Work · Simone de Beauvoir
Who Shall Die? / The Useless Mouths
In a besieged city, leaders consider expelling women, children and older people to reserve food for fighters.
Understanding the text
Beauvoir's only published play, first staged in 1945, relocates postwar questions of sacrifice and solidarity to a besieged city.
Key points
- 01
Usefulness
Calling certain lives useless hides a political decision beneath supposed material necessity.
- 02
Community
A group undermines the meaning of survival when it excludes those for whom it claims to fight.
- 03
Deliberation
The threatened people's speech changes the rulers' calculation.
How to read it
Follow who speaks and who is counted; the plot stages ethics rather than mechanically illustrating it.
Editions & sources
- Consult the reference 1plato.stanford.edunew tab
- Consult the reference 2iep.utm.edunew tab
- Consult the reference 3gallimard.frnew tab
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