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The Absurd Hero

            "The absurd hero's refusal to hope becomes his singular ability to live in the present with passion.
             Albert Camus uses "The Guest " ˜to communicate the separation that humans experience at heart, his idea of absurdity and a sense of moral distress. Throughout the story there is the acceptance of human responsibility while recognizing the purposelessness of life. The Guest presents Camus' claim that humans can create their condition through acts and believes in the power of the world.
             The story takes place in the nineteenth century when algeria is a land full of conflict between the enslaved algerian people and their french colonial rulers. The story is about a Man name Daru who is a lonesome schoolteacher in camus boyhood home of algeria. Daru like the idea of living a lonely life but he need to learn that choices are necessary and that his choices matter.
             The story begins with when the french send the gendarme, Balducci to Daru with a Arab convicted with murder. When the Balducci the prisoner came under the charge of daru he must choose whether to turn him over to the law or grant him the chances to go free.
             that night Daru and his guest develop a bond that taught daru equality with the prisoner a criminal from a different race. The theme of emptiness provides the key to the importance of Daru and his choices. Daru likes the separation and isolation of the evaluation and at first he finds it difficult to accept the presence of another human being in the same sleeping quarters has him. Daru, who sleeps naked at night, feels defenseless in the Arab's company. He cannot sleep because he is thinking about the decision and the man nearby; .
             In this room where he had been sleeping .
             alone for a year, this presence bothered .
             him. But it bothered him also by imposing .
             on him a sort of brotherhood he knew .
             well but refused to accept i the .
             present circumstances. (236).
             During his stay in the schoolhouse Daru learns to accept the man, murderer though he is, as an equal and his brother.


Essays Related to The Absurd Hero

1. Meursault The Absurd Hero

Meursault cannot be defined as a traditional hero, but rather as a tragically absurd one. His outlook on the irrationality of life, the choices he makes throughout the novel and the realization he makes in the end all promote the idea that Meursault is the absurd hero. ... Meursault cannot be described as a hero, because nothing he does is in any way heroic in the eyes of society. However it is fair to label him as hero to existentialism and the absurdity of life. ... In this way, he is a pioneer to this lifestyle of passive pessimism, and so he can live on as an absurd hero. ...

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2. Heroes

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3. Irony in The Myth of Sisyphus

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4. "Pope presents the absurdities of the fashionable world with

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5. Meursault: The Absurd Hero

In The Outsider Albert Camus develops Meursault as an existential hero, to promote the theme of being different than the majority of society. ... When Meursault's mother dies his attitude is absurd and his actions are unconscionable to society: "I then wanted a cigarette. ... He is not a bad person for not showing his emotions; he is an existential hero for refusing to accept societies standards. ...

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6. The Stranger

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7. Flaws of King Lear

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8. Groundhog Day

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9. The Young Hero

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