Camus: The Stranger And Existentialism

Camus: The Stranger And Existentialism Existentialism is freedom and choice. It is impossible to define existentialism. We can witness some aspects of existentialism in The Stranger. Existentialists want to direct our attention to our individuality. They force us to think about the existence and nature of God, being a Christian, our values, and our death. Only mankind defines itself through the act of living. First you exist, and then the individual emerges as life decisions are made. Existentialists also believe the greatest achievement of an individual is to realize the absurdity of life and to accept it. The concepts of existentialism are simple, mankind has free will, and life is a series of choices, which rarely without any consequences. Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation. If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through. The decisions you make are whom you are, so choose wisely. There are several existential themes displayed in The Stranger. One of the themes is freedom. It means that wh atever happened prior to now do not influence what your next choice in life will be, we are free to make any choice we want. He displays freedom by treating his Mamans death nothing out of the ordinary, also by not showing any emotion. He shows us free will; by not being influenced of his mother dying effect on what he wants to do. The other themes are existence, the awareness of our choices, and passion, our feelings that we understand before we think. Meursault wants to live his life to in the moment; he is not concerned with the future. Meursault wants the remembrance of his life. Through this thinking Meursault displays Existence and Passion. The following theme is uncertainty. It basically says that life is unpredictable, and unexpected. He shows us exactly how unpredictable life can be. One minute Meursault is just so happy and content with the sun shining on him, when suddenly something unexpected happens and his happiness is gone. I knew that I had shattered the harmony of t he day, the exceptional silence of a beach where Id been happy. There is also a theme of individuality. All individuals are a unique member of a society. Meursault lives out his individuality when he wants a crowd of people to witness his death, and greet him with cries of hatred. This way he retains his individuality. Begging for forgiveness would just make him a member of society. He also displays reflection, by turning our unawareness into awareness. Meursault leads a pre-reflective life. His daily events are so absorbed in each moment, which he never reflects on. While in prison he sees a reflection of himself, this is when he becomes aware of what he was unaware of. The overall theme though is absurd. The absurd beliefs are that life is meaningless and without purpose. This meaninglessness implies absence of any obvious meaning to our life. Can this be explained? No, no one can explain someone elses sense of meaning or meaninglessness towards life. Meursault who is sentenced to death after killing an Arab emphasizes the difference between the morals of society and his lack of them, refusing to conform to societys standards earns him the death sentence. In the end he faintly displays responsibility. Nearing his execution he symbolically shows emotion, as he comes face to face with nothingness and the impossibility of defending his immoral choices. Meursault is an outcast in society; therefore he cannot relate to others because he does not live as they do. He cannot abide by the same morals because he does not grasp them; he is apathetic to events occurring around him. His entire being is unemotional. This distinguishes him from society, whose strict guidelines focus on right and wrong. Meursault has the capability to break down the situation, but not conforming to it as society expects him to. Life, death, the in between, is irrelevant. Meursault sees the outcome as inevitable. He cannot perceive any right or wrong in killing the Arab. The killing itself w as not out of hatred for the man, he reveals at the trial, because of the sun. The sun at the beach, similar to the sun at his mothers funeral, was beating down on him. The sun represents Meursault emotions. The intense heat and the sun are overwhelming his senses, which he cannot deal with so ends the situation. The death of the Arab in itself doesnt seal his fate. His destruction comes from his lack of emotion. Meursault has come to conclusion he must create his own meaning in life. That there is no basic meaning in life its entirely based on living itself. Until this conclusion, hes a stranger to himself as well as to others. Society believes this is unacceptable, and by refusing to conform he must pay the price. Conforming to society norms doesnt allow the individual to reach his own decisions; however, it was impossible to restrict oneself from all. The character expresses no feeling about anything. Once in a while he shows a bit of heart, but for the most part, he gives a robotic appearance. Camus conveys his existentialistic philosophy with the death of Mersaults mother. He is more concerned about the time of death, and not the fact that he just lost a loved one. The lack of compassion at his mothers funeral is not what society expects of him. This labels him as insensitive, or that he did not love his mother. As an existentialist, he accepts life as it is. An example of existentialism is the murder of the Arab. The absurdity of the murder is what makes it a good portrayal of the concept of existentialism. This shows how Mersault is not only a stranger to his experiences in life, but also to nature. The sun and his sensual pleasures act against