Camus and Existentialism

for A. Greenstone's Philosophy and AP/UCONN ENGLISH classes:

EXISTENTIALISM AND ALBERT CAMUS' THE STRANGER

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness
consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the
meaning of life." --Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)

Some Essential Questions from Existentialists:

What is the difference between being and being human?

In what senses are you both being and a being?

“It’s clear that, for you, what or who I am is more important than that I am”? What does this mean?

BEFORE reading THE STRANGER, consider the following quotes selected from works of Albert Camus. Read each carefully. Think about the philosophical outlook of the individual responsible for these insights.

WRITE in your journals about what you interpret as the underlying philosophical message that ties these quotes together.

CHOOSE at least three of the following quotes and WRITE in depth and personal detail about how you connect with and interpret each passage.

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; don't walk behind me, I may not lead; walk beside me, and
just be my friend."

                                    "When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man
                                      can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him; and you are torn by the
                                      thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter. "

"To know oneself, one should assert oneself. Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself.
We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die. "

"If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another
life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life."

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."

"I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas and illusions
that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying).
I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions."

"...In a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is
without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land.
This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity."

"There is also a will to live without refusing anything of life which is the virtue that I most admire in this world."

"To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being. Above all, of course,it is drawing all the inferences from
that painful independence."

NOW READ THE NOVEL, THE STRANGER. (Note: Although this novel is considered by many the seminal piece of existentialist thought, Camus himself, disclaimed the label, and in later works altered many of his original philosophical stances.)

WRITE in your reactions in your journal. Focus on what you see as the philosophical questions that arise from your reading. Revisit the quotes you read and your responses to these, and write in your journals about your new insights and expanded sensibilities.

GO to one or more of the following sites and read literary analyses or critical interpretations of this novel.

http://www.websyntax.com/camus/

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/1311/astranger.html

http://members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/Camus/camus.html

http://www.cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/auth/cam2.html

SEND me an email at: Annegb5@aol.com explaining the following: a) Why you chose this particular essay; b) a summary of the essay's major points; c) a reaction to what this essay added to your understanding of the novel. (Clearly the emphasis of this message should be on this last part; but be sure to identify the title, author and web address of the selected article.)

FINALLY, WRITE a letter. This can be to a friend, a teacher, a spiritual mentor, or to yourself. The nature of this letter should: elucidate the nature of the philosophy as you interpret it, and be persuasive in terms of why you think the recipient might embrace these views and read this novel or avoid The Stranger, Camus,and existentialist works altogether.

"You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience. You must
undergo it."