Albert Camus Essays (Examples)

Albert Camus' the Stranger Albert Camus' The

Albert Camus' the Stranger

Albert Camus' "The Stranger" (L'Etranger) is a story of how the protagonist Meursault is eventually condemned to die because he would not conform to what society expected of him. Meursault throughout the novel remains is own person: he reacts to situations exactly the way he wants to. His reactions are uncompromising even in the face of opposition and danger. Society expects us to behave within the bounds of specific norms. Society, especially in Meursault's case) left no room for individualism. Camus' novel is a testament to individuality as opposed to working for the greater good of society. Meursault is condemned because he is a non-conformist.

Meursault's character is one which does not worry about expressing emotion. Eventually society uses this part of his character against him. Meursault, confronted with the death of his mother does not react by being outwardly distraught. He does feel sadness, but he continues with his life. He even goes out on date with a former colleague. This is not to say Meursault lacks emotion. Society expects certain emotions meant to be linked to specific events. Meursault cannot accept this social obligation imposed upon his life; he is an outsider to the…… [Read More]

Albert Camus' Influential Novel the Stranger a

Albert Camus' influential novel, the Stranger, a great work of existentialism, examines the absurdity of life and indifference of the world. This paper provides a summary of the novel, and outlines some of the novel's main themes.

The novel's protagoinist, Meursault, is a distanced and indifferent young man. He does not believe in God, and lives his life with seemingly sensuous abandon. After Meursault is caught up in the life of a local pimp, he rather inexplicably murders a young man on the beach, and is put on trial. In a ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary trial, he is essentially tried and found guilty for failing to adhere to society's beliefs and morals. It is during this trial that Meursault comes to terms with the absurdity of life.

The Stranger begins with the news that Meursault's mother has died. Writes Camus, "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know. I had a telegram from the home: 'Mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.' That doesn't mean anything. It may have been yesterday" (p. 9). Here, the somewhat disturbing detachment of Meursault's recounting of his mother's death sets the distanced and cynical tone for his experiences throughout the novel.

Meursault takes…… [Read More]

Plague by Albert Camus Applications in 21st

Plague by Albert Camus

Applications in 21st Century

The thoughtful writings of past are often written so thoroughly that they are applicable even today. One such writing The Plague was written to narrate the fictional plague incidence that is painted to have taken place in 1940. The event was a panic for the people in the story. Albert Camus, the author suggests that human sufferings are often too horrible that the survival of the community is at stake. The labor class is normally the one most affected by the epidemics, disasters and other tragedies. The novel can be discussed and applied to the today's world in five parts. The five parts of the novel have different applications for today.

Thesis Statement

The paper investigates main elements of the novel The Plague by Albert Camus to relate it to the 21st century's plague of racism and to find out how this plague can be fought.

Part One:

The first part of the novel deals with the growth of problem and how was it noticed. The most visionary people are those that see the problem coming well ahead of time and take or device the action to solve the problem. This happened…… [Read More]

Stranger by Albert Camus Specifically

In fact, the only time he shows anger in the story is near the end, when a chaplain visits him in his cell and he loses his patience with his preaching and questions. He is sentenced to die, and the only thing he hopes for is a big crowd at his execution, because that will give his life some closure and meaning. It is a sad commentary about an equally sad and empty life.

In conclusion, "The Stranger's" theme is both unsettling and completely clear by the end of the novel. Camus feels life is totally meaningless, a bleak assessment for most readers, and he illustrates this meaningless existence with Meursault, who is completely devoid of sympathy and feeling for anyone but himself. It is difficult to mourn him by the end of the novel because Camus has painted such a vivid picture of a man without a soul. He is a man destined to die not so much because of his actions, but because there is no other conclusion to life, according to Camus. The theme of this novel is dark, and the symbols and devices Camus uses all help build up that feeling of darkness, unreality, and lack…… [Read More]

Schoolmaster Daru of Albert Camus'

We accept these injustices because in theory the poor and the suffering can better themselves through hard work, due to the nature of the capitalist system. We try to rectify these injustices to some degree through social support safety nets: yet for many individuals, there is too much to overcome, too many obstacles placed in their way even before they are born.

On a macro level, the developing world often profits off of the developed world: the developed world uses products made in sweatshops, casually spends dollars at the mall, when those same pennies could buy a starving child food. This raises the question: if Omelas was destroyed, and the child was saved, would a civilization such as our own arise in its place, with many other starving children? As much as the utilitarian questions it provokes, "The ones who walk away from Omelas," also says a great deal about human nature -- we are horrified by injustice when it is embodied in a single, innocent individual, but not in the abstract. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, many people watching TV were dumbstruck by the images of extreme poverty and deprivation exposed in the coverage of the tragedy. They…… [Read More]

Race and Culture Albert Camus

Certainly this is a key theme in books by diverse authors (Malamud, Tan, etc.). It is the very institutionalization of race that causes it to continue and perpetuate when, quite easily we see that figures such as James Baldwin and others, working in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem, could begin the long road to overcoming White supremacy.

What does the "impact of modernity" mean to traditional cultures of the Afro-Asian-Indian world? What was the general reaction of the native populations? Why was the West so successful imposing its will on these areas of the world? Do we see examples of this in contemporary times? Construct a 250-300-word post answering these questions.

Time and time again we note that traditional cultures that are forced to interact with European-based systems often lose what one might call their "humanity." This paradigm began whenever European decided to move into an area and uspurp authority, but became quite prevelant during the Age of Discovery after Columbus' fateful voyage of 1492. Here indigenous cultures were judged, used, malaigned, and decimated through disease, slavery, and ignorance. One contemporary African author summed this creeping White disease as, "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and…… [Read More]

Stranger by Albert Camus the Main Character

Stranger by Albert Camus

The main character, Meursault, mother dies in the book, and he travels to her funeral. As he sit by the coffin, he displayed virtually no emotion or offers any indication of grief. The next day, he meets an old coworker has is named Marie. They go out on a date to a diner and then a movie and shortly after a relationship forms. Later these two individuals take the relationship to the next stage and announce their engagement. Meursault's neighbor, Raymond, who is a notorious pimp and portrayed as immoral man, asks for help to lure his mistress back as well as to help him get acquitted at the police station on charges of beating her up. Meursault indifferently agrees to help Raymond as a neighborly thing to do.