him, which cause him to lose control. Mersau lts actions lack true conscious motives. He consciously makes the decision to take a life due to the physical discomfort of his surroundings. To him, its simple: he committed murder, time to face the consequences. There are numerous meanings to the title, The Stranger, one is that if you live a life different than what society accepts, then you are a stranger; an outcast, and will be punished by the rest of society. His trial proved this to be true. It was all about the way he acted and how different he was. This was used to prove that people who are different are judged by their character over their actions. Society refuses to understand him and to know him, therefore he is a stranger. Being a stranger to himself makes him a stranger to life. In the end he gets the meaning of life. He was able to do so because he was approaching death, death is the only certainty of life. We are responsible for the choices we make; there is no predetermination or higher power which decides morality. After reading The Stranger made me look at my life. Some of Meursaults behavior I didnt agree with, but the further I read I understand the reasons for his actions. When I started reading the book for the first ti me I was quite confused and bored, I had to re-read it to understand it better which gave me a different message each time. Meursault was an interesting character to read about. His ideas and beliefs seem wrong but also right. I was able to understand what Camus conveyed with his philosophy. In fact, I have never heard of existentialism until I read this book. Meursault is able to accept the fact that everyone dies and realizing this allows you to live a better life. He controls his own life and actions. I cant say that I understand everything about him. Nonetheless, this character had the most interesting conflicts that kept me reading. The first half of the book was filled with action and there were no direct reasons given for certain actions. In the second half, it is mainly of his self-realization about society and life. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thinking after reading a book. Work Cited Andrew Irvine, Basic Themes of existentialism, http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm Crowell, Steven, Existentialism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/existentialism/ Existentialism Philosophy: Discussion of Existentialist Quotes, Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Existentialism.htm/ New World Encyclopedia, Existentialism http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Existentialism/ Solomon, Robert C. Wyatt, C. S. (1999). Existentialists: a primer to existentialism http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/exist.html

Essay --

Moderately Easy Things You'll Need Introduction Shapely muscles are hidden under your excess body fat. Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images Whether you have saddlebags, love handles, bra bulge, a double chin, or bat wings, reducing excess fat requires a full-body approach. Spot reducing fat by super exercising your problem area doesn't work. (See References 1, p. 15) You'll only strengthen the muscle under the fat, but won't reduce the fat above the muscle. To accomplish this, integrate a healthy diet, cardio and strength training. This combo can accrue the caloric deficit that's needed to reduce your weight. When your body fat reduces, your muscle tone will show, and you'll have a well-defined physique. Step 1 Change your diet and eating habits to reduce your caloric intake. Understand that it takes a deficit of 500 calories a day to lose 1 pound in a week. Part of this can come from dietary changes. For instance, eat fruit to satisfy a sweet tooth; instead of eating high-calorie desserts every day, eat only one dessert a week; reduce your portions by 10 to 15 percent; and limit sugar, salt, alcohol, and saturated and trans fats. (See References 2 and 3) Step 2 Eat foods from all the food groups to make sure your body gets the nutrients it needs to function while you're losing weight. Include a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet; get whole grains from foods like brown rice and whole-wheat bread; consume reduced-fat dairy products, such as low-fat milk; eat healthy protein from fish, poultry, nuts, and beans. (See References 4) Step 3 Perform 150 to 300 minutes of moderate cardio each week to burn calories. (See References 5) Consider playing tennis, going jogging, swinging walking poles back and forth during a bri... ...muscle&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W1zZUunhFsT8oAS1hoLYAw&ved=0CFwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=spot%20reduce%20fat%20above%20muscle&f=false] American Council on Exercise: Trimming Off the Fat [https://www.acefitness.org/acefit/healthy_living_fit_facts_content.aspx?itemid=2672] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Healthy Eating for a Healthy Weight [http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/] Harvard School of Public Health: Healthy Eating Plate and Healthy Eating Pyramid [http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need? [http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html] American Council on Exercise: High-Intensity Interval Training [http://www.acefitness.org/fitness-fact-article/3317/high-intensity-interval-training/] User Bio

Morality, Behavior and Personality May Be Influenced Essay

