Sisyphus Dialectical Journal

1. Exposition- Sisyphus condemned, by the gods, to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain only to have it fall back down.
2. According to some Sisyphus was wise and thought of the effect of his actions, where others say he was essentially a criminal. Camus sees no contradiction in these two views. Reasons differ on why he was punished some say because he was using secrets of the gods to bargain. Sisyphus also put Death in chains but Pluto, king of the underworld, got the god of war to set her free.
3. Sisyphus, trying to tests his wife’s love for him told her to essentially kill him, which she did, and now in the underworld Pluto permitted him to go punish his wife. But he forget all about his wife while on earth and decided not

“Absurd Hero” – His ambition to live, hatred of death and the distain for the gods. Monotony is the cost of passion. The myth is made for our “imagination”, and we provide details like, his physical strain or what he must feel.
5. Sisyphus’ decline of the mountain interests Camus. One that “toils so close to stone [is stone]” → constant work doesn’t provide a change in state. Sisyphus decent is a “breathing space”, his only time of “consciousness”. At his decent he is “superior to his fate” because at this point he could determine not to continue his task (even though he

A thing that evokes one emotion, it has the opportunity to also evoke another: “sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy”. When seeking happiness one cannot achieve it. Being oblivious to the fate we follow is only made tragic once we are made aware, because or consciousness of what we will do isn’t going to change our path. Only acceptance of what is/will happen is a victory but an “absurd victory” at that.
8. The absurd, allowing what’s to happen and not being scornful about it, rather accepting it, is, in a sense, the path to happiness or at least a piece of that path. This proves there is no god, and makes fate a “human matter”.
9. Sisyphus’ fate belongs to him. The rock is only a thing in which he interacts with. The “absurd man” is victorious by being able to “contemplate his torment”. The absurd man agrees to his torture (the monotony of life) and therefore is happy. And by agreeing he sees the actions as his own and “knows himself to be the master of his days”.
10. Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain “find’s [his] burden again”. Sisyphus performing the action over and over teaches faithfulness, which “negates gods”. And this makes the world neither hindering nor particularly giving (neutral). The conditions create his world and the struggle is something to overcome, a direction, and in this Sisyphus is