A Picture of Sisyphus
INTRODUCTION
Existentialism
is defined as "a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the
existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining
his or her own development through acts of the will”. (Galens: 2002) In other
words, existentialism emphasizes individual freedom. Meanwhile, in the context of life, absurd
means irrational or
illogical thing. Camus’ absurdity (reflected in the novel) emphasizes
the contradiction between individual
desires with reality.
This irrational situation
is found in human
life when the
desire of their irresistible looks for a
clarity in the
obscurity of this world. Man as an
existence character has the freedom to be themselves, instead
the world limit their freedom
as a human being. Camus assessed
the relationship between humans, life and death as an absurd thing.
Throughout
“The Stranger”, the amount of
existentialism and absurdism views are varies. The use of Mersault’s
experiences (as the major character in the novel) conveys the idea that human
life has no meaning except for simple existence (life then death). The issue of
existentialism and absurdism in Albert Camus' “The Stranger” reflect through Mersault's life experiences with his
relationship with Marie, the death of his mother (Maman), the murdering of the
Arab, and Mersault's trial and execution, all those events show that Mersault’s
life as no meaning. (See Albert Camus’ “The
Stranger” Novel)
A DUALITY OF LIFE AND DEATH, AND ABSURDITY
It
is such an irony to say that the existence of a beginning must be ended with an
ending - that human life must be finalized by a finish point called death.
Talking about ‘life’, people will blow their mind to such a question about
death. Death is something absolute and absurd, ‘death’ become a final
destination that every existence, humans, animals, plants, things, and other
existences in the world will experience, but there is nothing can tell about
what will happen in afterlife. Everything has their own belief about death. Etruscan creates a version about death
with a green giant monster who wait for cowards against Romanian. Buddhist
believes in reincarnation, while Moslem, and Christian believe about an
afterlife resurrection that everybody will resurrect and it depends on merits
and sins that they did during life. However, when life and death can be valued
and defined by people, it means it has no value and meaningless at all.
At
this point, I am concern to the stage of existence, that life and death might
have no value as the absurd things. Even each of us are focusing to make merits
and avoid sins as more as possible during our life. Each of us are more concern
about ‘the payday’ (death) to determine whether heaven or hell as the final
destination after life. In this case we are not comprehend fully on
experiencing our life since we only do merit for something-a better life
afterlife without living the life itself.
Mersault
as the prior character in Albert Camus’ “The
Stranger” is symbolized vanity. For Meursault, life
and death are a series of absurdities
that must be accepted as
reasonable and as the absolute thing. As a quotation below about the
death of her Mother:
(1) “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I
don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow.
Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (Camus, 1985:1)
(2) “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over that Maman was
buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had
changed.” (Camus,
1985:20)
(3) She said, "if you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church." She was right. There was no way out. (Camus, 1985:3)
(1) The opening sentences of the novel
embodies Meursault’s absurdist outlook on life, his emotional indifference and
detachment to people, and his passive but quiet alienation from the rest of
society. It’s also a big flashing clue that this character is unaware and
apathetic. He doesn’t even know which day his mother died, and to him, it
"doesn’t mean anything" anyway.
(2)
Meursault is able to say that "nothing had changed" after Maman died
since he wasn’t living with her anyway. This makes sense practically, but not
emotionally (like many of Meursault’s beliefs)
(3) Camus explicitly pictured the essence of existentialsim as something absolute by a dialog between the nurse and Mersault. The nurse speaks of both weather and human condition. The sun's heat is inescapable, just as death is inescapable. There was no way out except through acceptance.
A CASE OF EXISTENTIALISM AND
ABSURDITY
Today
we may not face any kind of absurdity as irrational act (subjectively,
irrational act can be rational for some people or vice versa), we may not see
people like Mersault anymore. We might not think and sincere about something
just happened to us. A case of life and death as an absolute thing is not
really recognize by some people. As cited in quotation (3) that we cannot escape
from the consequences of life-whatever the form is.
Take
an example. I just met a dustman-a poor little widower that-to through his
life, he has to collect some waste products, then sell it to collector for him
to fulfill their daily needs. Through several conversation about his life, he
said;
(4) “Untuk
apa menyesali kematian istri saya, toh kita sudah dikasih hidup, ya harus
terima juga dengan adanya kematian kan semuanya memang milik Tuhan. Toh juga
menangis endak menyelesaikan masalah tho?”
(5) “Saya mah cuman jalanin hidup
selama masih di dunia. Masalah penilaiannya biar urusan Tuhan saja”
From
this conversation, this man shows no emotional feeling to what was happening to
him (consider as irrational act). Though, he just think rationally about a case
of life and its consequences. Instead, he just live his life. He said, he just
do merit as he could live in this world without concerning about the term
‘payday’ afterlife, and let it judge by Him. It can be said as “everything
happens for a reason”. I do determine this act is not irrational at all and I
do determine it in a positive way.
The
case of existentialism about life and death is inescapable by human as living
character in this world. What people think about rational thought of life and
death, and its consequence are changed by the influence of emotional feeling
and the world is limit it. Thus, everything that happened just let it happened
whatever the form of consequence is. Since life and death are the absolute and
absurd things.