Validity of names in The Prince by Machiavelli and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir People often give up names to ensure the achievement of the goal they are trying to reach. This tactic works particularly well in business, but it can also work in argumentation. The names of influential people have influential effects. “I know Don Corleone” would certainly have done almost everything in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Both Simone de Beauvoir and Nicolas Machiavelli used the names of famous people to add a sense of importance and truth to what they were saying. Their choice of names is very similar. They both chose legendary heroes, past and present political figures, and fictional powers to help their work gain value. However, they differ in subtle ways. Names are used much like a recipe uses measurements: one part politics and two parts fiction. This ratio adds a different tone to each argument, which also helps convey the author's, Beauvoir's, or Machiavelli's message. In Beauvoir's The Second Sex, numerous references are made to true and verifiable sources. While she uses almost every possible spectrum of existence in terms of the beings she chooses to cite, there is an underlying tone of definitive truth to her work. She cites these people in packs and lists, using context to categorize her groups. “A few isolated individuals – Sappho [c. 610-c. 580 BC], Christine de Pisan [1364-1431], Mary Wollstonecraft [1759-1997], Olympe de Gouges [1748-1793] – protested against the harshness of their destiny” (de Beauvoir). “Joan of Arc (1412-1431), Mme Jeanne-Marie Roland (1759-1793), Flora Tristan (1803-1844)… Important figures for their political or revolutionary activity” (Jacobus: footnote, p 179 ). In the first case, we see a list of four infallible sources, all of whom “protested against the harshness of their fate”. We discover later in the book that these four people were all authors. In the second case, we see real people, all of whom were more or less politically involved. De Beauvoir hits us with a rapid bombardment of undeniable truths. But when she uses a fictional character, it's usually alone. “The suicide of Lucretia had value only as a symbol” (de Beauvoir). Here we see a not-so-verifiable quote. She is alone in the text, an island surrounded by a sea of ​​Beauvoir's words. This name is in itself.