Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in the Mondovi, Algeria. One year after Camus’s birth, his father dies at the Battle of the Marne in WW1, due to this Camus was raised by his grandmother and his mother. While in grade school, Camus received help from a teacher by the name of Louis Germain who recognized Camus’s intelligence and helped him get a scholarship to a good school. As a teenager, Camus enjoyed many sports such as boxing or soccer, and at the age of 17 Camus had developed Tuberculosis and was hospitalized for months. During those months, Camus went through severe depression that would cause a variety of mental problems for the rest of his life. In the year 1933, Camus was working as well as going to school to help with the income for himself as well as his family. The type of jobs he worked ranged from being a salesman, to Journalism. Many of the jobs’ Camus worked on allowed him to develop excellent communication which helped him later in life.
In 1934, Camus got married to his first wife, but the marriage was persistent for a short period of time due to his wife’s addiction of alcohol. While married, Camus joined a communist party in 1935 and wrote a brilliant master thesis on Plotinus and Augustine and received a job opportunity with the leftist newspaper in the year 1939. The leftist newspaper soon shut down forcing Camus to look for new job opportunities, which allowed him to leave Algeria and move to Perris and find a job called “Paris-soir”. Camus only worked at “Paris-soir” for a few months before quitting and publishing 2 stories called “The Stranger” and “The Myth of Sisyphus”. Both stories were a massive success and allowed Camus to become and editor to an outlawed newspaper called “Combat” during WW2.
In 1940 Camus got married to Francine Faure (A French pianist), had twins, and released a play called “Caligula which further enhance his career. After the war, Camus published a story called “The Plague” that talks about the Black Plague pandemic in Western Eurasia and North Africa within the year 1346 to 1353. Camus fell in love with a women named Maria Caraces which ruined the bond between him and his wife to the point his wife attempted suicide. Camus used this and created a story called “The Fall” in the year 1957. In the same year Camus received a Nobel Prize for his literature.
“An Absurd Freedom” is a story published by Camus that talks about the freedom that we all believe we have isn’t true freedom. Camus talks about his “Condition” which is a very brief mentioning of the depression he had since he developed Tuberculosis. The line “What I touch, what resists me that is what I understand’ covers so much of his thought process. Camus understands that facts are true, but he doesn’t understand why people think in a certain way and he separates himself from everyone else simply based on their thought process. The quote, “At last man will again find there the wine of the absurd and the bread of indifference on which he feeds his greatness” (Camus, 478), explains how the author views other people and their thought process. (Camus, 478). With that, the author starts thinking about the rationality of suicide. “Suicide, like a leap, is acceptance at its extreme”, The author tells the reader that suicide is a leap of faith where you have no knowledge on the other side and if successful, you are unable to reverse the process.
The joy of life is the people that you are around and the achievements that you can make. If one puts their mind to something they make steady progress towards those achievements and find happiness. Those that are living on this earth are never alone due to family members, friends, and even acquaintances that can heavily impact your life, so you don’t feel trapped within yourself. People often find themselves as a slave to their subconscious and have that feeling of never being able to complete something they want to do which leads to depression and even suicide. For this reason, it is important that one is completely content and comfortable with the ideas that bestow a sense of pride, as well as having people beside them for support. Being aware of the actions you take as well as being comfortable gives you “true freedom” while obeying others is the easiest and hardest thing to do but thinking about the consequences of that action and choosing a path to make is freedom.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a story created Albert Camus in the year 1942 about a man named Sisyphus who was punished for keeping information from the gods. Egina (the daughter of Esopus) was carried off by Jupiter and the father had no idea of the abduction. While complaining to Sisyphus, Sisyphus thought it was a great opportunity to use this information for the better of the people and tried to make a deal “give water to the citadel of Corinth”. For this reason, Sisyphus was punished and sent to the underworld in a near death state. Sisyphus punishment was very simple, to move a rock up a mountain. Although it sounds easy in theory the rock would never make it up a hill which would leave to the rock falling back down leaving feelings of hopeless labor.
While in the underworld, Sisyphus was annoyed at the longing he felt for his wife and asked Pluto permission to return to earth to be with his wife. Pluto accepted and Sisyphus returned to the surface with his wife shortly afterwards but while up top Sisyphus started to enjoy the life on land that he once had forgotten and because of this Sisyphus was sent back into the underworld to continue his punishment. This punishment represents rebelling against the impossible knowing fate and still trying to achieve something. While knowing the effort he is making if futile, all Sisyphus was thinking about was one specific girl and that was enough to sate him while serving his punishment.