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In Le Mythe de Sisypbe,1 Camus commends the profundity of Kierkegaard's perception regarding despair: "[There is] nothing more profound than Kierkegaard's view that despair is not an act but a state: the very state of sin. For sin is what separates from God. The absurd is the metaphysical state of the conscious man. . . . Perhaps this notion will become clear if I hazard this outrageous remark: the absurd is sin without God" (127-28).2
Both Kierkegaard's and Camus's emphasis here, of course, is that despair is not an act but a state of being in the same way sin is not an act but a state of being. The state of despair, along with its consequent anguish, results from separation. For Kierkegaard, it results from separation from God; for Camus, from separation from the universe, the condition that characterizes the exile of absurd solitude.3 In short, for Camus, the state of despair, like the state of sin, is the human condition.
The intent of this essay is to show that "The Silent Men" ("Les Muets") and "The Guest" ("L'Hote") are companion pieces that symbolically depict unawareness and awareness, respectively, of the distressing state of the absurd human condition as articulated in Le Mythe de Sisyphe. Although critics recognize that "The Silent Men" and "The Guest" are replete with symbolism associated with the absurd, they restrict their valid and insightful interpretations to the current yet undying problems symptomatic of occidental, i.e., nonabsurd, existential culture. They do not, consequently, treat these stories as symbolic depictions of aspects of the philosophy of absurdity.
In "The Silent Men,"4 Yvars's failure to recognize and respond to the evidences of the absurd that touch his life within the personal context of home, work, and meaning/meaninglessness, finds a philosophical echo in Le Mythe de Sisyphe, much as an allegory echoes or parallels its source. By the age of 40, Yvars has ceased to enjoy looking at the sea during his morning bicycle ride to work. His dejection stems predominantly from youthful memories of virile swims in the sea and happy walks on the beach, of the vibrant sun, the girls, and the vigor of the body ("Muets" 1597-98), memories of a time before his acute awareness of approaching old age. Experiencing...