Rachel's Existentialism Crisis

The topic of suicide is no doubt a heavy one. It seems silly to point out such an obvious truth, but the taboo around suicide makes it feel almost impossible to discuss without emotional charge. I’ll start out by saying much of my teen years was devoted to the topic of suicide; not from a philosophical standpoint, but from a deeply personal and painful standpoint. I struggled and watched my friends and other members of my family struggle. Last year, during my first week of college, I had to leave my second class to answer a call that my friend’s father (a successful, wealthy, seemingly happy man) had killed himself. I bring this up not because I want to open up or ask for sympathy, but to highlight the truth in The Myth of Sisyphus. To decide whether Sisyphus’s life is worthwhile, and whether he can be happy with it, is in a way to ask whether our life is worthwhile. One quote that I wished we had gotten to touch on more comes from page 189: “in a sense and in melodrama, kil...

Camus’ The Stranger is a fascinating story that forces us to confront nihilists from their perspective. We watch the story unfold and from Mersault’s nonchalance about his mother’s death all the way to his killing of another man, I could not find it in myself to find Mersault completely monstrous. From our discussion, it seemed much of the class shared my feelings. That’s why it’s so important that Camus told this story from the first person perspective; we not only see his actions, but the bizarre and careless attitudes behind them. Mersault does not think the we often think one should. He is self-absorbed, lives entirely in the moment, and has little or no motivation to connect with people in a way that even resembles empathy. He truly embodies a “stranger.” Yet, much of the discussion was spent trying to justify Mersault. He just sees things a different way, perhaps he’s been through something that made him so disconnected. Why did I find myself and my classmates trying so hard ...