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4. Absurd Freedom
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Myth of Sisyphus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Absurdism and Meaning
Humankind and the Natural World
Masculinity
Philosophy and Art
Summary
Analysis
In this section, Camus tries to move towards a more practical understanding of how to live with the absurd. The absurd man, he says, “lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime” without relying on any promises of eternity or external justifications. Camus promises to show “illustrations”—but not “models” to follow—of people who live effectively with the absurd.
As Camus has been keen to reject the overly abstract “solutions” of philosophers, here he seeks to address the practical implications of effective living with the absurd. The quibble between “illustrations” and “models” seems a little disingenuous—surely, if these are relevant examples of absurd lives, they are also options available to everyone to follow.
Themes