As the plot develops, the author starts to portray Meursault's escalating indifference to life. Meursault then kills an Arab because of hot weather and a fight with Raymond. He is arrested, thrown in jail, and brought to court. When the character is in jail he really starts to wrestle with the philosophy of life. He takes something of an existential approach and decides that there really is…… [Read More]

Plague Albert Camus

Plague: Albert Camus

Camu's Philosophy

Albert Camus' philosophy is often defined as the "philosophy of the absurd" the idea that life has no rational or real meaning (Ward, 2005). This philosophy is defined through the actions and life of his six characters in his novel The Plague. It is here that Camus attempt o imply that while there is no rational basis for moral order that does not suggest that one should have an indifferent attitude toward moral order. Camus instead presents himself as someone who is optimistic of the future even though he may lack hope. He defines the "absurd hero" as someone who resists the illusion that rational order exists but also resists despair (Ward, 2005).

His philosophy is similar to Existentialism, who tend to assert no rational or moral meaning can be tied to human existence. Unlike existentialist thought however Camus suggests that all humans have an innate capacity to do good but most people fail to ever realize their potential (Ward, 2005; Bronner 1999).

Camus' Characters

In his work The Plague Camus expresses his world view and philosophy through his main characters including: Dr. Bernard Rieux, Jean Tarrou, Joseph Grand, Raymond Rambert, Cottard and Father Paneloux.…… [Read More]

Plague Albert Camus Wrote His

Camus's novel revolves around the idea of love- love for the humanity. Tarrou was a person who had felt that kind of love at a very young age when he went to a court to see his father, an attorney, in action. He recalls: 'the only picture I carried away with me of that day's proceedings was a picture of the criminal. I have little doubt he was guilty -- of what crime is no great matter. That little man of about thirty, with sparse, sandy hair, seemed so eager to confess everything, so genuinely horrified at what he'd done and what was going to be done with him... I needn't go on, need I? You've understood -- he was a living human being" (Camus, 224).

That was important for him. It was important to see himself and others as human beings even if they had been accused of a crime. For as long as a person knew he was guilty and was willing to do something about it, he deserves compassion. Keeping this in view, Tarrou tells us what the author would love to be the message his readers to get from this book, if it is the only…… [Read More]

Kierkegaard on Camus Albert Camus's

The implications of this concept are enormous and profound. Just as Kierkegaard reverses the Hegelian construct of the universal being over the individual, the inner is placed by Kierkegaard in a position of supremacy over the outer. It has already been shown that faith can make acts moral to the individual performing them even when universal ethics would condemn the same act. Universal ethics are an element of the outer, or that which can be expressed and communicated publicly, whereas faith is inherently incommunicable and therefore individual and inner. Because inner faith can reject outer ethics, the inner gains a place of supremacy over the outer, and the particular experience must be seen as the main constituent of reality. An individual determines their own relationship to the universal based on their relationship to the inward looking absolute.

In the Stranger, Mersault at first find only the rejection of the universal, without the accompanying acceptance of the religious. He as no relationship with the absolute, and hence has no relationship with the universal. The inverse of this could also be true; Mersault, perhaps, has o relationship with the absolute because he has no relationship with the universal, though this would be…… [Read More]

Guest by Albert Camus Is

This story also made me sad, because the schoolteacher was really a good man. It also said a lot about the culture of the area, and how the whites and the Arabs get along. There are times when the schoolteacher fears the Arab, and does not like him, but he still sees him as a human, with feelings and needs. That is more than many people see when two cultures clash, and it seems like the schoolteacher was trying to be as fair as he possibly could. It made me think about what I would do in a similar situation. I would hope that I would be as fair as the schoolteacher, but that the entire situation would turn out better. It also made me think about all the stories we have read so far. They are all very different, and yet they all have common threads that tie them together, and that makes them all more interesting to me.… [Read More]

Albert Camus the Plague the

It's the main reason why Camus doesn't make an accent on tragedy of any particular death.

A very ironic correlation of life and plague is made by one of Rieux patients for whom plague and life have nearly the same meaning. Plague epidemic is a very talented mystification made by Camus in order to make analogies with real life, where illnesses, suffering and death contribute to the fate of every individual and are integrated into our life. In both cases person loses humanism which plays a fundamental role in resisting cruelty and indifference. Plague and death can not be either cured by physicians or cognized and explained by Catholic priests. Nobody can give explanation to the reasons of plague as it is as absurd as existence of Oran's townsmen at the very beginning of the novel. The death of the innocent child only deepens the dilemma as neither father Paneloux nor doctor Rieux are able to find any logical explanation to the question why plague invaded the town. Camus makes us to understand that plague in Oran can be defeated only by mutual effort, by solidarity of citizens and by ability to enjoy life. Neither God nor medicine can help…… [Read More]

Albert Camus Raising the Name

" (71) In Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, Camus makes clear that man wants to live; in supporting death, not only do Christians run against their core Christianity, they also undermine the power of Christian life. Camus beleves that there will be no lasting piece in either the heart of man nor their greater society until death is formally outlawed; because the survival of life and the dearth of death are at the heart of Christianity, he finds that Christians are most demanded to support the life of those in the world. By supporting the death penalty at all, history provides ample evidence for Christian leaders who refused their Christianity by refusing life to other men. Nevertheless; he had one parallel in common with the Christian church: an understanding of temptation. During the Vichy Purge, Camus wondered for the first time if the death penalty were, perhaps, a viable punishment for particular atrocities. When he attended the trial of one most violent man, Camus reaffirmed his hatred for the death penalty, thinking it perhaps almost too good a punishment for someone so inherently evil. Within every guilty man, he posed, there is enough innocence to make his condemnation to death simply…… [Read More]

Camus France WWII France Under

Throughout his play, collective devastation is met with personal suffering. It is only when this becomes a shared suffering that it can become a collective way to redemption. The divides of a war now over would give way to this shared experience for all peoples of France, charged with the responsibility of rebuilding.

