Even if Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting there in the kitchen with Adair and her parents, we would not.
Jean-Paul was between existentialism– a mood of estrangement– and alienation– a mood of Marxism.
I bet if Jean-Paul was sitting on a kitchen chair in this kitchen in Nebraska, as if sitting on a seat at a Parisian sidewalk cafe, he would break the ice.
Adair and her parents are sitting in an icy silence. It is painful, this icy silence. I do see how this painful, icy silence they sit in resembles alienation and estrangement. (What I want to get at is how it differs.) Alienation and estrangement are painful. This icy silence is painful. Humankind understands, from within the kindness of its humanity, the pains of icy silence, alienation, and estrangement are unnecessary.
Spam of Human Affection 
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