Topic > The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus: an allegory for the human condition

There are many reasons why the story of "The Myth of Sisyphus" is important to Albert Camus, for example, it is an allegory of that which means human being. Camus skillfully analyzes the existence of Sisyphus and connects it to three final consequences of human life with the absurd; freedom, revolt and passion. The story of Sisyphus is the epitome of the human condition and the fact that human beings cannot escape the condemnation of useless work. Sisyphus is crowned the absurd hero of Camus' story, a title not to be taken lightly. Sisyphus lived his entire life rebelling against death and was fiercely passionate about living, he always chose to fight for life. This passion, revolt and freedom is precisely why he was punished for his passions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The absurd is a theme around which much of Albert Camus' work revolves. The absurd is described as the gap between oneself and one's senses, who one believes oneself to be, and the world's resistance to human efforts. Camus wrote that “the world escapes us because it becomes itself again. That scenography masked by habit returns to being what it is." Here Camus talks about the primitive hostility of the world, how dense and strange it is. The absurd is the awareness that the world exists independently of any meaning we try to give it. Camus wrote about routine and waking up: “Getting up, tram, four hours in the office or factory, meal, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday… According to the same rhythm – this The road is easy to follow … but one day the 'why' arises and everything begins in that tiredness tinged with amazement”. Here Camus explains that one can only become aware by asking "why" they are doing what they are doing, usually this happens when one is unhappy, Camus often expresses in “The Myth of Sisyphus” that the human experience is not easy. Camus further explains that habits hide the dark character of the world, where the world might seem as if it serves one's purpose, the world actually has nothing to do with one's purposes, desires, or interests. “Because if I try to grasp this self that I am sure of, if I try to define it and summarize it, it is nothing more than water slipping through my fingers.”, in essence, the world resists any attempt at appropriation. The absurd also involves the knowledge and understanding one has. In the grand scheme of things, we cannot understand ourselves and our actions mean nothing. Camus says that, ultimately, we know very little and what we know falls short of what we really want: “Yet all the knowledge on earth will give me nothing to assure me that this world is mine.” To understand the relationship between the concept of the absurd and the existence of Sisyphus, one must know a brief synopsis of the story of Sisyphus. The myth of Sisyphus is the story of how Sisyphus became the “futile worker of the underworld” tasked with rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, only to watch it roll back down and repeat the task for all eternity. Sisyphus had a long list of misdeeds he committed against the gods, from "stealing their secrets", to "putting death in chains", to tricking Pluto into allowing him to return to earth where he promptly ran away to live on the shore to the sea and enjoy the "smiles of the earth". These actions made Sisyphus the absurd hero. Camus wrote that “Sisyphus is the absurd hero, both through his passions and through his torture. His contempt for the gods, his hatred of death and his passion for life earned him that unspeakable pain...". Sisyphus's punishment, Camus writes, is the “price that must be paid for the.