Anti-Heroism in Camus’The Stranger and Bellow’s The Dangling Man
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Department of English
Abstract
Camus’ protagonist Meursault inThe Strangerand Bellow’s Joseph inThe Dangling
Mansufferfrom alienation and estrangement from the society and the self itself. They
can not adjust themselves to the socialnorms, and fail to assimilate themselves to their
respective societies. Hence, they turn into social misfits and their existence is in crisis
due to their anxiety. They feel alienated from the world because it provides a lucid
experience of freedom which characterizes human existence as absurd. Meursault and
Joseph are deprived of the actual justice that is synonymous to modern predicament. In
such a chaotic world, their experiences can not cast off the veil of illusion to perpetuate
life. Thus, they find themselves torn between these two polarities. Their temporal
condition on the Earth is just to live through revolting against the absurdity and
irrationality. They are the anti-heroes in terms of indifference, alienation, and
existential crisis. Moreover, the anti-heroism or the lack of will to act gets intensified
as they undergo alienation, frustration, and existential crisis resulting largely through
their disbelief to social interdicts while pursuing for an autonomous self.