Albert Camus And Herman Hesse — Comparing Both “The Outsider” To “Siddhartha”
Essay Preview: Albert Camus And Herman Hesse — Comparing Both “The Outsider” To “Siddhartha”
Report this essay
Albert Camus and Herman Hesse — Comparing both “The Outsider” to “Siddhartha”
Both Albert Camus and Herman Hesse express their critical view on the world and society in “The Outsider” and “Siddhartha” respectively, using an appeal to absurdity and “the ridiculous” as a mainstream for their analytical commentaries. Therefore both pieces of literature share similarities where most of these can be found by close-reading the chapters “Among the people” and “Samsara”, and comparing them to Camus. This can be done by contrasting various explicitly evident themes like reference to absurdist aspects, reference to surrealism and a metaphysical divine world and the analysis of characters and how they react towards other characters.
In Albert Camus’ “The Outsider”, Mersault, the protagonist, lives off physical and momentary pleasures and sensations. It is very clear that all he looks for in his life is “observing Marie’s breasts” and smoking Cigarettes or even eating daily at his ordinary restaurant. Throughout the book, Mersault shows no clear evidence of holding ambitions or desire to have a wealthy life with riches and sophistication. This is most evident when he despises his raise opportunity and declaring, “I wasn’t interested in changing my life. I replied that you could never change your life, that in one case, one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t all dissatisfied with mine hereвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ This again shows how Mersault doesn’t care about living a life of materialist possessions and desiring one more of abstract possessions. Similarly, “Siddhartha” wants ands live off absolutely nothing. This is strictly obvious once Siddhartha says, “…I posses nothing…if that is what you mean. I am certainly without possessions, but of my own free will, so I am not neededвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ These aspects where both protagonists live off abstract things, sensations and reflection appeal to absurdity and make the characters look ridiculous. This is because it greatly juxtaposes with the fact that every member of modern society ambitions to have riches and possessions and fight for this all of their life.
Another important feature to notice about both author’s main characters is the fact that they both don’t obey society’s expected values, laws and paradigm. For Example, in “Siddhartha”, Kamaswami, a merchant, doesn’t understand is revolted to know that Siddhartha doesn’t care if he suffers losses or gains from business. Kamaswami even tells Siddhartha off when he interrogates him saying “…that is all very fine…but you are a merchant…or were you only travelling for your pleasure?”Siddhartha shows that no matter what happens, people should not judge someone’s efficiency or success through expected outcomes and accomplishments. Mersault in a way is very similar because when he is put on trial, he is judged by his unusual behavior and reaction to events that have recently happened in his life, rather than being judged by his crimes. Both protagonists seem to take life as a game and whilst Mersault doesn’t even seem to take his trial and death penalty seriously (at first), Siddhartha also treats life like a game and even admits it when revealing “…he was doing many things that were only a gameвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ
Both characters are very different to most members of society, and by the conclusions driven towards society by the protagonists make the ordinary population seem ridiculous. Siddhartha reveals his critical opinion of people when he says, “…he saw people living in a childish or animal-like way…He saw them toiling, saw them suffer and grow grey about