Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus Essays

The act of suffering is controlled by the will of the gods. There is emotional and physical suffering. Odysseus goes through emotional and physical suffering. He goes through emotional suffering when he is a prisoner on Calypso’s island for seven years because

Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide. " "Revolt" here refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd; "Freedom" refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others' moral codes; "Passion" refers to the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so he concludes that every moment must be lived fully. The naked truth of inevitability of death and stumbling upon a meaning of life (at least for one's own self) and revolting against the whole blind world, surely tranquilizes the mind.

In the Greek literature of mythology, we have examined Odysseus. Students and scholars alike debate whether Odysseus was a true hero, as read in The Odyssey. There is much supporting evidence to prove all sides of the debate and opinions held of Odysseus. It is of my opinion that Odysseus is a hero in his homeland, his family, the Greek people, and for us to learn from to this day. Odysseus had encompassed three many qualities that I believe made him a hero. He embodied, mental strength, physical strength, and spiritual strength. I would like to advocate for why Odysseus was a hero.

He knew the sheer ruin this would entail."(1). Here, the gods are discussing the crime committed by Aegisthus in courting another's wife and then killing Agamemnon upon his return.  The central theme in this book is definitely that of suffering and misery in existence, and there is no other character that knows this better than our hero, Odysseus. Odysseus is kept away from his home for 20 years. Every day, he experiences anguish in some form or the other.

In Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, a war hero named Odysseus spends ten years attempting to return home to his family. During his journey, Odysseus faces many challenges that test both his courage and commitment to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. He must fight off both physical challenges, like monsters, as well as the emotional challenges of temptation. Throughout the course of the poem, Odysseus makes choices that can be considered good or bad, depending on what traits a society values. Due to the cultural differences between the Ancient Greek world and modern American society, it may be difficult to determine whether Odysseus should be considered a hero or not. Some of these lines are not entirely clear, especially when it comes

Punishment “is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious” is what Camus claims (Myth of Sisyphus). The solution to Meursault’s and Sisyphus’s fatal fates is converting negative emotion, into joy through perception. Some argue that in the beginning, Meursault was hardened and cant be an existential hero because he is mindless, but his perception is clearly outlined and changed. “It was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness,” (59) is what Meursault thought when he shot the Arab another four times. Although some may argue he was committing a hardened act, unhappiness is still an emotion. It isn’t necessarily sadness, which is what society wants to see, but it could be interpreted as being content. Meursault cannot find the happiness in life; he is just okay with it and unconsciously proceeds through his life in a routine of physical happenings. Then, he remembers, “Manman used to say that you could always find something to be happy about,” (113). This alters his perception on the spot, and no longer becomes sad based upon speculating on his memories and how he will lose them. This mirrors Sisyphus and how he finds the “silent joy” by altering his perception of what is currently happening with pushing the rock up the hill. So, Meursault forgets about the past and looks for good from his cell. Outside of those cell bars he can see the green grass, the sky, the stars, and is happy. Now, his happiness is not declared yet, he doesn’t know that he is happy, but he just went into the idea of living a life in death instead of death in life. This realization happens with his impression on the chaplain, which is that “he wasn’t even sure he was alive because he was living like a dead man,” (120). This means that one

During the course of his journey home, Odysseus cunningly tricks the cyclops Polyphemus into believing he has no name. Moreover, he manifests his god-like strength, stringing his bow and killing the suitors who plague his kingdom. And lastly, Odysseus deals with the outcomes of his unrestrainable pride, tackling on Poseidon’s rage and learning to plead to the gods. So, even when Odysseus faces struggles and numerous obstacles, Odysseus induces an “extraordinary quality from within himself”, which is, in fact, the definition of an epic

As the pain shot threw his eye, he trembled all over his stuff in the cave. Not able to see was the hardest thing ever, he thought to himself. His anger raged on over Odysseus. He couldn't wait to get his hands on him and make him suffer just like he is suffering right now. He dum just like a donkey. a donkey's life is just plane, where

Camus explanations of the Myth of Sisyphus, presented the concept of the absurd by outlining the beliefs that an individuals life has worth but only his live in a world that denies such worth to survive. Therefore, the absurdity in the statement, explains the fact of a clash between the orders through which an individuals mind hard for, likewise the lack of order that we as humans find in the world.

