The False Facade (2024): A Sartrean Existentialist Analysis of Asha Qistina’s Actions

Abstract

Character actions provide an important basis for examining how literary texts represent human experience, identity, and existential concerns. This study examines the actions, decisions, and responses of Asha Qistina, the protagonist of Farhah Dhamirah’s The False Facade (2024), through four selected concepts of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism: bad faith, abandonment, anguish, and authenticity. Using Sartrean existentialism as its theoretical framework, the study employs qualitative textual analysis and theory-informed close reading to interpret selected passages that reveal changes in Asha’s relationship with her constructed influencer identity, freedom, choice, and responsibility. The analysis shows that Asha initially relies on her influencer role to justify her choices and distance herself from responsibility, reflecting bad faith. As this identity becomes unstable, she is forced to choose without predetermined guidance or guaranteed outcomes, reflecting abandonment. Following the loss of her sister, her awareness of the consequences of her choices further reveals the burden of freedom and responsibility associated with anguish. Her eventual decision to disclose the truth, accept responsibility, reject her influencer identity, and delete her Glimmergram account represents a movement towards authenticity. The study demonstrates how the four concepts provide interconnected but analytically distinct lenses for interpreting Asha’s actions and existential development. By applying Sartrean existentialism to a contemporary Malaysian novella, the study contributes to Malaysian literary scholarship on digital identity, online self-presentation, freedom, responsibility, and self-definition