Literary Criticism Of Dwight Eddins 'The Myth Of Sisyphus'

“Introduction to Ernest Hemingway: Hills Like White Elephants.” The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter Eleventh Edition. Ed. Mays, Kelly, J. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Page 590. Print.

In Hemingway and the Dead Gods (Killinger, 1960), the connection between Hemingway and the Existential philosophers of the time is explored. Contrary to Tung and Meyers’ more recent research, Killinger states: “`There has been no known liaison between him and the existentialists, either personally or intellectually and neither has ever formerly recognised a kinship to the other” (Killinger, 1960).

During the time period Hemingway was writing The Old Man and the Sea, fear was present in society, e.g. The Red Scare. The fearless perseverance of the novel’s main character, Santiago, contrasts the feelings of Americans during the forties. Through reverse psychology, the valiant actions of Santiago in his perils with the marlin he was fishing, alleviated some of the unease present in American minds. The instilled the thought process of not blanching what is possible. Santiago narrates his moral correction along the lines of the same topic, “Now is no time to think [fear] what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” The quote elucidates Hemingway’s opinion of apprehension and how he found no place for it throughout the sixty-one years of his life. Events concurrent with the lives of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in their personal lives and the views of the public gave way to the formation of the plots in The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea. The structure of both novels adds to the claim: Fitzgerald and Hemingway are two of the best modernists in their

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.

Earnest Hemingways short story "A Man of the World" illustrates the life of a man known as Blindy. The story of a life altering fight may leave the men embarrassed and insecure, however, it may also make these men proud of the names they have "earned". Through analyzing the story's imagery and symbolism the relation between the title "A Man of the World" and the characterization of Blindy will become evident.

Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea is the quintessential “Hemingway Hero”-a type of fictional character created by Hemingway in all of his books whose basic response to life appealed very strongly to the readers. The Old Man begins the narrative with all the elements of such a hero despite his senescence and poverty. He shows strength, determination, and dedication to himself despite his struggles. Santiago relates back to readers as a strong failure who picks himself up repeatedly.

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea has engendered some lively debate in literary circles. Critics have concentrated on everything in the novella from the verity of Rigel's early evening appearance over Cuban skies in September (Weeks 192) to William Faulkner's judgment that Hemingway discovered God while writing The Old Man and the Sea (Bradford 158-62). Yet the most insightful commentary has gravitated invariably toward biblical, natural, and classical imagery in the novel. These images turn an otherwise simple fishing tale into a sublime narrative of human endurance. A reading that examines these images will serve to clarify the hidden significance in

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.

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.

Hemingway's world is one in which things do not grow and bear fruit, but explode, break, decompose, or are eaten away. It is saved from total misery by visions of endurance, by what happiness the body can give when it does not hurt, by interludes of love which

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago demonstrates the traits of the code hero. The Hemingway’s code hero covers the principal ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a misfortune life. Throughout the novel, Santiago shows a contrast between opposite attitudes and values which associate his behavior with the guidelines of the code. In this case, the depiction of conflicting values, such as dignity despite humility, perseverance despite despair, and victory despite defeat are aspects that help to describe and understand the role of Santiago in the novel, and reflect the reason why this character is perfectly suited to the heroic conduct established by Hemingway.

Through this character Camus challenges the reader to look through this lenses to see aspects of our culture that exemplify Clamence’s observations. These observations project back to the reader alienation from culture, conflictions, needs and wants. This could also lead back to Camus’s absurdist ideas because it represents a balancing of our pleasure and guilt. We can feel on top of the world with our privileged lives but how could we be happy when we know that others in the world are less fortunate?

In Camus’s major works, ‘absurdism’ was a frequent subject. The term ‘absurdism’ refers to a feud or conflict between our expectations or ideals and reality. Among his widely praised works, the “The Stranger” and “The myth of Sisyphus” can be read as an example of the absurdism. “The Stranger” is a story of an insensitive individual man, who lives for the

Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway

“Hemingway’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).