Tuesday 15 September 2009

Is Albert Camus' reconstruction of the Sisyphus myth in The Stranger approprate to Meursault's sisuation? How and why?

Scholars
often refer to Sisyphus and Meursault as Camus' Absurd heroes.  Absurd here does not mean silly
or even so much the Theatre of the Absurd often associated with Becket and others.  This is
Camus' version of Existentialism called Absurdism.  Both Meursault and Sisyphus find themselves
in seemingly futile and meaningless situations.  The Absurdist realizes that the universe is not
meaningless but humans are incapable of knowing it.  So, to cope with this humans have to choose
nihilism, false faith, suicide or acceptance.  Camus' Absurdist heroes Meursault and Sisyphus
choose acceptance. They embrace their situation and attempt to create meaning for themselves. 
And in finding meaning, via that search, each must do so individually.

Camus
imagines Sisyphus' tragic walk down the hill and likes to think Sisyphus, while tragically aware
of his hopeless existence, embraces the futility and with scorn pushes the rock up the hill
anyway pretty much in spite and thus, creates his own meaning.  Meursault, likewise, scorns the
priest, the trial and society in general and chooses being a stranger to stay true to himself as
he also embraces the fact that any real meaning that may come to him, must come from himself;
not from the social mores or laws of society, no matter what destination this leads him to. 
They're both tragic heroes, strangers to everyone but themselves. 

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