Resistance In The Absurd:Decoding Olive Kitteridge From The Perspective Of Camus’s Philosophy Of The Absurd

Elizabeth Strout(1956-)is a writer of great reputation in contemporary America.Olive Kitteridge is her third novel,winning the Pulitzer Prize in the year of 2009.The novel describes varied lives of people in the town of Crosby.It is mostly about betrayal of marriage,suicide,depression,indifference,senility and love.This thesis concentrates on the characters’ different existential states and tries to probe into the representation of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd in the novel.Camus’s philosophy of the absurd consists of two parts:theory of absurdity and theory of revolt.Camus contended that the world was absurd and five factors resulted in the absurdity:monotonous life that made people suspect the values and purposes of life,man’s fear of the inevitability of death,man’s sensitivity to the passing of time,the divorce between men and world,and people’s admittance of their limitations.Camus’s theory of revolt was neither the metaphysical revolt against God,nor the historical revolt justifying violence and massacre.He advocated that people should keep conscious of the absurd and live with absurdity in a challenging way.The thesis mainly consists of three parts.Part one focuses on Crosby’s ubiquitous absurdity,which is manifested from three aspects:Rebecca and Jim’s repetition of monotonous life,Jane and Bob’s fear of death as well as Olive and Harmon’s strong feelings of estrangement between man and the world.Part two exhibits the author’s criticism of people’s suicide due to absurdity in Crosby.In face of absurdity,Louise Larkin becomes pessimistic and cynical,and Sean O’Casey turns to god for salvation.The author opposes the behavior of physical suicide and philosophical suicide to escape the absurdity.Part three analyzes people’s revolt against absurdity,which is advocated by the author.People like Olive,Henry,Jane and Bob in Crosby keeps struggling in spite of absurdity,experiencing life as much as possible and enjoying the present life.In Olive Kitteridge,Elizabeth Strout shows different attitude and existential states of people in face of absurdity.Absurdity is ubiquitous but people shouldn’t escape it through physical suicide or philosophical suicide.Instead,they should revolt bravely with perseverance in the absurd world.During the process of revolt,readers can further understand the greatness of resistance and the right way to live with absurdity.