Heros of the Absurd
... For the Absurd, however, there is Meursault and Sisyphus from the stories by Albert Camus, The Stranger and “The Myth of Sisyphus”. These two characters are the perfect candidates for the Absurd philosophy. ... The Absurd is the awareness of no God or the death of God and that every human being is guaranteed one thing, death. ... Sisyphus is an Absurd hero. This man, sentenced to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain and then watching its plunge, is the standard of the Absurd hero. ... Camus said that Meursault and Sisyphus were both Absurd because their situations were out of the ordinary and would torture any normal person to insanity if they were extremely strong of mind. Part of the Absurd is the condition of having no meaning to one’s life. ... Another factor that Camus used in showing Sisyphus as an Absurd hero is the character’s failure to appeal to hope. ... What made his death an Absurd one was that he was leaving happily. Though Sisyphus lived in a world where everyone knew there was an afterlife or underworld, his tale is a symbol of the Absurd philosophy.