Discuss how one’s morality, behavior and personality may be influenced by adoption of a cyber-ego in a Virtual Environment; in respect to both the person adopting the cyber-ego and any observers/participants within the same VE. When one is in a virtual environment for long, one soon becomes convinced that the cyber space world is the real world which is the turning point in his life after which everything turns against him. This virtual world that is mistaken to be the real world is a parallel world that one is in. the presence of one in the virtual world that is non–existent leads one to fall in a state is consciousness which is very different from the one in the real world. After this, one starts to think differently, act in a way one has never acted before and a lot of other things that soon do not make sense to him self either, but this is a fact that although one knows there is something wrong, one can not help it. (Johnson 2003) It becomes a part of one’s life and is difficult to get out of it. After being in a parallel universe that is all made up, there is different stimuli that then change and guides our behaviors. It is a journey which a lot of people find interesting. On their journey to no where, when they are entering the virtual world, they take along the best ethics that their religion could teach them, wonderful morals that they learnt from their parents since they were kids and the cultural ethics that they grew in since they were kids; all that is with them when they are entering the virtual world, but it is ironic that when they come out of it for something they are completely different. (Pritchard 2000) One is a completely different individual which some how loses all its values that were taught to him or her during their life span and all the ethics and morals that they learned while they were in school and all that goes deep down the drain. How the virtual world affects culture, values, morals, ethics and perception of which people are and of what the world is, changes; is what will be discussing through out this report. (Ess 2006) When one enters a virtual environment, it is a battle of what is real and what one has left behind. This is where one’s cyber ego comes into picture. In addition, Cyber ego is primarily what a person thinks of one self in a virtual environment. There is no doubt that there is a lot of artificial intelligence involved in the so called virtual environment that one enters in, but there is a problem of cyber ego that makes many individuals question themselves before entering an environment as such. The moral values are lost and this is not only true but has been experienced by many people who have made a mistake of entering a virtual environment. Talking to different people, people that one is not aware of as ever even existing before they started talking in the cyber world, it changes one’s attitude and the stimuli that one guided the person’s perception and state of emotion; this all mutate and make the individual a different person, for all wrong reasons. (Schultz 2005) There are a lot of things that have an impact on our morals and ethics. For example, the more time one spends on it, the more aggressive one gets. This aggressiveness can be because one can no more differentiate between the real world that one lives in and the virtual world that one is in most of the time of the day. This aggressiveness adds to the change in one’s attitude and hence personality. (Ess 2006) The changes in one’s attitude and personality all depends on how much one might be engrossed in cyber ego. How much one would want oneself to be a part of the virtual environment and adopt cyber ego is the question that will also answer how much a person changes and becomes a truly different person that one was not. It is the difference of decisions that one makes that leads one towards developing a cyber ego being unhealthy to an extent that it would drive the life long morals and ethics out of the person and make one a totally different person. Having this said, it is of utter concern of as to how the changes take place. Some claim that the fact that hours and hours of the week are spent in front of the computer screens being in a world that is non existent. Having a personality that is not the personality the person has in the real world, and faking that personality to be the real one; if so is done for hours, every single day of the week for months or even years, yes there will be a drastic change in what one believes and what one perceives. (George 2003) This will soon be followed by the changes in the person’s emotions towards different things in life, whether it is with family or friends or other loved ones. The emotions at times are not stimulated, because the person is so engrossed with something and being completely some one else that it soon loses the charm of the stimulation that it got from various stimuli from the environment that stirred the person to either be someone or to achieve something in life. After all this happening everyday there is no way one will not be stoic and indifferent to various activities going around it. (Rosinski 2007) Ever person has a threshold, to go beyond the threshold of a human being is par a normal human’s limit. This threshold although does stop the person from being someone that the person is not, but ultimately becomes so. In this journey of being some one, one is not in the virtual world is cyber ego and creates a totally different person with a completely different personality and lastly with distorted morals and ethics. (Francis 1996) Up till now in the essay, the affect of cyber ego on people who adapt the virtual environment had been discussed, but now the observer’s part of the thesis will be discussed. When a person adopts and gets used to of being in the virtual environment, one has a very different personality inside the virtual world. This personality and morals that one supposedly has is entirely and completely different than