In the foreword of Between past and future, Hannah Arendt declares the essay as the necessary writing for the reflections gathered in the book. As a style that lies between literature and philosophy, arts and critical thought, without converting in any of these, the essay expresses the failure of the traditional scientific thinking. It shines a light to a kind of knowledge that concerns the experience of the individual that enunciates a discourse. This option allows one to reflect upon the ways the author’s experience relates to her writing. Also it leads to understand the essay as an ideal form to articulate a specific experience mediated by exile and its meanings. Nonetheless, the purpose of this work is not to explain Hannah Arendt’s oeuvre by her life, but to point out that contemporary experience, which she participates in, evades conclusive explanations and, on the contrary, shows itself instable. Facing these challenges, this work is also an essay that reaches for understanding the complexity of Hannah Arendt’s work without determining her thought.