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Sisyphus's Belief In Searching For The Meaning Of Life

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Rieux deals with the despair of his existence by sticking to a routine. As a doctor, he worked long hours during the plague epidemic. This made him tired, which helped him cope with all the deaths (Camus, 1991, P. 193). At the beginning, he didn’t believe this mysterious illness was going to be a big deal (Camus, 1991, P. 10) but as time progressed, he realized how serious the situation was. He then put all his effort in controlling this outbreak as best he could. He doesn’t believe there is a purpose to the plague, as Paneloux suggests (Camus, 1991, P. 94). Rieux also doesn’t believe in searching for the meaning of life (Camus, 1991, P. 126) which makes him an absurdist.
Rieux displayed the essential existential characteristics as revealed by Sisyphus. Sisyphus has been ordered by the gods to continuously roll a rock to the top of a mountain (Camus, 1965, P. 1). After he rolls it to the top he has to let it roll down and do it all over again. This is an absurd task and accomplishes nothing, however the same thing can be said about our normal everyday lives (Camus, 1965, P. 2). All the work we do in our lives does little to impact the entire universe, yet we do it anyway. We are no different from Sisyphus. Even though the work has no meaning, Sisyphus is happy because he has acknowledged that he will never know the meaning of his labor and is okay with that. …show more content…
126). He is a doctor during the plague, and his routine of showing up for work everyday is like Sisyphus rolling a rock up a mountain. He does not see himself as a hero (Camus, 1991, P. 225) he just sees himself as a man accepting and making the most out of the absurdity we call

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