Taylor Carmain

Professor Brook

ENG113, Composition

September 15, 2017

In the writing The Myth of Sisyphus - Absolute Freedom by Albert Camus, his main

argument is how to live life with an absurd. Accepting the absurd is living life to fullest while

still obtaining reason, clarity, and unity. Albert Camus divides this into three sections. The

sections that he divides it into revolt, freedom, and passion. Albert Camus discusses revolt,

freedom, and passion to show that it is about not worrying about the past, living in the present,

and not worrying about the future.

The first section is revolt. Albert Camus defines revolt as the only truth about the world

that doesnt conform to pattern or shape. Camus says revolt gives life its value (480). From

the beginning of life to the end, a persons life is measured out by what they do. Camus wrote,

Everything that is indomitable and passionate in a human heart quickens them, on the contrary,

with its own life. It is essential to die unreconciled and not of ones own free will (480). Revolt

is not attached to absurd. It is connected by conflict between human reason and the universe. It is

only true if we aware that it is happening. He said, Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its

finest (479). There is a way out of this conflict called hope, otherwise known as suicide. Camus

wrote, The absurd man can only drain everything to a bitter end, and deplet himself

(480). Every day revolt happens, which leads to a human knowing their truth in their universe. It

is not allowing a persons self to fall into knowing any answer of their struggle. Revolt is the

first consequence.
 The second section is freedom. Albert Camus defines freedom as a metaphysics. The

belief that humans are slave without hope of an eternal revolution (camus, 482). As humans in

the universe, people chose their own destiny and their own path. Camus says, The only one I

know is freedom of thought and action (481). The only freedom that humans know is the

freedom that they experience themselves and in their own situation. Camus wrote, Knowing

whether or not man is free involves knowing whether he can have a master (481). Although

freedom allows humans to choose their own path, Camus believes that it limits people to a

bubble because the focus would be on doing a certain thing that pleases humans, instead of

reaching out to try new things that arent familiar. He wrote, You know the alternative: either

we are not free and God the all-powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible

but God is not all-powerful (481). Camus believes that as humans in the universe, humans

are able to choose their own course and what they are doing with their ives. Because humans

live every day, day-by-day, Camus believes that, Death is there as the only reality (482). Its

when somebody wants to know how to live, and if its even possible to live with certainty of how

the world works. If death comes upon somebody, Camus said this, Now if the absurd cancels all

my chances of eternal freedom, it restores and magnifies on the other hand, my freedom of

action (481). Freedom is the second consequence

The third section is passion. Albert Camus defines passion as living in the present,

in the now. He wrote, Obeying the flame is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do.

However, it is good for man to judge himself occasionally (487). Camus says that it is not

worrying about the past or thinking about it, but also not concerned with the future. While having

passion, it is shared with one other existence in the world, other people. Camus wrote, And that

is true only if you are willing to believe that entering the ridiculous world of the fods is forever
losing the purest joys, which is feeling, and feeling on this earth (486). Humans get the feeling

of passion from what is driven inside them. Somebody who experiences life more than

somebody else is better off in life. Passion is the third consequence.

This is living life through absurd, using revolt, freedom, and passion. Everything comes

to an end and its just the matter of how a human decides to life their life before then. One point

that was made clear throughout Camus writing, was that its not about living for something, or

worrying about the past. It is about focusing on the present, and the now, because every human

turns up the same, death is always the end.

Camus, Albert. "Absurd Freedom." The Myth of Sisyphus. N.p.: n.p., 1942. 477-788. Print.