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Michael Mackay Albert Camus: A Rebel with a Cause From impoverished beginnings to an untimely death, Albert Camus continues to steal the attention of readers worldwide. Camus is known as a writer, playwright, actor, philosopher, political activist, and is distinguished by works such as The Stranger and The Fall. While he has received much notoriety for his works and views, little is generally known about the man behind the pen and paper. The philosopher of freedom and absurdity began his life in poverty, excelled as a student, survived a death sentence by tuberculosis, repeatedly committed adultery during his two marriages, acted in the French resistance during World War Two, and participated in many other unique experiences. Using psychoanalytic theory and social learning theory, I intend to illuminate how developmental crises and reinforcements as a child contributed to recurring themes - solidarity, rebellion, absurdity, and the seeking of passive women - in Camus‟ work and personal life. General Biography Albert Camus was born November 7th, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. His father, Lucien Camus, was a native of Algeria. His mother, Catherine Sintés, was born and raised in Minorca, Spain and later moved to Algeria. Lucien and Catherine were both impoverished. Lucien worked at a vineyard as a simple farm laborer while Catherine was taking care of Albert and his older brother, Lucien Jean Etienne Camus. Because of poor living conditions in Mondovi, Lucien Camus planned to move his family to Algiers in order to escape the onslaught of malaria (Todd, 2000, p.5). When Germany declared war on France on August 3rd, 1914, Lucien was drafted and shipped off to the front lines of Southern France. On October 11, 1914, Lucien died of battle wounds leaving Catherine widowed and young Lucien and Albert fatherless. Financially incapable of providing for her sons, Catherine Sintés-Camus was forced to move in with her mother in Algiers. Catherine‟s mother, Madame Sintés, lived in a three-room apartment in a poor working-class neighborhood. The apartment was occupied by Madame Sintés, Catherine, Lucien and Albert, and Albert‟s uncles Etienne and Joseph. There was no running water or electricity in the apartment, requiring the family to retrieve their water from a nearby pump (Todd, 2000, p.8). The family‟s neighborhood consisted of a mixture of nationalities: Arab, French, Spanish, and Italian. The inequality and contempt between the French and Arab population would later become an important political theme for Albert. Albert‟s family dynamic consisted of a passive mother and a grandmother who was clearly in charge. Catherine Sintés-Camus - illiterate, partly deaf, and afflicted with a speech impediment - was perceived as mute or mentally retarded by others in the city (Todd, 2000, p.7). Because of her disability, Catherine often stood aside in family matters and communicated very little with Albert. Albert‟s grandmother took an authoritarian approach to raising Albert and Lucien. His grandmother was unreasonably strict and would whip Albert and Lucien while Catherine would stand to the side, suggesting to her mother that she not hit the boys too hard (Todd, 2000, p.9). In 1923, Albert was going to a boys‟ primary school, ten minutes away from the apartment. Albert excelled as a student, especially in French. His teacher, Louis Germain, saw great potential in Albert and began giving him private lessons outside of the classroom. Albert wished to go to high school, but the family could not afford to send him. Albert‟s mother worked towards applying for a scholarship, but Albert‟s grandmother refused, claiming that Albert should work for a living like his older brother (Todd, 2000, p.11). With help from Louis Germain, Albert‟s grandmother was eventually convinced that it would be a wise investment for Albert to work towards a high school diploma. Albert‟s application was accepted and he was granted the scholarship to attend high school. Albert began attending high school in 1930. He enjoyed high school, as it allowed him a reprieve from his family. Albert developed a love for soccer and developed a reputation as a good goal keeper on the school‟s team (Todd, 2000, p.14). He would frequently visit the library and continue to build his knowledge of philosophy and literature. Albert began to feel different from his classmates; while they enjoyed their summer vacation, he was forced to work because of his poverty. Just after his first academic term was over, Albert was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which was generally a death sentence to the impoverished families in Algiers. This physical development changed Albert‟s attitudes and beliefs, and would later inform many of his philosophical themes. Because tuberculosis was contagious, and Catherine and Madame Sintés could not properly provide for him, Albert‟s uncle, Gustave Acault, agreed to take him to his