Rarely in this world is something objective or even partially objective. We must always assume some axioms as true. In mathematics, there are sixteen axioms for correctly using and proving things with simply real numbers, one of the first and simplest tools in a person's arsenal. It is not difficult to agree with most of these, such as “for all x and y in the set R, x + y = y + x”, but other principles and ideas contain much more controversial assumptions such as “God exists. " Within this world, the only truth one can believe lies in one's own consciousness. Enter existentialism, a philosophy that humans give meaning to their lives and also have responsibilities over it. Another way to see it: “Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe.” (To quote it better later; from our lecture notes) If the environment of a certain individual whether suitable or not remains an open question; however, book characters more often than not live within a well-defined environment that submits to the control of others. Since a character's innermost thoughts and feelings in a book are prominently displayed, the label of existentialism easily applies to that character, if appropriate. A man named John Fowles integrated much of the philosophy into his book, The Collector, and as such, the topic of this article is. refers to his work. In the short story, a girl named Miranda Gray is kidnapped by a man named Fredrick Clegg and through their interactions, the identification of many key themes of existentialism occurs to the attentive and educated reader. These key themes manifest through the nature of Miranda's environment... at the center of the card... respect for Miranda and labeled her as "one of those girls" when she tried to seduce him. He looked at the situation as if there was a choice between black and white and thought the world would be better with more people like him. One might label these differences as opposing liberal and conservative views. “Because they hate us, they hate us because we are different, because we are not them, because they are not like us. They persecute us, they chase us out, they send us to Coventry, they mock us, they yawn at us, they blindfold themselves and cover their ears. They do everything to avoid having to notice us and respect us. They crawl after the great among us when we are dead. They pay thousands and thousands for the Van Goghs and Modiglianis they would spit on the moment they were painted." (218 Collector)Works CitedThe Collector