Absurdism

Examining The Road and the Writing Style through an Existentialist Lens In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, we are introduced to two nameless people traveling through a land and time unfamiliar, all of which is described to the reader in a stylistically confusing way—the reader can’t help but ask, why? Why is it so often that reading the book becomes as arduous as the journey of the main characters? After reading a page and a half of dialogue without quotation marks or reminders of who is speaking,…

Tulane’s production of No Exit was a very fun experience. No Exit itself is a very interesting story, with some very good dialogue. The dialogue really has to be very good, as the entire play takes place in a single room, which leaves a very heavy burden upon the actors to not only remember lines, but to execute them. While no doubt I think Garcin, Inez and Estelle were played a little differently than how Satre intended, the parts were acted well, and I view the differences from the script as…

How should we live, in order to "live a good life"? For someone such as Albert Camus, author of The Myth of Sisyphus, living a good life would involve living freely. Camus believed strongly that we as humans should not hope for anything. Nothing is guaranteed to us; we could literally drop dead at any moment. Camus believed everyone should live in the moment. His essays suggest we should accept whatever our actions result in, no matter how bad it is; as long as we find happiness in the present,…

In Albert Camus’ The Outsider, the court weighs Meursault’s acte gratuit, or assertion of individual will and freedom, against the outrage of the entire community. Likewise, Franz Kafka’s The Trial also juxtaposes the agency of the individual with the strength of the justice system, and displays how the trial suppresses K.’s psychological freedom and agency. As both novels demonstrate how the law subordinates the individual to the community, justice therefore appeases the public rather than…

Existential Crisis or Enlightenment? Does human existence hold any greater meaning? In the 1946 novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist and narrator, Meursault, a french man detached and estranged from humanity questions just that. In the first part, the story starts in the setting of the town of Algiers in 1940s French occupied Algeria. It begins with the death of his mother, to which Meursault does not feel much towards. He returns from the vigil held at the home that his…

The Absurd represents the realization that despite all of one’s efforts and suffering, life amounts to nothing but an insignificant passage of time, regardless of what one might achieve in his life. Once one recognizes the absurdity of life, Camus argues that one cannot simply revert to a life of ignorance and naiveté. Instead, one can either succumb one’s self to the pessimistic perspective of the world or affirm his life in light of the Absurd and rebel against the indifference of the world.…

Meursault; An Absurd Hero In Camus’ The Stranger Albert Camus portrayed his beliefs and values through Meursault in The Stranger and gave him the perception that life on earth is nothing more than absurd unless one finds meaning or something to live for. In the beginning when Meursault gets the telegram informing him that his mother has passed away, we don’t really see much of a surprised reaction from Meursault, but he makes the effort of taking off from work in order to attend her funeral.…

While Quentin Tarantino’s films do mostly follow the components of artwork Jinhee Choi presented, his films are also the first of their kind. Writer Alan Stone recognizes this and argues that the absurdity of Tarantino’s scenes are a rollercoaster of emotions for the viewer. This allows him to better control the emotions of the audience. He writes about how Tarantino places brains and blood in the movie, and that the audience responds with laughter to the scenes. Although, both Stone and…

The text that I am going to analyze in this work has been extracted from the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”. This film tells the story about Andy Dufresne, a respectable accountant who is unfairly accused of murdering his wife and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He is sent to Shawshank prison, where he meets Red, an old man who has spent more than a half of his life living there. Despite they are two very different men, they become friends; sharing his time and thoughts. The text I have…

Have you ever wondered about life? What is the true meaning of living and what lies beyond in the afterlife. As such, we sometimes wonder about these absurd things which are in fact part of our everyday life. The question “Is there any meaning to life” have been an occurring central topic in which Albert Camus have been trying to get to the readers about. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault the main character, doesn’t fit in with the rest of the people as he doesn’t experience…