The fact that the man is literally, as far as the audience is concerned, thrown into existence brings to mind the Heideggerian concept of "Geworfenheit" Heidegger is clearly using the expression metaphorically as is Beckett; the man is expelled from a womb-like condition, from non-being into being. This is not the first time Beckett has used light to symbolise existence: “They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.” The protagonist is nameless, he is Everyman. “As Beckett told Barney Rosset, his longtime U.S. publisher, in 1957: he is just ‘human meat or bones.’”