The Children of Sisyphus

Jamaica - text F4



In order to work with this story, you shall use the questions in the handout from Context (”How to read a novel and a short story”).


At first answer the five wh-questions – where, when, who, what and why.


Afterwards move on to the more detailed questions –


Work with:


And discuss, of course, brother Solomon’s ideas on religion, slavery and freedom.

Give examples, please.

And the Holy Herb!

And what is Babylon?

…………………………………

Who is Sisyphus? – look here (from Wikipedia):

The Myth of Sisyphus

In the last chapter (of the essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe, 1942), Albert Camus (French author) outlines the legend of Sisyphus who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die. When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. Finally captured, the gods decided on his punishment: for all eternity, he would have to push a rock up a mountain; on the top, the rock rolls down again and Sisyphus has to start over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death and is condemned to a meaningless task.

Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."

(.. ) Camus concludes that "all is well," indeed, that "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."



nicolai