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"The Silent Men" (French: Les muets) is a short story written in 1957. It is the third short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.
The silent men are the workers at a cooper's shop during the war in Algeria. They have recently returned to work after a failed strike. When the owner's daughter has a serious, acute illness requiring an ambulance, the men do not offer any words of condolence. Where once there had been a sense of being all part of a whole, they no longer feel such for the owner who had refused to acquiesce to their demands following their strike. The owner himself is not a bad person; it is stated that he treated his men well, even offering each man five bottles of vintage wine each new year. The owner even tried to reconcile with the men, saying that if they are to increase productivity and thus bring in more revenue he will not only increase their salaries but he will do so without being prompted. Nevertheless, the men are cold, and when the owner says goodbye to everyone at the end of the day, nobody reacts. The men themselves have preserved their own sense of fraternity, however, and despite the situation with the owner and his daughter, the men are warm and humane to each other. While as a whole the men seem morally unaffected by the situation, Yvers, the protagonist, can't stop thinking about the little girl. At the end of the story, Yvers breaks his silence and confides in his wife all that has happened in the course of the day, and concludes by uttering "Ah! it's his own fault!"
A common theme in the works of Camus is that death is the common fate of all. From the rich to the poor, privileged to the destitute, the guilty to the innocent, the old and sometimes the young. Death is inescapable and makes all equal in the end. Just like Father Paneloux and the plague-stricken young boy in Camus' The Plague , death belittles our other problems and emphasizes man's struggle to make sense of what he has.
The owner treated the men well, but he stood firm during the strike. He told them to take it or leave it, and that his offer of work is a charity. When they were back to work, the doors were closed until all of them arrived, as he was emphasizing he had the upper hand. It is explained "that they were not sulking, that their mouths had been closed, they had to take it or leave it, and that anger and helplessness sometimes hurt so much that you can't even cry out." (Camus 406)
Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.
The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus. Published in 1947, that tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the last chapter, chapter 5 of part 5. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view.
Existentialism ( or ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on the experience of thinking, feeling, and acting. In the view of the existentialist, the individual's starting point has been called "the existential angst," a sense of dread, disorientation, confusion, or anxiety in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value of human existence.
Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empty or half full?"; in this situation, a pessimist is said to see the glass as half empty, while an optimist is said to see the glass as half full. Throughout history, the pessimistic disposition has had effects on all major areas of thinking.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus.
L'Étranger is a 1942 novella by French author Albert Camus. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of Camus' philosophy, absurdism coupled with existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.
The Fall is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus. First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. Set in Amsterdam, The Fall consists of a series of dramatic monologues by the self-proclaimed "judge-penitent" Jean-Baptiste Clamence, as he reflects upon his life to a stranger. In what amounts to a confession, Clamence tells of his success as a wealthy Parisian defense lawyer who was highly respected by his colleagues. His crisis, and his ultimate "fall" from grace, was meant to invoke, in secular terms, the fall of man from the Garden of Eden. The Fall explores themes of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence, and truth. In a eulogy to Albert Camus, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described the novel as "perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood" of Camus' books.
In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human inability to find these with any certainty. The universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd; rather, the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously.
Exile and the Kingdom is a 1957 collection of six short stories by French writer Albert Camus.
Frederic Prokosch was an American writer, known for his novels, poetry, memoirs and criticism. He was also a distinguished translator.
"The Guest" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It was first published in 1957 as part of a collection entitled Exile and the Kingdom. The French title "L'Hôte" translates into both "the guest" and "the host" which ties back to the relationship between the main characters of the story. Camus employs this short tale to reflect upon issues raised by the political situation in French North Africa. In particular, he explores the problem of refusing to take sides in the colonial conflict in Algeria, something that mirrors Camus' own non-aligned stance which he had set out in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
"Reflections on the Guillotine" is an extended essay written in 1957 by Albert Camus. In the essay Camus takes an uncompromising position for the abolition of the death penalty. Camus's view is similar to that of Cesare Beccaria and the Marquis de Sade, the latter having also argued that murder premeditated and carried out by the state was the worst kind. Camus states that he does not base his argument on sympathy for the convicted but on logical grounds and on proven statistics. Camus also argues that capital punishment is an easy option for the government where remedy and reform may be possible.
"The Adulterous Woman" is a short story written in 1957. It is the first short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.
"The Renegade" is a short story written in 1957. It is the second short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.
"The Artist at Work" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus from Exile and the Kingdom. It has been described as "a satirical commentary on Camus’ personal experience among the Paris intellectual elite of the 1940s and 1950s." The story addresses the question of one's relationship to the community, or more fundamentally the whole issue of existence. The epigraph, a verse from the Book of Jonah, and the name of the main character, "Jonas," set up a link to the prophet Jonah's interaction with people of the Bible.
Anatoly Tikhonovich Marchenko was a Soviet dissident, author, and human rights campaigner, who became one of the first two recipients of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought of the European Parliament when it was awarded to him posthumously in 1988.
The Misunderstanding, sometimes published as Cross Purpose, is a play written in 1943 in occupied France by Albert Camus. It focuses on Camus’ idea of The Absurd.
The State of Siege is the fourth play by Albert Camus.
Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism suggests that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. According to the theory, each individual is an isolated being born into the universe, barred from knowing 'why'. The inherent meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism, where one can potentially create their own subjective 'meaning' or 'purpose'. Of all types of nihilism, existential nihilism has received the most literary and philosophical attention.
Unheimliche Geschichten is a 1919 German silent anthology film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Conrad Veidt. The film is split into five stories: The Apparition, The Hand, The Black Cat, The Suicide Club and Der Spuk.