Indeed, this speaks much to the futility of war itself, as spoke by Camus when he resolves that "all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories" (Camus, 262). The viewpoint expressed here is in informed by the severity of World War II and the unprecedented global experience of attempting to be removed from this trauma. In the resolution instigative of this discussion, we can see that Camus holds on to some sense that man is inherently more a good creature than a bad one, and that he is to be recognized for his virtues. This is an optimism which is perhaps confided in desire and necessity more than anything else.

This notion contributes, though, to the determination that man's life is steeped in suffering, from which he must be constantly prepared to find ways to protect himself. And moreover,…… [Read More]

Camus in the Book the

It is true that Grand changes over the book. He finds within himself the words to express himself and knows how he would act differently given the chance. He is redeemed at the end when he overcomes illness.

However, it appears that the individuals who are the greatest heroes in real life are those who change the most when confronted with adversity. This is because they are the ones who will help others change. They can be role models and encourage people to find something deep within themselves to deal with suffering, find love or destroy evil. Change agents are the ones who can motivate people to fight against the Hitlers and not be afraid of change inside or the world around them.

Who is this person who changes the most? As noted, Grand transformd, but not to an extreme. Nor is it Rieux who is always willing to help others, Paneloux who does not actually alter his religious convictions, or even Cottard who changes for a while. Overall, it is Rambert who undergoes the greatest change over the first 170 pages of the book. At first he wants to leave Oran; he wants to run away and not face…… [Read More]

Camus the Search for Meaning

" By imagining Sisyphus happy, it then becomes possible to find our own happiness in no matter what situation.

Camus begins his argument with a powerful statement about suicide, noting that it is the most important of all philosophical problems. The question of suicide cuts to the core of whether life has any meaning. If life has no meaning then it only makes sense to end the life, and seek meaning elsewhere. Camus claims that accepting absurdity negates the function of suicide, and renders suicide itself an absurdity. To commit suicide is no different than perpetuating blind and useless faith in an abstract God. Both acts entail surrendering the personal will. Suicide and blind faith both deny personal responsibility and instead project and expect meanings onto the universe. Camus' argument is self-empowering. Instead of having faith or hope, holding out for the revelation of true meaning, the individual has the opportunity to reach enlightenment in the present moment. Imagining Sisyphus happy is a bold mental step, and can be a paradigm shift. Taking personal responsibility means transforming one's perspective by embracing the absurd.

One of the strongest points in Camus' the Myth of Sisyphus is the explanation of what an…… [Read More]

Camus -- the Plague an

Yet, even Tarrou must fall to the plague inevitably. Camus as much as says that while Tarrou's ideals may be beautiful, they are not ultimately the truth: there is no moksha for Tarrou -- only death. Does absurdism expect that one's best course of action is to interact with life at a slight remove -- as Rieux does? No definite answer can be given.

Cottard, however, is definitely not the best example of how society should act in the face of the absurd. His attempted suicide leads him to more irrational and violent behavior. His foil is found in the person of Rambert -- who, like Cottard -- attempts to find a "way out," at least initially. Gradually, Rambert is moved to shame for his desire to escape and seek his happiness outside of the human experience that is happening in Oran. Rambert finally decides to stay and help even though his conniving produces him a chance to escape. His sacrifice is rewarded at the end, when he is reunited with his wife, who has been waiting on the outside. Rambert is recognized as the man whose courage fails only to be revived by conscience -- the simple man, who…… [Read More]

Guest and Sonny's Blues Albert

Daru is still trying to cling to a sense of morality; yet, the Arab himself shows how this will not work in a world of uncertainty because after he is set free, he goes to the police station himself.

James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" Topic 6

James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is an interesting tale of a lost soul, who finds his solace and ability to express himself through the art of music. Sonny lost both of his parents, and his brother was not there for him during the times he needed him the most. Sonny's brother did not understand his suffering, and as a result he turned his back on Sonny during his times of darkness. Sonny was left alone in a world of darkness and he was not strong enough to deal with it in a healthier manner, as his brother did. Therefore, Baldwin writes "this life, whatever it was, had made him older and thinner and it had deepened the distant stillness in which he had always moved" (Baldwin 100). He had turned to drug and crime to get by. Essentially, the hard-knock life of living in Harlem during the extreme racism and despair of that era had worn…… [Read More]

Kant Camus Kant and Camus

If Kant's points are to be assimilated when adopting a moral stance which is consistent with man's dignity, such absolute terms are inevitably defined by dominant social structures, bringing us to the application of a normative theoretical structure. The inextricable relationship which theology and morality have shared throughout history tends to have a tangible impact on the way these hegemonic standards are defined.

And Kant, rejects any flexibility outright, however. Beyond its deviation from his established disposition toward moral absolutes, such variation violates Kant's maxim about man as an end rather than a means. Man is to be the motive for moral acts, with his dignity defining right and wrong. Indeed, as he pointedly phrases it, "the laws of morality are laws according to which everything ought to happen; they allow for conditions under which what ought to happen doesn't happen." (Kant, 1)

Counter-argument:

Like Kant, Camus asserts a clear ethical rejection of the act of suicide such as demonstrated in his the Myth of Sisyphus. Published in 1942, the original essay concerns the absurdity of life and the necessity to recognize this without succumbing to nihilism. However, as it addresses the subject of suicide as a possible outcome of…… [Read More]

Baldwin and Camus How Much

Balducci, a soldier who Daru knows, approaches with an Arab prisoner. Balducci's government papers give custody of the prisoner to Daru, who must now take him to the French jail in Tinguit. Upset, Daru wishes to refuse. He does not want to become involved. Balducci likewise does not want to be in the lawmaker role. "You don't get used to putting a rope on a man even after years of it, and you're even ashamed-yes, ashamed." Balducci, in fact, is shirking his responsibility for decision making by passing the buck on to Daru.

