I am Taking a Test, Therefore, I Am

PART I

Respond to one of the following persuasive essay prompts. You should not feel limited to five paragraphs, but you should write a well-organized essay.

KEY TEXTS= “No Exit”, The Stranger, and “The Myth of Sisyphus”

Details--Incorporate as much specific text reference as you can. You should not summarize the texts but use specific details from them to support your point. Assume I know the stories but you want to highlight or point out the relevant text that support or illustrate what you are saying.
In this section your support should be mainly drawn from the texts, but you may further your discussion with examples from when you were at Band Camp or that movie you saw that one time. This, however, may best be reserved for the conclusion.
Be explicit—Define, in your own words, the terms you’re using (you may use the official definition first, but show you know what it means by paraphrasing or focusing on the key element of the term’s meaning).
Explain your points as if I am an idiot. Incorporate the concepts regardless of whether the question explicitly demands it. You MUST use at least three of the terms in bold:
  • Subjectivity
  • Essence/existence
  • Good Faith/ Living in Bad Faith
  • Absurd world
  • Responsibility
  • Choice and Commitment
  • Ethics/ Morality
  • Alienation or Estrangement

Write clearly—your ability to express yourself clearly is always part of an essay test. Organize your thoughts into paragraphs and transition between them smoothly. Use clear and specific language throughout. See the standard rubric for specific criteria.

Topics (You may propose, in writing, an alteration to one of the questions for my approval before we go to the library).

  1. Expand upon the argument you made for which character lived in bad faith to the greatest degree in “No Exit”. Compare or contrast the “No Exit” character with a character from The Stranger. In your essay, incorporate existentialism’s relevant ideas and specific details from the play and novel.
  1. Apply the concepts of Subjectivity and Bad Faith to the novel The Stranger to examine Meursault.
  1. Camus states in his preface to The Stranger that he wrote the novel as an argument that in this absurd world, a man could be sentenced to death for not crying at his mother’s funeral. Using the novel as a source for examples that develop this claim, explain his argument in essay form.
  1. “Meursault is the only Christ we deserve,” to paraphrase Camus. Write out what he means. Argue that Meursault is a heroic character and develop your interpretation and support of Camus’ statement.
  1. “Hell is other people.” And yet other people are necessary to create our “self”. What about role models, family values, and social status? Argue for or against what Sartre and Camus say is wrong about depending on others to understand ourselves and the world.
  1. “To be without value and meaning is also to be without standards for behavior… "Without God, all is permitted." –Dostoevsky. Indeed, if the loss of God means the loss of all meaning and value, then actions are without meaning or value either, and one cannot say that it matters whether actions are ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ since those words, or the corresponding actions, don't mean anything more than anything else.” (Fresian.com) Be an existentialist and write the argument that this is a true thing and a positive thing. Use our key texts for examples and support as well examples from your life, literature, or whatever else shapes your world view.
  1. Critics of absurdism tend to focus on two areas of the philosophy. The first is the proposition, as Camus described, that life's absence of meaning seems to remove any reason for living. Camus answers this with methods of living with the absurd: through coping or through revolt — and by pointing out that this lack of purpose presents humankind with true freedom. Others consider the theory itself to be arrogant, stating that although the purpose of life may not be apparent, that does not confirm that it does not exist. Argue one side of this argument using our key texts for examples and support as well examples from your life, literature, or whatever else shapes your world view.