Camus' Essay

In Camus’ essay , “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Camus shows through symbolism that in life, someone can struggle and work achieve a goal, but the result that one attains means nothing. Because of Sisyphus’ defiance to the gods, his punishment is to eternally push a rock to the top of a mountain, and once the rock had fallen down the mountain, he must push the rock back up again. Camus chooses this to be a symbol of life. In class during the discussion, someone mentioned that the rock was symbolic to emotions, which I also agree Camus is trying to portray. The rock is continuously going up and down, just as one emotions do in life. The rock also is a symbol of the struggle that one endures in life during work and everyday life. People work to reach that point where they are at the top of the mountain, where they have obtained that goal, only to go back down to work to achieve something else. This is linked to the “absurdity” that Camus reflects in the essay. The absurdity being, “The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd” (3). Camus is saying that Sisyphus’ “futile and hopeless labor”(1) is symbolic to the work that people in his time endured. People work unconsciously throughout their whole lives, unknowing of the worthless struggle they bear, but they will continuously keep pushing until they reach the top, only to fall and start over.