Daru understands that the Arab is being made a political example -- in other words, a guinea pig. He killed his cousin in a family feud, which is not a case for the French colonial courts but the involved families. Daru accepts his charge, but relunctantly. By doing so, Daru is taking a clear position, defying the "rules" and authorities that Balducci blindly obeys, in addition to rejecting the actions of Arab. He then states, "Every bit of this disgusts me, and first of all your fellow here. But I won't hand him over. Fight, yes, if I have to. But not that."

Daru unties the guest…… [Read More]

Martin Heidegger Alber Camus and Sigmund Freud

Heidiegger Camus

Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time" addresses both of these complex philosophical concepts, being and time. Being means existence, or the fact that something can exist. Heidegger approaches the concept of being from multiple perspectives. Being is the quality of existence, or the fact that something exists. Does this mean the opposite of Being is Nothingness? What does Heidegger say about anti-matter? Heidegger also probes the force that causes a thing or concept to come into being. It may only be possible to contemplate the quality or state of being if the thinker exists, meaning that a nothing cannot think about a something. Heidegger comes close to suggesting the existence of a collective human soul, a grand Being, which he calls Dasein. The Dasein is not quite like the Nietzsche, but it is an archetypal super being that has the potential to contemplate existence.

For Heidegger, Being and Time are closely connected. All beings exist in the space-time continuum. Is Heidegger saying that is not possible for a being to exist outside of this construct, meaning that immortality is impossible? Heidegger does seem to imply that birth and death, on a linear time construction, are necessary conditions for the…… [Read More]

Moral Impermissibility of Abortion Albert

The pro-life arguments state that a fetus is in fact a real-life person in the making. Is true there's no supporting scientific evidence for the beginning of personhood, but what if an unborn child has a soul and can actually feel pain? Isn't then artificial abortion a crime? Just because we are not sure, we should take the most radical solution that we can and are allowed to by law?

This is the first solid argument to sustain the moral impermissibility of induced abortion. Because having an abortion equals the death of a life growing inside, as a natural result of unprotected sexual intercourse. It is therefore considered that the new life, the fetus, did not have a choice. And having an artificial abortion furthermore deprives him/her of the right to chose (whether to live or not). So, if it's about the right to chose and the freedom to decide your own destiny, an intentional removal of a growing life is not and can never be the right answer.

Even if we can't undoubtedly say that it is in fact a person, there is "something too human about a fetus which looks so much like a baby" (Cline) that should…… [Read More]

Fall Camus's Story the Fall

.. Anyone who has considerably meditated on man, by profession or vocation, is led to feel nostalgia for the primates. They at least don't have any ulterior motives." (Camus, 4) Passion as well might make one authentic, or a true and mindless embrace of any aspect of life. Truthfully, the story does little to present us with true authenticity, because the narrator himself never discovers it.

The meaning of this story may seem very difficult to grasp if one makes the assumption that the narrator speaks for the author as a voice of wisdom and reason. Actually, no such assumption needs to be made. Camus is well-known for writing ironic works in which the speaker is not a mouth-piece for virtue. A key to this work may be found in something which Camus wrote shortly before-hand regarding his falling-out with Sartre. "Existentialists! Whenever they accuse themselves, you can be sure it is invariably in order to assail others. [they are] Penitent judges." (in: Raskin) Because of this quote, and the similarities between certain elements of the story's philosophy and that of the existentialists, some critics consider this story to be "at least in part a mordant satire directed against Sartre…… [Read More]

Kierkegaard vs Camus in the

If dread enters as the knowledge that there is no knowledge from which to derive a decision, yet decision is all there is, then we reach a complicated idea of what comprises the individual. If there were a concrete and appreciable version of each person, ready at any time to assess, then the concept of dread would have less terrible implications. The fact is, when penetrated by the nothing of pure possibility, the reach of this nothing is beyond almost all conception. There never really is an individual, just some ongoing process of change. The nothing alienates the individual further than from mere others and the world. The nothing of dread brings into its fold, the individual. The individual supports this nothing and yet must determine itself on such grounds. Whereas before, we had the Kierkegaardian maxim of individual as truth, we now have no grounds for determining anything. The actor has forgotten his/her lines and must now choose them every moment.

As such, we must move onto a more concrete and grounded conception of the individual to explore the synthesis of Camus and Kierkegaard. Perhaps a synthesis already has purchase in the absurd. "The absurd depends as much on…… [Read More]

Myth Sisyphus the Myth of

The absurdity in Monty Python comedy sketches seem like a philosophical cousin to Albert Camus.

Likewise, Camus is like a distant relative of Buddha. Buddhism asks the individual to cease striving and desiring everything and anything -- including enlightenment itself. Life is suffering, says the Buddha, a concept that clearly reflects the punishment of Sisyphus. The root cause of suffering is not in the punishment, though, it is the desire to be set free or the desire to know why the punishment was meted. Elimination of the "uselessness of suffering," as Camus puts it, is the elimination of the desire for meaning. Camus would note that Buddhism is the religion of the absurd, or a religion that acknowledges the absurd and attempts to ironically pierce through it or overcome it. With a Buddhist outlook, Sisyphus simply rolls the rock up the hill more consciously.

When the meaning of life is nothingness, or absurdity, then one can become liberated in a sort of humorous outlook. Humor is a liberating force, emotionally and psychologically. Hunting and pecking for meaning in this universe is like searching for the needle in the haystack, if there was one there to begin with. One of the…… [Read More]

Philosophers' Ethos Thomas Hobbes's Opinion

Even with the fact that he is well aware of the futility of his struggle; the essay's protagonist does not give in and constantly stresses the importance of his mission. Sisyphus should nonetheless be considered to be happy, as Camus describes, considering that the character accepts his fate and proceeds to perform his pointless task.

