Existentialism In Albert Camus The Myth Of Sisyphus

Albert Camus, commonly known as a proponent of existentialism, wrote the novel The Stranger in the realm of absurdism, demonstrating themes of alienation and the outcome of responsive decisions. Meursault, living in a belief that life is there is no point as the absence of God and the indifference of the universe gives Meursault personal freedom from any responsibility or purpose to his pointless life. “we find the stranger connected to the absurd; the absurd as the vehicle, the shadow behind the stranger, the dislocating influence——perhaps even its home.” Meursault is uninfluenced by all external coercions besides his own fate where he is awoken to the absurdity of it all, parallel to Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus finely illustrates themes of absurdity layered underneath the wash of existentialism that contains Meursault and the universe he exists in. …show more content…
The inability for the reader to connect with Meursault on an emotional level mirrors his own headspace, responding to the absurd world he lives in by the way he interacts, reacts, and observes. For instance, the death of his mother and the killing of the Arab define Meursault and bind him to his fate as the court, resembling the eyes of society, analyze Meursault as the embodiment of these events. This scenario makes the reader a voyeur of the observer being observed, extending this theme beyond the book itself and into a real world philosophy. “The absurd, one could argue is Albert Camus’s modus operandi for creating a sense of strangeness both within his own characters and in the experience of the reader.” Camus used the theme of alienation as a method of structure in response the the framework of the absurdist