Analysis on Absurdity

By Lovely Jobhel Olalan Medina

You are stronger than you seem.

Over the passage of time, the people, their perspectives and their ideals change. But even
if these changes, their lives do not simply end where they think it do because there is no end for
them to reach, because it is the harsh truth of reality.

The myth of Sisyphus, for Albert Camus, closely demonstrates how this absurdity comes
into play for humans to experience and live by. The story of Sisyphus starts out with him trying
to escape death that, by virtue of human nature, should be inevitable. This desire to bypass Death
itself, upon the discovery of the gods, led to him being punished by being cursed to push a
boulder to the top of a mountain only for it to roll back down just before doing so. No matter
how many times he tries, the boulder would just roll back down over and over and over again.
He would have to endure this for eternity.

What does this myth have to do with philosophical absurdity? For Camus, absurdity is
facing the struggles of life and knowing that there is no end for it all. An absurd man knows that
these struggles are endless and that he would have to continuously deal with these without hope
of ever reaching a finish line. A lot of people choose to be oblivious of this truth and thus live in
complete ignorance of what true reality is and choose to live in hopes for a better future, wishing
that all the struggles they face in life will eventually come to an end. Without every realizing it,
these people live their lives in suicide and through leaps of faith. They tend to try and escape this
harsh truth and often place their hopes in a God beyond this world.

For Camus, living the absurd means possessing three characteristics that should be found
in the absurd way of living: revolt, freedom, and passion. Revolt, in Camus’ philosophy is not
accepting answers or resolutions in struggles because these struggles never really have an end
and explanation. Freedom is behaving and thinking as one chooses. Lastly, passion is showing
that one acknowledges these struggles and showing acceptance of the hardships and finds
contentment that life is meant to be lived that way.
 In living an absurd life, Camus’ presented four examples: the seducer, who pursues the
passion of the moment knowing that they are short-lived and rare; the actors, who live the life of
hundreds into a stage career; the conqueror, who focuses in being decisive; and the artist, who
create entire worlds. These, for him, are what describes the life of absurdity.

Sisyphus, for Camus, is the absurd hero that demonstrates the life of absurdity. Sisyphus
was given a task that he will never accomplish, a perfect representation of life itself. Life,
described as being absurd, is an endless cycle of struggles and challenges. Camus sees Sisyphus
as someone who lives life to the fullest, because he gives it his all as he pushes the boulder to the
top of the mountain; hates death because of his attempt at escaping it while he was still in the
overworld; and condemned to a meaningless task. Accepting this fate, Sisyphus marches down
the mountain to return to the boulder knowing nothing when his punishment will end. Once he
became conscious of his condition, he accepts his condition aware that this struggle will never
end and thus kept on pushing. Camus says that when Sisyphus acknowledges his fate, then he
will live his life free to realize the absurdity of the situation and thus develop a state of
contentment and acceptance.

The same will apply to man once he recognizes the absurdity of living a life full of
struggles that never end and continues to repeat itself again and again. The thing is, once in full
realization of this, one will know not to be full of hope for tomorrow because life in the present
is more important. Instead, this realization will push man to live his current life to its fullest.

You must first understand that you must face challenges again and again without thinking
of an end and without hoping for accomplishment. You have the innate tendency to push
yourself to the limits being the best you can ever be. Absurdity calls for us to accept that we must
continue to push in search for meaning without settling for answers and hoping in a higher being.
Once you can grasp on all of these, then you are already stronger than you think.