Camus' essay demonstrates how the much hated absurdness of life can become less malicious when individuals realize that there is basically nothing to do in order to change the end. Sisyphus's dedication to live life to the fullest and his attempt to cheat death were unsuccessful, as his fate ultimately defeated him in the long run. Camus obviously wanted to prove that there is no point in trying to cheat what it is inevitable.… [Read More]

Politics Literature and the Arts

Politics, literature and the arts -- Transformation, Totalitarianism, and Modern Capitalist life in Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and Albert Camus' Caligula

At first, the towering heights of the German director Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" may seem to have little to do with the cramped world of the Czech author Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis." Fritz Lang portrayed a humanity whereby seemingly sleek human beings were dwarfed by towering and modernist structures, where one class of thinking humans were drunk on pleasure while others suffered in pain so that the upper classes or regions of Metropolitan society might prosper. Franz Kafka portrayed a man named Gregor Samsa who became a grotesque creature, increasingly beset upon by his tiny and encloistered environment until he is transformed into a gigantic cockroach. Rather than focusing on the higher echelons of society, Kafka focused on its lower elements immediately.

In Kafka, the transformed Gregor Samsa becomes too large and ungainly for his environment. Gregor becomes trapped by the world of his apartment, rather than seeking to escape it like Lang's central protagonist of the privileged classes. But both metaphors of the film and the short story show how human beings in a modernist world become alien…… [Read More]

Human Nature in Literature and

And, if one flees historical reality, then, is it not futile in that eventually it will catch up with us? As a "guest" of this world, then, what is the basic responsibility we have towards humanity? Daru chooses an isolated and ascetic life -- he flees society, but society catches up with him, and it is his decision that allows him to become -- more human. Of true importance in this work is that the original title in French, L'hote means two things -- the guest, or the host. Thus, the title refers to the struggle of both the prisoner and the schoolmaster; giving the reader a moral guide that is less than logical, but historically practical (Camus, 2000).

Gimpel the Fool is a Yiddish tale set down by Isaac Singer, and translated into English in 1953. In essence, it is representative of much of the Judaic culture -- the journey the individual takes, through trials and tribulations, to find faith, guidance, and ultimately self-actualization within a cruel world. Gimpel accepts that the town thinks of him as a fool, representative of the outside world having little trust in his acumen -- and as a fool, he is therefore boxed…… [Read More]

Guest With Its Existential Feel Is a

Guest, with its existential feel, is a Camus classic. The short story's setting is stark, as the author's words evoke the Algerian desert in the midst of a snowstorm. Sweeping landscapes of desert winter and stark, unpopulated terrain are part of what makes "The Guest" a story about isolation. However, the protagonist, Daru, has chosen to live here as a teacher. His only contact with the outside world seems to be through his bags of grain, which symbolize civilization. Even his Corsican friend Balducci cannot rend Daru from his self-imposed solitude. Daru appreciates his secluded state and relishes the simple life. Therefore, the prisoner whom Balducci delivers to him is treated with kindness and compassion; like Daru, he too is a guest. But Daru does not identify with either the Arab or the French cause and therefore he cares not for the political implications of the prisoner's fate. Instead, he demands that the Arab decide for himself whether or not to turn himself in. As people without a sense of belonging, both Daru and the Arab represent the title of the short story. With "The Guest," Camus elucidates the theme of isolation through his use of scenery, self-imposed isolation, and…… [Read More]

Coping With Guilt in the

His final diatribe, regarding Empire does not absolve him, but instead accepts his own guilt in the indorination of feeling toward the desire to grow his empire. "One thought alone preoccupies the submerged mind of Empire: how no tto end, how not to die." (133)This echoes his own thoughts, expressed when he was teetering on the stool waiting to be hanged, he said to himself that he would stand in that place until the flesh fell from his bones, "to live." (125) He divorces the idea of empire openly, with his sacrifice and torture and then remarries the idea that he has reason to feel guilty because he is indoctrinated in the nature of Empire. To him the only real innocence is the children, which he then realizes connects him to his paternal and incestuous love for the barbarian girl, who was the eventual cause of his demise, for it had been her who he had sought to return to her people, and then been arrested for helping the enemy.

Each of these novels is contentious of the human condition and the main characters rang between absolution for inaction and action in a corrupt human system and the allowance of…… [Read More]

Alienation in Soldier's Home and

Both Krebs and Daru are also alienated because they are unable to adopt the philosophy of the cultures in which they exist. Krebs comes from a religious household and a country that promotes ambition from men, yet he cannot accept God's existence, nor can he work up the enthusiasm to seek a job and make money. Similarly, Daru is forced to turn in an Arab prisoner-of-war, yet he does not have the heart to force the Arab to do anything. Instead, he lets the Arab decide whether to turn himself in or to hide with rebels. The actions of Krebs and Daru are unusual because in most stories, the characters are ambitious and try to change their surroundings if they are unhappy within them. However, Krebs and Daru show no motivation for escaping their environments, and their lack of motivation reflects their alienation.

The narration of both stories is another way that the alienation scene surfaces in the two stories. Both stories are written in a passive, almost bored voice that is direct but offers no commentary on the activity that takes place. The language never frames any of the activity in the plots as being of any significance, so…… [Read More]

Perspectives and Commitments

Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living (rdg.uk)." It is for this reason that a critical examination of our most fundamental beliefs about truth and reality whether right or wrong becomes an important undertaking (rdg.uk). The examination of major life perspectives challenges as well as helps us to better establish many of our own assumptions about life (rdg.uk). We should all be concerned with how different views of the world clash or fit together, and with how the different perspectives (moral, scientific, religious, metaphysical, and personal) may be reconciled (rdg.uk). It is with these ideas in mind that this paper undertakes an examination of three major life perspectives, those of: naturalism, humanism, and theism (rdg.uk).

