Albert Camus
Twentieth-century existentialist Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a French Algerian man of letters and Nobel Prize winner. Raised in poverty in the North African country that was then a French colony, he had literary and theatrical ambitions in his youth, flirted briefly with the Communist Party, and eventually became a journalist.
His Background
He was sympathetic to the plight of the Arab natives of Algeria who suffered at the hands of their colonial masters, and his newspaper reports on the subject caused him to lose his job as a reporter. He went to France during World War II and courageously worked with the French Resistance against the Nazi occupying forces.
Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre are the two most famous existentialists of the twentieth century. Both these Frenchmen believed that people had to take personal responsibility for their own actions, not to waste time blaming society or God (whom they did not believe in) for their problems, and that dignity, heroism, and even happiness could be found in an absurd world.
Camus is considered an existentialist by everyone except himself and the other famous existentialists. His criticism of Stalinism earned the ire of fellow French thinker Jean-Paul Sartre and other French existentialists. The intelligentsia of Europe and America curiously supported Josef Stalin, the Russian leader who history has proved to be a vicious dictator and mass murderer on the scale of Adolf Hitler.
Camus was given the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 and died tragically in a car accident in 1960. Although primarily known as a novelist and playwright, it is these very fictional devices that exposed existentialism to a wide audience. Given a choice, most people, then and now, would rather read a novel or see a play than slog through a philosophical tome.
His Writings
The novel
The two famous twentieth-century existentialists, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, were both offered the Nobel Prize for literature. Sartre did not believe in dispensing such accolades to authors. He felt it would compromise his integrity as a man of letters. Camus gratefully accepted the honor (and the cash prize).
Alienation is the norm according to Camus. Camus's protagonists strive to find some happiness in their seemingly dismal situations by ultimately resorting to the age-old technique of acceptance. Even though a saint said it, an atheist can practice it. They accept the things they cannot change. The spiritual person asks their God for help to gain acceptance, while the existentialist summons acceptance from his singularly human spark, the life force that he or she would never consider calling a soul.
Camus came of age between the two world wars in the first half of the last century. He sought to find meaning in life despite the despair and malaise that descended upon Europe in those days. With no faith in God, Camus sought the answer in the indomitable human spirit and its ability to survive and thrive while bearing unbearable burdens.
The Struggle of Sisyphus
The myth of Sisyphus is an ancient myth about a man who is condemned by the gods to roll a huge rock up a hill, only to have the boulder roll back down upon reaching the summit. He has to repeat this frustrating process for all eternity. Camus's essay on this myth sees it as a metaphor for the modern human condition. Sisyphus typifies what Camus calls the “absurd hero.” Enormous effort and energy are expended on a task that accomplishes nothing. This is often the plight of contemporary people, be they blue- or white-collar laborers. A beast of burden performs such tasks with the luxury of being oblivious to its plight. Mankind is cursed with a consciousness of his unpleasant predicament.
Camus finds solace, even triumph, in this fate. There is, according to Camus, a comfort that comes in knowing you are on your own. Society is of little help, and there is no God. You have only your humanity to rely on, and, according to Camus, that is enough. The indomitable human spirit can endure anything, even the relentless struggle of Sisyphus.
