on his courage and endurance, and his authentic actions. Rather than asking for a response from an outside viewer.

What I am asking is: what place do sympathy, pain and injury have in existentialism as a philosophical doctrine or lifestyle?

Hope anyone can help, much love, R.

 

My hit on existentialism is that pain is very much a part of the human experience, and should be fully acknowledged.  In fact, I think some existentialist writers focus almost exclusively on the pain they feel.  I see myself as a Christian Existentialist.   Like you say, I focus on the positive aspects of life, such as, in the case of the Old Man in Hemingway's story courage, perseverance, and so forth.  I'm never sure what the word sympathy actually means.  But I think empathy, feeling another's pain, is very much a part of living.  Without that, a person is capable of any sort of crime or brutality.  There's a group here called "I am an empath."  Several of us talk about how we've felt others' pain too much.