According to naturalism, heredity and environment influence and determine human motivation and behavior (naturalism.html). Thus, if an artist wishes to depict life as it really is, he or she must be rigorously deterministic in the representation of thoughts and actions (naturalism.html). Naturalism holds that all phenomena can be explained mechanistically in terms of natural (as opposed to supernatural) causes and laws (skepdic.com). Naturalism neither denies nor affirms the existence of God (skepdic.com). However, naturalism makes God an unnecessary hypothesis and essentially superfluous to scientific…… [Read More]

World War II Book Review

It is key to understanding the author's view of love and even her own status as a woman and as a thinker. Of course, the book can simply be read as a love story of infidelity and sexual liberty gone wrong in the face of an ever-changing political society in a state of national and European chaos. But the Mandarins de Beauvoir referred to were also the elite, the intellectual elites of Chinese society who held themselves above from the common peasants.

Thus, by calling her fellow Left Bank intellectuals 'Mandarins' De Beauvoir symbolically calls upon her fellow intellectuals to become part and parcel of the political fray, rather than wasting their energies with entangling personal alliances that can be just as dissipating as the betrayals of Vichy and the subsequent alliances that sapped the French nation of its own vital energies. She calls upon the intellectual Mandarins of French society not to form their own elite core of thinkers, but to unite with others who share their thoughts in a less complicated way than pure, cerebral existentialism and visceral sexual pleasures that are really of interest only to the personal lives of those who suffer their consequences.

The author…… [Read More]

Life in a Godless World for as

Life in a Godless World

For as long as mankind has contemplated its own creation philosophers have pondered the meaning of life largely within the context of humanity's relationship to the divine, from Aristotle's metaphysical conception of God as all actuality to Descartes' systematic attempt to develop a proof of God's existence. The dominance of Christianity throughout much the civilized world invariably constrained the ability of great thinkers to challenge many of the religion's most fundamental precepts, from the concept of free will to the nature of good and evil, leaving much of the early philosophical canon regrettably limited by a reliance on unquestioned faith. After the European Renaissance validated the structural foundations of scientific inquiry, the glaring inability to empirically observe God in any conceivable form prompted many to privately question the dogmatic assertions of the Pope and his church. It wasn't until the momentous contribution of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who first published his seminal treatise on the nature of existence The Gay Science in 1882, that one's refusal to believe in God was transformed from fringe idiosyncrasy to legitimate worldview. When Nietzsche answered the query "Whither is God?" By declaring boldly "I will tell you. We…… [Read More]

Nietzsche and Nihilism The World

Foremost, though, is the Nietzschian concept that freedom is never free -- there are costs; personal, societal, and spiritual. To continue that sense of freedom, one must be constantly vigilant and in danger of losing that freedom, for the moment the individual gasps a sigh of relief and feels "free" from contemplating freedom, tyranny will ensue. He believed that it was the internal cost that contained value. This, however, still presents a problem for Nietzsche, in that he must find a way to connect the objective -- the rose is beautiful, with the "idea" of beauty (essence). Thus, the idea of freedom and the objective reality of freedom are dependent upon the manner in which the individual perceives their own path towards such a concept. Remembering that Nietzsche lived while monarchs still reigned, his view of freedom from a political and cultural paradigm was heavily influenced by Bismarckian politics, which were anything but democratic and "free." Instead, likely opting out of the tradition of Hobbes, people are born into a state in which they cannot be initially free since they are barbarian and must be controlled (Nietzsche, 1982, 224-8).

Now, extrapolating this idea further, we find that for Nietzsche, free…… [Read More]

Use of Myth in a Work of Art

Myth in a Work of Art

Albert Camus was born on the 7th of November 1913 in Algeria from a French father and a Spanish mother. His father died in the First World War (seriously wounded in the battle of the Marne, he died a month later), so that Camus was raised by his mother and never knew his father. Camus spent his childhood in Alger, in his grandmother's house, where he received his first education. Later on, he passed onto to primary school under the tutorship of Louis German, to whom Camus will bear a strong gratitude his whole life and whom he mentioned in his acceptance speech upon winning the Nobel price in 1957. It was German that first encouraged Albert Camus in his studies and who convinced him to pursue a higher education within the Algiers University. During his time at the university, he founded the Theatre du Travail in Algiers, where his first play, Revolte dans les Asturies, was put on scene. After earning a degree in philosophy, Camus quickly established himself as one of the most notable writers of the 20th century with novels like The Stranger (1946), The Plague (1948) and The Myth of…… [Read More]

Philosophy of Life

Philosophies of Life:

Personal and Traditional

When one considers the many aspects of one's "inner life," it becomes clear that most, if not all of them are based upon some philosophical conception. Psychologists have long known that individuals, who have a strong sense of their life's purpose, as well as a spiritual, religious, or ethical viewpoint, tend to live longer, healthier lives. Further, they are less likely to suffer from depressive episodes (Hassad, 2000). Although each person's individual "philosophy of life" is different, there are some well-known philosophical interpretations that can shed some light upon common attitudes concerning personal identity. Six famous life philosophies are attributed to Socrates, Freud, Albert Camus, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Muhammad.

Although there are several ways in which one can interpret the meaning of life and personal identity, perhaps one of the most useful steps one can take in the process is to recognize the vast range of viewpoints that are possible in the quest. While it is true that many people draw their personal life philosophies from religion -- few recognize that most actual life philosophies are a kind of hybrid derived from cultural, moral, religious, spiritual, and psychological sources. Indeed, even the…… [Read More]

Clinical Psychology Krzysztof Kieslowski's a

We are engaged in what happened then. We are the same ones who were involved in the action; the memory brings us back as acting and experiencing there and then. Without memory and the displacement it brings we would not be fully actualized as selves and as human beings, for good and for ill (71).

