Compare And Contrast The Stranger And Sisyphus

One day, just imagine a person was walking in a city. He then stops and manages to see a hundred dollar bill, across the street. He walks across the street, and even with thousands or even millions of people walking past him, he is stuck in a dilemma whether to pick up the money or not. This little dilemma in his head makes him an “everyman character”, a person who is an ordinary person that represents him in the human race. Even by being an everyman character, a person still has the slightest greed within them that makes them pick up that hundred dollar bill. Likewise, both Mersault from The Stranger and Sisyphus from The Myth of Sisyphus demonstrate themselves also to be an everyman character. Both protagonists have their own ideas that are

First off, both Mersault and Sisyphus made mistakes and then only realized them once it was the end of their existence. In Part II of The Stranger, at the trial is where Mersault had some sense into his wrongdoings. The trial describes and even represents the act of absurdity where there is rational order in an irrational surrounding (the trial). Irrational order is meant to be a threat to society so that is why Camus created these characters that try to find the rational order. Sisyphus tries to find his own happiness but in the end, he doesn’t find happiness because he has achieved nothing. Although, Camus argues, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (Camus). But one must disagree with this because like it was said, Sisyphus has achieved nothing in his lifetime other than his crimes. Moreover, Camus describes the same happiness motif and applies it into The Stranger coincided with Mersault and his death. Mersault thinks he is not relatable to the world, but then the world is also different from him. As he was about die, “I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate” (123). After his death, he will acquire peace and joy through his pain and struggle. But also, it allows him to enjoy his life because he knows that his mistakes cannot hold him back. With that mentality, he becomes happy and fulfills Camus’