that of the real world. While people are observing the same person through out, they get a very different person outside the virtual world. Although if the same talk is held in the cyber environment, the person is said to have morals, ethics and cultural values – almost all of which go against the ones that the person has in the real world – people would not really know the difference. The question that a lot of the people adapting such habits as to being a completely and totally different person over the internet is said to be something that one should not be proud of. Although research tells us that it is in their hands to choose to be who they want to be while in the cyber environment. On the contrary, they can not be blamed to have a different personality and morals. (Pritchard 2000) Every person wants to be on the top of the world; having the perfect car, the perfect life, the perfect family, the perfect job and who does not want to be a millionaire. If not this, a person might portray one self to be something that one has always wanted to be in the real world. The reason being it is that people can not be that person in reality; things are not as easy as they seem to be. Saying that one wants to be a surgeon, is not that easy, one has to have the spirit, the ambition, the money to get in to a medical college, and a lot of other things too that come with it. (Schultz 2005) One can portray to be who ever one wants, with all the goodies of the world – only in the virtual world. People start lying, adapt cyber ego, and become totally different individuals. There is no reason why this fake personality would not affect the real world personality. Not only do the observers and other users of the virtual environment notice some cues, well the other users are doing the same too, hence they tend to pick up cues that way too, but the others out side this made up world notice changes in the individual as well. One of the changes that are quite prominent is aggressiveness. (George 2003) The idea of having different personality and morals in the virtual environment is for them to get internal happiness that they might not be getting in the real world. The reason why the world that people live in is so called the real world and the world that people adapt to and live in is so called the virtual world, is because the so called real world is so different from the world that people want to live in. The virtual world is all made up and completely fake and people get the easy way out by pretending to have things they do not possess and being some one they are not. They wish to see themselves as being worthy of such happiness and success. And regardless of the fact that they succeed in real life in it or not, in the virtual world they are successful. This gives them internal happiness and strength, on one hand it pushes them to spend more time in the virtual environment and portray them to be successful and on the other hand, they become more stable, emotionally. (Rosinski 2007) An individual is completely different which some how makes one lose all its values that were taught to him or her during their life span and all the ethics and morals that they learned while they were in school and all that goes deep down the drain. How the virtual world affects our culture, values, morals, ethics and perception of which we are is important to understand. (Francis 1996) People in the virtual environment and outside it are great observers, they pick up cues better when they them selves are involved in the same activities, hence observing the same person through out the time that they have been in touch, and they get a very different person outside the virtual world. Although if the same talk is held in the cyber environment, the person is said to have morals, ethics and cultural values – almost all of which go against the ones that the person has in the real world – people would not really know the difference. The question that a lot of the people adapting such habits as to being a completely and totally different person over the internet is said to be something that one should not be proud of. Although research tells us that it is in their hands to choose to be who they want to be while in the cyber environment. On the contrary, they can not be blamed to have a different personality and morals. (Pritchard 2000) After being in a parallel universe that is all made up by people in the virtual environment, there is different stimuli that then change and guides behaviors of people adapting cyber ego in the virtual environment. It is a journey which a lot of people find interesting and the reasons of as to why they might find it interesting have been discussed above. (Brown 2006) On their journey to no where, when they are entering the virtual world, they take along the best ethics that their religion could teach them, wonderful morals that they learnt from their parents since they were kids and the cultural ethics that they grew in since they were kids; all that is with them when they are entering the virtual world, but it is ironic that when they come out of it for something they are completely different. (Schultz 2005) To conclude what has been discussed earlier, we know that the adoption of cyber ego over the internet and in the virtual environment has negative affects on personality, behavior, ethics, morals and cultural values. There are various reasons of as to why people would want to adapt this virtual environment and would want to be a part of it. The idea of having a different personality and unusual morals in the virtual environment is for them to get internal happiness that they might not be getting in the real world. Then the real world and the virtual worlds were