Jacek is very clearly stuck in a place in his mind where he believes that he was to blame for what really happened. He was there and he remembers it as such and so it is so. The other element that feeds this is his imagination. According to Sokolowski, memory and imagination are structurally very alike and it is easy for one to slip into the other. The question is whether or not Jacek sees his true self in that memory or if it is an imagined being of himself. This matters because if Jacek is not able to recognize himself in the past, then there is no morals associated with him. According to de Beauvoir, if an act is left behind, then it simply falls into the past and it becomes nothing but a mere stupid fact. In order to prevent this from happening,…… [Read More]

Tobias Wolff Disagrees With Others

The only reason to continue living is to accept and transcend the absurdity with personal scorn and strength. Camus is overwhelmingly concerned with the impact of his ideas on everyday life -- coping with the severe and confusing realities of everyday existence. Based on all of this, Camus asks, in the face of such defeat can a person be actually be happy? It is possible. It is the only reality that a person has. In this world, an individual must confront the limitations of knowledge.

I don't know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms... I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone.

Man is given two choices -- he can kill himself, but then he allows both absurdity and meaningless death to triumph over him. Or he can rebel, continually rejecting death in acceptance that he will one day die. In…… [Read More]

Psychology and Politics Example

strengthen mental discipline.

letter of Gratitude

(a) Lincoln's "higher purpose"

[b] What idea or insight in the full article would you recommend to others?

[a] what seems to be driving Stephen Glass? what are his life goals and aspirations?

[b] how do you think Glass would assess his own intelligence?

[c] Identify and discuss at least two strategies for deception Glass used.

[d] Did Glass leave what Greenspan called "a trail of casualties" in his wake?

[e] What advice would you give to editors about how to avoid hiring someone like Stephen Glass?

[a] Why should judges care if attorneys submit plagiarized legal briefs or motions?

[b] Do you think these punishments (taken as a whole) were too lenient, too severe, or about right?

[c] What distinction did the court make between these two cases?

[d] Do you think this kind of public shaming is too harsh?

PART 7

PART 8

[a] Identify a selection from each speech that you regard as the recipient's most memorable observation. 11

[b] What values do the recipients seem to share? 12

[c] What career or goal deeply engages you? Please explain. 12

"The mind is fickle and flighty, it flies after fancies and…… [Read More]

My Mortality and the Meaning of My Life

life is an issue that has been plaguing thoughtful people since the first Cro-magnons evolved into modern homo sapiens with the power to think rationally and creatively, and most importantly, self-consciously. Aside from humorous attempts to explain the meaning of life such as Monty Python's movie The Meaning of Life, the question is a serious one. It cuts to the core of every human life, causing the individual to question his or her purpose and mode of living. Many people look to religious guidance as a means of discovering meaning in life, and religion remains the most effective way of providing people with a roadmap. Even if the absolute meaning of life is not revealed, we can at least learn to accept that God has a plan and that plan is inherently meaningful. Philosophers, however, have debated the efficacy of religion's ability to provide life with meaning. Existentialism is the one branch of philosophy that is by definition concerned primarily with the meaning of life and human existence. Whereas some existentialists acknowledge the potential for God to provide meaning, others deny the relevance of God and point to an essentially meaningful or nihilistic universe. For example, the writing of Albert…… [Read More]

Educational Theory and Philosophy in

Nearing the end of the 1960s, the analytic or language philosophy became the central focus point which led to the isolation of the classroom setting and the problems that came with it (Greene, 2000).

Most of the educational philosophers of the time were inclined towards restricting themselves to the official aspects and problems like the sovereignty of the system without any influence from the society and the surrounding environment and the assessment of the calls and school structure conducted for its growth or for the progression of the epistemology that it embodied (Greene, 2000).

All those setups that seemed to be coming across as invasive or seemed to add a personalized bias where it didn't belong were quickly identified and removed. This was one of the reasons that led to the obsession of the possible consequences that could exist due to the practicality of the philosophical theories. Inflexibility was adeptly achieved by isolating what was practiced from its related theme, which was believed by many researchers to be the only efficient way that a sense of unbiased logic could be developed in an individual. One of the important things to note is that the application of the "movements" theory also…… [Read More]

Human Beings Make Sense of Things in

Human Beings Make Sense of Things

In the early-1900s, Edmund Husserl sought to provide psychology with a truly scientific basis, not by copying the physical sciences but through the description of conscious experiences. This would be a truly humanistic psychology, grounded in human life and experience rather than materialistic and mechanistic theories like functionalism and behaviorism. Karl Jaspers called for a psychology that would describe phenomena such as "hallucinations, delusions, dreams, expressions, motor activity, and gestures" for the "person as a whole" (Churchill and Wertz, 2001, p. 247). This holistic or Gestalt psychology is dedicated to the search for the authentic self, and to heal the "hollow' men and women of our time who have lost touch with themselves" (Churchill and Wertz, p. 248). Intentionality is one of the key assumptions of phenomenological psychology in which "experience must be grasped holistically and a relationship in which the subject relates to the object through its meaning" (Churchill and Wertz, p. 249). For example, water is a drink to a thirsty person, but has another meaning for someone about to go swimming or wash the dishes, so consciousness is never separate from an object or thing. Thinking, feeling, remembering, imagining and hoping…… [Read More]

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara

Hence, the model of preparation applies to Guevara's situation and choices perfectly because all of the prior knowledge and experience he had through his medical visits across Latin America motivated him to be absolutely prepared for a long battle, hence he not only stayed in the area where he could learn the most, he associated with people who had been pursuing the same goal longer then him and knew more about the things that he wanted to be aware of .

Domain knowledge that Guevara gained by staying in Guatemala and preparing was also of significant importance to sharpen the technical skills he needed to possess to succeed. Two of the most important aspects that Guevara aimed to gain through the domain knowledge were:

To familiarize himself with the rules with which a revolution or change within different societies operates in differing environments and the practical wisdom to compete in and change the negative aspects of the chosen environment; and Prior experience and knowledge of how revolutions succeed is high.