Not only embodying absurdism but speaking it by the end of the novel, Meursault parrots the same conclusion Camus reached in The Myth of Sisyphus, in which Sisyphus is charged with the meaningless task of pushing a rock up a mountain for eternity, each time watching it role back down to the bottom. He understands why his mother took a fiancé as she was approaching death, as if she were starting her life over: she would have

Albert Camus is a famous writer who discusses a wide variety of topics in his works. His account of the myth of Sisyphus touches on a topic that most writers are either afraid of or unwilling to talk about. This is the issue of suicide and how to deal with it as an individual and as a community. The principal point in the story by Camus is the presence of absurdity in our very existence. The presence of life and all living things that we are aware of is an absurdity according to Camus, who questions the plausibility of some people considering suicide to be the best solution to this absurdity. Having an understanding of the elements of nature that make up our world does not mean that it will ever be possible to understand—and fully appreciate—the reasons why our world is as it is. Whether one believes in God and the creation account, in the evolution process or in the Big Bang Theory among others is irrelevant because of the underlying absurdity to all of these scenarios (Camus 3). He writes that it was his intention to find the relationship between suicide and the absurd. This essay by Camus leads the reader to make an assessment of life and arrive at a suitable decision. This paper will provide a further understanding of these thoughts. This paper will show that life is simply meaningless but must be appreciated nonetheless.

What makes life meaningless? Taylor states that there are two characteristics of Sisyphus’s life that make life pointless. The main trademark is the purposelessness of his life. Taylor stresses the way that there is no good reason for the labor that Sisyphus is compelled to do because of the gods. I concur with Taylor that the purposelessness in performing this action demonstrates that his life is good for nothing. Perhaps, as specified in class, if his punishment brought about something advantageous. For instance, when Sisyphus rolled the rocks up the hill, rather than falling back down, they shaped into a beautiful architecture, which would give his life meaning. In the book, Taylor stated, “Activity... even long, drawn out and repetitive activity, has a meaning if it has some significant culmination… activity,” showing that possibly if the rocks did form a figure it could give meaning to Sisyphus’s life. The second characteristic that makes Sisyphus’s life meaningless is the idea of endless repetition of his punishment given by the gods. Taylor claimed that if the act of repetition would have led to an achievement or goal his life may not have been meaningless, yet Sisyphus’s labor did not lead to anything besides pointless repetition.

Camus emphasizes absurdity and happiness to the readers. For example, in the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, he illustrates his thought on the plight of all human beings. Camus states that Sisyphus is happy. He says that Sisyphus is happy because he accepted his tragedy. Even though in the miserable situation, Sisyphus embraced the absurdity. He tells the reader to create their own meaning of life and accept the absurdity. In addition, Camus stood upon the justice. Especially, he rejected the concept of the death penalty.

Taylor describes this punishment in two different ways. He first says that what Sisyphus is doing is pointless (Taylor). He is pushing a rock up a hill, just for it to roll back down, so he can push it back up again, and so on. To summarize, Taylor wrote, “Nothing comes of it, and the work is simply pointless” (Taylor). Then, he looks at the other side of the argument. He points out that Sisyphus could just have an appeal to rolling stones, just for sake of it (Taylor). Because of this, that gives some sort of meaning to what Sisyphus is doing (Taylor). Taylor

Camus’s separate work, The Myth of Sisyphus, includes imagery that provides an extended metaphor for this idea. The character Sisyphus begins to roll a boulder to the top of a mountain and upon reaching the summit, the boulder rolls back down. Sisyphus’s repetitive actions symbolize man’s constant need for an answer to the purpose of life, and as the boulder rolls back it acts as man’s responses belying his existence (Stanford Encyclopedia). For Meursault, his abnormal reactions and behaviors warrants discomfort from others. His lack of ambition to find an answer for the main question behind absurdism makes his characterization simple. Meursault speaks what he believes and knows. There are no genuine underlying sinister traits behind Meursault’s being, he simply acts upon his whims. The same whims throw him into an agreement to marry a girl, trap an abusive man’s ex-girlfriend, and kill an Arab man. All of which he does not with the intent to harm, but just the inability to explain why he should not. Meursault most often gives up on trying to explain his beliefs or intentions to those who do not immediately understand, such as his neighbors, lawyer, and