I remember being in high school when my English teachers would toss out the phrase “the human condition” as we discussed the dystopian nightmare of Orwell’s 1984, or Jay Gatsby’s unshakeable obsession with the past. The phrase, at first, meant nothing to me– I had never heard of it before, yet my teachers seemed to think it was relevant enough to bring up with nearly every novel we read. I even remember once being told by a fellow classmate, “If you write about the human condition in your paper, you’ll get a good grade.”
So, what really is the human condition? And why is it worth talking about? And why is its mention in an essay rewarded with a good grade? Well, let’s first say that I don’t think that last bit is necessarily always the case, but that just shows us that the human condition is definitely worth discussing.
‘Defining’ the Human Condition
Instead of listing some sort of dictionary definition of the human condition, let’s go at it this way– referring to something as relating to “the human condition” means that it captures some aspect of the universal experience of being a human.
And this “aspect” I’m talking about definitely isn’t just one kind of thing. It isn’t just one emotion, or one experience, or one characteristic. I mean, think of all the things that you know about being human, just for the next five seconds. I immediately think of things like becoming attached to people, falling in love, experiencing loss, feeling lonely, being flawed. You probably thought of different ones than I did, and those are only aspects that we thought of in five seconds. So, if we think of all the different kinds of literature and writing over the course of history, we can imagine how many different aspects of the human condition have been depicted.
But Why the Human Condition?
Now, obviously, when we read a novel, there’s no blaring bold faced font that says THIS CHARACTER’S EXPERIENCE OF HEARTBREAK IS AN ASPECT OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. No, the wonderful variety of authors over the thousands of years of human writing have become much more subtle (and creative) than that. Instead, through their descriptions of characters’ emotions and experiences (often crafted with really cool diction and purposeful narration), they showcase aspects of the human condition. This is why when you’re reading a book, and a certain character is going through something, you are often able to think, “Oh yeah, I understand that feeling.” This is because it’s something that we’ve all experienced at one point, or will experience, because we’re all humans and we all deal with highs and lows.
And this is why writers talk about it—to connect with their readers. And also to convey some message about humanity, to portray something about this experience that they find compelling and important to their readers.
However, this understanding of the human condition can seem a bit convoluted, at it raises some questions in skeptics. The question on the lips of many of these folks is: “Can there really be one human condition?” And honestly, there is discussion to be had there.
Back to Definitions
We are all extremely different as humans, with our own identities, backgrounds, races, genders–the list goes on and on. So some say that there can’t be just one human condition when we take into account all these distinctions. However, what the idea of the human condition aims to convey is not that these differences don’t exist or that they are invalid to experience, but instead that we all have a commonality, too; that commonality is what it aims to capture. This is because the human condition is about general experiences that people go through regardless of what sets us all apart; people all deal with growing up, love, death, friendship, and maturation. While our differences and various identities often color these aspects of life and present them in different ways, they are still things that, at their roots, we all experience universally, more or less.
How to Implement It in Your Writing
Alright, so we know what the human condition is, how to find it when we’re reading, and why it’s there on the page—now all that’s left is including it in our own writing. After all, don’t we all want that “guaranteed A” on our next English essay? (Once again, I do not think that’s necessarily true).
As far as how to write about it, I think you have the tools with you already, after everything we discussed. You just need to go ahead and use them now. When you’re talking about a quote in a rhetorical analysis, explain how that author is exemplifying the human condition there through, for example, the character’s grief after losing a loved one. Or through displaying the main character’s infatuation with their new lover. The opportunities are endless, because the human condition encompasses the immense universality of simply being us, and authors are representing it in new and different ways every day.