Another aspect that is very visible in Guevara's approach, particularly his military strategies is the aspect of experimentation. Experimentation, pertinent to the circumstances that Guevara underwent, can be referred to…… [Read More]

Moral Legal Political and Practical

The line of legitimacy, separating socially approvable use of force from violence, cannot be effectively drawn without an agreement on what constitutes the optimum amount of force necessary to maintain social order and to protect human rights against encroachment. A society subscribing to infinite morality which condemns all use of force as immoral is doomed no less than a society accepting the absolute pragmatism of tyrants. "

As Oleg Zinam proposes, these two extreme social attitudes to morality are equally unprofitable to the societies that adopt them. The attitude of absolute pragmatism can easily lead to the acceptance of political assassinations, as long as such acts may help the final political purpose. An example of absolute pragmatism can be the regime initiated by Hitler, who ordered the extermination of all Jews in an attempt to "purify" the human race by excluding anyone who did not fill in the Arian ideal. The same thing happened with other executions throughout the ages, like the witch hunt for example, when the witches were seen as a threat to society and the authors of dreadful crimes. The opposite social attitude would be that of the infinite morality, which can not find a political assassination…… [Read More]

Sexual Politics Loom Large in

Every aspect of sociology is somehow affected by sexual politics and this can be seen in every postmodern representation of sexuality. Media is particularly dependant on sexual politics as a thematic representation and as a guiding force for human emotion. This is particularly true with regard to dramatic representations in film. The two films discussed above can be seen as examples of this thesis and illuminate both postmodernism and sexual politics in the modern world.

Works… [Read More]

Personality Theories Personality vs Situation Personality Refers

Personality Theories

PERSONALITY VS SITUATION

Personality refers to the unique set of relatively constant behaviors and mental processes in a person and his or her interactions with the environment (Kevin 2011). It is generally accepted that personality is influenced by genetics in the form of dispositions or temperament at 40-60% and by the environment. The tasks of the psychologist are to characterize and describe personality traits, investigate the relationship between these traits and behavior, and understand and predict behavior from these traits. The approaches to the study of personality are descriptive; biological or genetic; learning; psychodynamic; and humanistic, existential or phenomenological (Kevin).

Existentialism vs. Humanism

Existentialism is difficult to define as those who conceived it denied they started it or it even started (Corbett, 1985). It can be vaguely described as a spirit or atmosphere of one's response to human existence. Among its precursors were Soren Kierkegaard and Fredrich Nietzsche. They were later joined by Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger and Albert Camus (Cobertt). Existentialism uses phenomenology as philosophical approach. This refers to the careful and thorough study of phenomena, the creation of Edmund Husserl. Phenomena consist of the contents of consciousness one experiences and allows to reveal experiences to consciousness…… [Read More]

Soldiers Came Back From World

Westerns soon developed into a staple of TV land. The independence and strength of the characters epitomized the ideals that made America so unique. Families sat down with their TV dinners to watch such shows as " Gunsmoke," the Lone Ranger," the Rifleman," Have Gun, Will Travel," and " Maverick." You were not anybody unless you could sing the theme songs of each show.

Moviegoers were also being drawn into the theaters by the monster/science-fiction movies. About 500 film features and shorts were produced under this broad theme in the 1950s and early 1960s, explains the 50s B-Movie website. One might argue convincingly that never in the history of motion pictures has any other genre developed and multiplied so rapidly in so brief a period. As Paul Michael comments, "On a sheer statistical basis, the number of fantasy and horror films of the 1950s... has not been equaled in any country before or since." Moreover, Alan Frank points out that the 1950s "saw science fiction at its peak in terms of sheer output and diversity of theme and diversification into various subgenres, notably the monster picture...." (50s B-movie website). From any perspective the emergence and popularity of low-budget Horror, Science…… [Read More]

Kafka's Metamorphosis the Use of Symbolism in

KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS

THE USE of SYMBOLISM in FRANZ KAFKA'S

"THE METAMORPHOSIS"

According to Nahum N. Glatzer, philosopher Albert Camus once said that "the whole of Kafka's art consists in compelling the reader to re-read him," and since the interpretations of Kafka are many, this inevitably leads to a return to the story itself "in the hope of finding guidance from within" (35). This internal "guidance" is related to many elements of fiction, such as metaphor, characterization, plot and theme, yet with a single reading of Kafka's the Metamorphosis, written during late November and early December of 1912 and published in October of 1915, one can easily recognize that the use of symbolism is the dominant trait and "guidance" for the reader, due to Kafka's extraordinary ability to transcend reality and create a world that could only exist in the realms of the supernatural or the human subconscious mind.

Essayist Eliseo Vivas in "Kafka's Distorted Mask," points out that Kafka's use of artistic symbols, i.e. symbolic metaphors, are similar in nature to masks which act as shields from reality. "The light which rests on the distorted mask" is Truth, but "the mask on which it shines. . . is distorted" by…… [Read More]

Death Penalty There Are Many Situations and

Death Penalty

There are many situations and concerns in the world that require using ethical thought. There are many issues we read about an learn about when we have to ask ourselves what we believe in. Which side do we take on euthanasia or abortion or sexual morays? It is the responsibility of all people to explore these issues so that their opinions are education and well-informed. It is the lazy individual who formulates their opinions on innuendo and rumor. What is ethical? What is moral? What is right? What is good? It is everyone's responsibility to ask themselves these questions and formulate their own answers to these extremely important issues. Perhaps one of the most controversial topics for debate is over the ethical right of the death penalty. Some feel the penalty to too severe and inhumane. Others feel the penalty is just and not used often enough. How does each individual feel about this most severe of punishments? Is it right for the government to execute criminals or is it wrong? Presently, 34 of the United States of American have death penalty statutes (Facts 2011). I propose that the death penalty is a necessary tool but should only…… [Read More]