apartment where Albert would be taken care of. Living with uncle Gustave provided Albert the first loving father figure in his life. Gustave engaged in political discussions with Albert and strongly reinforced Albert‟s intellectual endeavors. Living with Gustave also showed Albert a new way of living - in an environment with luxuries and choices (Todd, 2000, p.19). The next few years of Albert‟s life consisted of drastic changes. Because of his tuberculosis, Albert had to give up playing soccer and swimming. Albert also graduated high school and gained entrance to The University of Algeria. During these years he met and married Simone Hié, an attractive woman with a morphine addiction. Uncle Gustave refused to let the nineteen-year-old Albert sleep with women, especially Simone, in his room. That resulted in Albert leaving his Uncle‟s apartment and moving in with his brother, Lucien (Todd, 2000, p.25). Penniless, Albert took odd jobs including selling car parts, analyzing meteorological data, journalism, and teaching. In 1935, with some initial hesitation, Albert joined the Communist party. Albert claimed to have joined only because Communism promoted equality and Albert wished to have equality between the Arabs and Europeans in Algeria (Todd, 2000, p.37). Albert began to take action and speak publicly about his views on politics. Albert also created a theater group which staged multiple plays before being banned by the city. During 1937, Albert not only divorced Simone, as a result of infidelities by both Albert and Simon, but was also labeled a political agitator by the Communist party (Todd, 2000, p.62). Albert left the Communist party, but continued to hold onto his values of equality concerning Algeria. In 1936, Albert sustained a Master‟s thesis as the University of Algiers on “Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism” (Amoia, 1989, p.13). Albert had wanted to teach at the university, but he couldn‟t be hired because of his health record. During 1937, Camus met Pascal Pia, a friend who would work hard to keep Albert employed over the course of Albert‟s life. Pia provided Albert a job working at Alger Republicain, a newspaper where he primarily wrote about his protest of French mistreatment in Algeria (Amoia, 1989, p.14). At the outbreak of World War II, Camus applied to join the army but was denied because of his health. The military rejection coincided with the closing of his newspaper, leaving Albert unemployed. In 1940, Pascal Pia, having lost his job, found another job at Paris-Soir, a newspaper in France. Pia secured Albert a job at the newspaper and, gratefully, Albert accepted the offer (Amoia, 1989, p.28). In the same year, Albert met Francine Faure, a mathematician from Oran, Algeria. They married on December 3, 1940, and lived in Lyons, France. Less than a month later, Albert‟s position at the newspaper was terminated, and Albert and Francine were forced to return to Oran and take up teaching positions. They remained in Oran for two years, but Albert despised the city and the hot summers were negatively impacting his health (Amoia, 1989, p.28). In the summer of 1942, Albert and Francine were allowed to return to France. This was the same year that Albert published the novel he‟d been focusing on, The Stranger, which would become his most famous and acclaimed novel. Four months later, Albert published his philosophical essay on suicide, The Myth of Sisyphus. Meanwhile, Francine had returned to Oran. Albert planned to join her in November, but allied forces had landed in North Africa while the Germans invaded Southern France, preventing Albert from traveling (Amoia, 1989, p.29). The couple remained separated for the following two years. In 1942-1944, Albert was trapped in France. He found a job at the publishing house of Gallimard, where he would work for the majority of his remaining life. Between working, Albert would submit anonymous articles criticizing Nazism to resistance newspapers (Amoia, 1989, p.29). Pascal Pia once again came through and found a job for Albert as an editor at the leading resistance newspaper in France, Combat. Albert also managed to publish his first play, Caligula. Following the liberation of Paris in 1944, the newspaper Combat emerged as France‟s most prestigious newspaper in circulation, with Pascal Pia as director and Albert as chief editor (Amoia, 1989, p.30). In October of 1944, Francine returned to France to live with Albert. The following year, on September 5, 1945, Francine gave birth to twins: Jean and Catherine (A 30). As a writer, Albert was concerned about how he was going to continue writing with a wife and babies around (Todd, 2000, p.213). Having children did not stop his continual affairs, most notably with the actress Maria Casarés. At the Gallimard publishing house, Albert had become the director of the Espoir collection, which brought him publicity in the French intellectual circles (Amoia, 1989, p.30).
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