defined. The reason why the world that people live in is so called the real world and the world that people adapt to and live in is so called the virtual world, is because the so called real world is so different from the world that people want to live in. (George 2003) The virtual world is all made up and completely fake and people get the easy way out by pretending to have things they do not possess and being some one they are not. They wish to see themselves as being worthy of such happiness and success. (Brown 2006) Regardless of the fact that they succeed in real life in it or not, in the virtual world they are successful. This gives them internal happiness and strength. One can portray to be who ever one wants, with all the goodies of the world – only in the virtual world. People start lying, adapt cyber ego, and become totally different individuals. There is no reason why this fake personality would not affect the real world personality. On one hand it pushes them to spend more time in the virtual environment and portray them to be successful and on the other hand, they become more stable, emotionally and mentally too. Although this adaptation of cyber ego has its negative impacts on behavior and how one portrays one self to be, but it also affects the cultural values that one beholds. The morals and ethics that are affected go with it too. (Johnson 2003) Reference List Brennan , L. L. & Johnson, V. 2003, Social, Ethical and Policy Implications of Information Technology; Information Science Publishing, [E-Book], available at: http://books. google. com/books? id=n3D4qihAsTcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 [Accessed 8 June 2008] Brown, J. 2006, Virtual reality and its role in removing the barriers that turn cognitive impairments into intellectual disability, Virtual Reality, [online], available at: http://www. proquest. com/ [accessed June 18, 2008] De George, R. T. 2003, the Ethics of Information Technology and Business (Foundations of Business Ethics), Wiley-Blackwell, [online], Available at: http://books. google. ae/books? id=pDs3b2R8qaEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=en&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA284,M1 [Accessed 8 June 2008] Francis, F. 1996, Trust still counts in a virtual world, Forbes, New York, [online], Available at: http://proquest.umi. com. ezproxy. uow. edu. au:2048/pqdweb? did=10450037&sid=15&Fmt=3&clientId=20901&RQT=309&VName=PQD [accessed June 14, 2008] Hongladaram, S & Ess, C. 2006, Information Technology Ethics: Cultural Perspectives, IGI Global, [online], Available at: http://www. capurro. de/hongladarom. html [Accessed 10 June 2008] Pritchard, D. 2000, Holding the Media Accountable: Citizens, Ethics, and the Law, Indiana University Press, [online], Available at: http://books. google. com/books? id=sAJ3A7jVCVMC&rview=1 [Accessed 10 June 2008]

The Jungle Essay - 774 Words

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Upton Sinclairs The Jungle is the tale of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family. Jurgis and his family move to the United States in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, only to find themselves ill-equipped for the transition in the workplace and in society in general. Jurgis faces countless social injustices, and through a series of such interactions, the theme of the book is revealed: the support of socialism over capitalism as an economic and social structure. Jurgis learns soon after transplanting his family that he alone cannot earn enough to support his entire family, in spite of the intensity of his valiant efforts to work harder. Soon his wife and the rest of his family are working†¦show more content†¦Jurgis turns to drinking. Things get worse. He learns that his wife has been forced to have sex with her boss. Jurgis, in a rage, attacks the man at the Packing house and is arrested for battery. He spends a month in jail , at which time he meets Jack Duane, a character who introduces him to the quot;easyquot; life: a life of crime. Within a month of the time Jurgis gets out of jail, everyone has lost their jobs and the house they struggled so hard to keep is lost. Soon Ona is having a child, and because of the lack of funds to pay for proper care for her, both she and the child die in labor. His son drowns, many family members have died and the remainder are scattered with no semblance of the family they once were. Jurgis takes to the country to become a tramp, but as winter approaches he knows he must return to the city - to quot;the junglequot; - once again. Jurgis becomes a beggar and a vagrant. After receiving $100 dollars from Freddie Jones, the son of rich Old Man Jones, he goes into a bar to get change and gets into another altercation, this time with the bartender, and is again arrested. Soon he turns to Jack Duane to enter the life of crime he had foreshadowed. Isolated from any remainders of his family, he begins to live the easy life of shortcuts and crooked paths. However, another chance encounter with Connor, his wifes boss and seducer, brings out his true self again, the man who stands up for his moral convictions, even when it harms him to do so.Show MoreRelated The Jungle1075 Words   |  5 Pages The Jungle Essay nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, clearly depicts the socio-economic strife and political turpitude that ushered America into the 20th century. While telling the story of Lithuanian immigrants struggling to survive in Chicago, Sinclair illustrates how avarice and ruthless competition were driving forces in the exploitational predatory capitalist  ³jungle ² of American  ³society ² at the turn of the century. 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