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Question:

djames5
djames5
Student
College - Senior

1. Is Albert Camus' reconstruction of the sisyphus myth appropriate to Meursault's situcation? how and why? what is the myth about?

its base on Albert Camus' The Stranger

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Posted by djames5 on Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 10:30 AM and tagged with i just need to answer the questions that was asked., the stranger.

Answers:


  1. jseligmann Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    First, what is the situation Sisyphus finds himself in, and what is his mental state in relation to it? Sisyphus has been condemned to eternally rolling a rock up a hill. Once at the top of the hill, the rock rolls down again, and Sisyphus goes down the hill and takes up the task of rolling the ball back up. Such is his eternal, repetitious existence. Camus' take on the story is that one must conclude that Sisyphus is happy. Sisyphus understands that this is his life and he wills it to be such.

    And as we see Meursault in "The Stranger," he has very much the same attitude toward life. His days, before and after the death of his mother, and before and after the murder, are all spent in the same kind of sanguine sentience, happy to let his days pass as they are without expecting any more from them. He has no big goals, no hopes or dreams for the future. For him, the future doesn't exist and nor does the past, so he is here now with the few things that give him pleasure and draw his attention. To Meursault, to expect more would be superfluous; it would be asking too much of life.

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    Posted by jseligmann on Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 10:56 AM