French Existentialism: Albert Camus' 'Myth of the Sisyphus'

As stated by the Webster Dictionary, an existentialist is: “individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad.” In the novel The Stranger, Albert Camus creates a character who fits this ideology, Meursault. Throughout the whole story, his actions and the things he says makes him fit into the category of an existentialist, a person who follows existentialism. Within the story by Camus, the protagonist, Meursault, exemplifies the ideas and philosophy of existentialism through indirect and direct characterization.

The main gist of The Myth of Sisyphus is that a sinner named Tartarus was

Now, his works are seen with the existentialist philosophy. To show how he believes existence is worthless, he wrote The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus finds no meaning in the task he has to do for the rest of his life which shows how Camus believes there is no purpose to existence, which is similar to The Stranger. However, that is the thought of the author during the 1940’s. Now a day the reader has the ability to try a think of what the author meant.

Once upon a time, there lived a king named Sisyphus, who deceived others for personal gain. One day, he exposed Zeus’s affair with Aegina and was punished to push a boulder up a mountain for all eternity.

Nietzsche, another famous and brilliant existential philosopher, argues that God, even if he did exist, would not help us set out our moral compass. The idea is that with God, we follow external values, not determined by our own internal values; thus, rather than creating our own essence, we adhere to values set by others. This violates the core ideals of existentialism. Sartre, a French existential philosopher, further examines the relationship of humans and God in relation to our existential moods. He notes that humans have created the notion of God because we are afraid of taking radical responsibility for our freedom and in realizing that God does not exist we feel abandoned. Sartre’s analysis touches upon the third motif: radical responsibility vs. radical freedom. Radical responsibility deals with the idea that we bear total responsibility for our choices. We are completely responsible for the path we take in determining and attaining our own morality. Therefore, the choices we make in attaining our morality matter. Nietzsche states that the self is nothing other than the totality of our actions. In attaining radical

Philosophically speaking, I’m not terribly knowledgeable. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that Lesione already has me self-aware enough to note that hole in my higher reasoning skills. At the same time, I’m not convinced that even if I did have a strong grasp on philosophy that I’d know what it is Camus is going on about. The texts starts off well enough, with Camus highlighting several details and variations on Sisyphus’ life and crimes against the gods that I’ve never read before or realized even existed. Using the mythos he previously describes, Camus then applies the absurdist viewpoint to Sisyphus’ actions and punishment fairly reasonably. Unfortunately, it's after Camus

Various myths, prevalent in cultures across the world, have time and again been adopted by scholars to have penetrating and meaningful insights into the unexplored realms and unveil several mysterious and multi-dimensional facets of human existence. The myth of Sisyphus, being the part of both Greek and Roman mythologies also happens to be one of such kinds. The myth narrates the tragedy of Sisyphus, the king of Corinth (Ephyra) who was considered as the craftiest, wisest and most prudent of the mortals in his times. With his swift tricks and enviable cunningness, he managed to seize and chain even the Hades, god of Death as he came to punish him for certain wrongful acts. His confrontation with gods further aggravated as they feared of being dispossessed and so, they charged him of the sin of transgression into forbidden territories. He also came in the radar of Zeus’s vengeance for certain offences and especially, when he revealed his secrets and whereabouts as the king of the gods had abducted Aegina, the daughter of the river god Asopus. As his defiance, hubris and violations demanded a nemesis of equal measure, so, he was hurled into the underworld by furious and mighty gods where he was compelled to roll a gigantic rock up a steep hill. It was a never-ending and unavailing exertion as the rock always rolled down before it could be stationed at the top of the hill and the Sisyphus had to start all over again. Furious gods must have chosen this for some well thought

Albert Camus is considered one of the greatest existentialist writers of all time. However, although he was considered an existentialist writer, Camus never labeled himself as an existentialist. “No, I am not an existentialist”  (Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970)) Camus rejected in an 1945 interview, however in some of his literary works, some find that his writings are one of a true existentialistic thinker. Although many contrast these thoughts and believe that Camus was anything but a thinker of this philosophy, Camus is one of the main authors that people turn to research and read to understand the thinking of existentialism. One of his most famous books, The Plague, illustrates the need for a human to become an

Other well-known motifs that express the existential nihilist's perspective of life include the Greek tale of Sisyphus, first noted by novelist Albert Camus in his 1942 book The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was a cruel king in Corinth who was condemned to spend eternity rolling a huge boulder up a mountain, knowing full well that once he reached the top it would again only come rumbling back down, yet he shouldered his burden again and again, faithfully trudging back up the mountainside in compliance with his fate. For the existential nihilist, the

Ancient Greek mythology tells the tale of Sisyphus, King of Ephyra – a man described as prudent and wise. Sisyphus was punished for his actions against the Gods when he cheated death. Sisyphus’s zeal of life begot an eternity of struggle and meaningless labor. Sisyphus’s made to push a boulder to a hill summit where it’d roll down to the hill’s basin, thus Sisyphus must traverse back down the hill to repeat this action indefinitely. Sisyphus’s tragedy comes from consciousness of the absurdity of his situation, lack of reprieve, and futility in anything but acceptance; Sisyphus’s not bound by potential for success in his toils and’s thusly aware.

   The Stranger by Albert Camus was published in 1942. The setting of the novel is Algiers where Camus spent his youth in poverty. In many ways the main character, Meursault, is a typical Algerian youth. Like them, and like Camus himself, Meursault was in love with the sun and the sea. His life is devoted to appreciating physical sensations. He seems so devoid of emotion. Something in Meursault's character has appealed primarily to readers since the book's publication. Is he an absurd anti-hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? Critics and readers alike have disputed a variety of approaches to Meursault. I believe he is the embryo

The myth of Sisyphus focuses on a king who was said to be deceitful and spiteful in nature. He was supposedly

The purpose of Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life,” is to portray the life of Sisyphus in Albert Camus’s, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” as a meaningless life, in which Taylor portrays as a “perfect image of meaninglessness.” In Camus’s story, Sisyphus has committed certain crimes that got him into trouble with the gods. Hence, receiving a punishment by being forced to push a rock up a hill. However, to make it even worse, once he reached the top of the hill, the rock would just roll back down to the bottom, therefore having to repeat this labor for eternity. The motivation behind this discipline was to demonstrate the pointlessness of life since there was no want to demonstrate his life will never end. The question of what’s the meaning of life is compelling to think about, but the more time spent doing it the more fascinating it gets. There are ways to avoid having a meaningless life, but Taylor’s theory sticks to either living a happy life or a meaningless life.

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