myth of sisyphus

983 words 4 pages
How was the text borrowed from other texts, and with what effects? how has he borrowed from other texts and to what effects?

Introduction:

Thesis: Camus has borrowed philosophical ideas from other writers which has influenced his interpretation for the existence of an individual mostly described within his works with The Myth of Sisyphus as well as his other well known novels.

Prominent in Europe in the 19th and 20th century
Existentialism is defined by the slogan Existence precedes Essence. This means:
We have no predetermined nature or essence that controls what we are, what we do, or what is valuable for us.
We are radically free to act independently of determination by outside influences.
We create our own human nature
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He was punished for the letting out the secret of a misdeed that was done by the greek god Jupiter. Jupiter’s wrongdoings for abducting Aegina was of less concern than Sisyphus’s act of telling; hence, Sisyphus was punishment with a futile labour of rolling a rock up a hill. The futility of this punishment is that the rock will eventually roll down and Sisyphus would have to start again. These events show the absurdism of the society through the extremes present in both the texts.
This very idea has influenced Camus’s writing and has been evident in his novel “The outsider”
In the novel The Outsider , Meursault is punished for his unmindful murder of an Arab; however, society does not seem to punish him for that. Due to his reticent and emotionless personality, Meursault is rather punished for his supposedly inhumane reaction towards the death of his own mother. Most of the witnesses had not been there during the murder at all. They were all present only during the funeral and could only talk about that particular event. Due to the high emphasis on his mother’s death, Meursault was given a death penalty as the society rejected his individualism.
This tells us the absurdity of their punishment as they were both completely unjust.
They both are happy at the end and accept their fates.

Conclusion:

Through the different philosophical ideas present in the above texts, we

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