Between Survival and Selfhood: The Artist’s Dilemma in Hari Kunzru’s Blue Ruin

The novel and its main character, Jay, initiate an intense exploration of how artistic choices remain consistent with survival when both economic uncertainty and creative commodities surround us. Through its main protagonist, Jay, the novel scrutinizes philosophical concepts of existence by following his journey from promising concept art to the below-average work he now accepts. Jay’s artistic downfall and his desire to establish a new identity offer readers a method to study the exterior influences that control artistic life. The quarantine situation causes Jay to face his previous transgressions while exploring whether authentic existence remains possible in this capitalist system. Through textual analysis and Sartrean philosophy, this research investigates how the book displays artistic disillusionment, performance, and existential turmoil. This study investigates (1) the manner through which Kunzru employs artists' struggles for critiquing art commodification under neoliberal capitalism, (2) the role of pandemics as existential triggers, and (3) the ethical dilemmas of personal transformations during capitalist survival demands. This study presents an argument regarding the artist's freedom struggles and humanity’s vulnerabilities while navigating dangers in modern-day society through the Blue Ruin depiction.