The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1951

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Introduction-Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1 Summary: “The Rebel”

Camus begins by reflecting on how the moral code of modern Europe appears to have been turned upside down: While once judges sat in judgment of criminals and murder was thought a crime, now criminals are in control and believe they can justify their crimes. The “criminals” to whom Camus refers are the 20th-century revolutionaries who wrought war, persecution, and totalitarian oppression against tens of millions of Europeans. The Rebel is Camus’s attempt at understanding this phenomenon. He argues that, ultimately, it is essential to decide whether men have the right to murder one another in the name of their ideas. Furthermore, he mentions the dominant influence of nihilism in modern European life—a philosophical position that asserts that life is meaningless and all traditional morality is useless. Camus argues that the Nazis were the most extreme embodiment of this nihilistic tendency. He declares his intention to trace the development of rebellion in modern history, from around the time of the French Revolution (which began in 1789) to his own day (1951).

In Part 1, Camus attempts to define what a rebel is and what rebellion means. For Camus, a rebel is a man who refuses to accept things as they currently are. The rebel acts on the basis of his sense of moral justice and his desire to establish (or reestablish) his rights and dignity in the face of an arbitrary violation. Camus stresses that while rebellion appears to be a highly individualistic act on the surface, it is actually driven by a desire to uphold common human dignity. Because of this, the true rebel is inherently selfless—he would risk death to uphold his moral principles for the sake of the common good. The true rebel therefore simultaneously acts not just for his own sake but also for the sake of others. Camus argues that true rebellion is a uniquely Western phenomenon, as Western societies both promote liberty and individualism while retaining systems of inequality. Camus argues that it is this combination of liberty and inequality—and the tensions between them—that make rebellion possible.

Introduction-Part 1 Analysis

Both the Introduction and Part 1 establish some key themes of Camus’s thought that run throughout the work. First, there is Camus’s assertion that rebellion is always rooted in a kind of moral outrage, the sense that a limit has been violated: “rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that, somewhere and somehow, one is right […] [The rebel] affirms that there are limits and that he suspects—and wishes to preserve—the existence of certain things on this side of the borderline” (34-35). Therefore, it is important to stress that, for Camus, rebellion is not about wishing to have total, unchecked freedom—a distinction that becomes very important when Camus discusses the differences between rebellion and revolution. Rather, the true rebel wishes to uphold certain boundaries and limitations, as he understands that respect for boundaries ensures the rights of all.

Camus also argues that true rebellion is communal instead of individualistic in terms of its aims. While the rebel does act to preserve his own rights and dignity, he also acts out of a sense of more general human solidarity. As Camus explains, “In absurdist experience, suffering is individual. But from the moment when a movement of rebellion begins, suffering is seen as a collective experience” (55). Rebellion is a selfless act, not a selfish one; the rebel wishes to defend not only himself but also other people. This idea also serves as an important distinction between rebellion and revolution in Camus’s thought.

Finally, Camus touches upon the moral and intellectual decline of Europe, which he attributes to the influence of nihilism. Camus writes, “If our age admits, with equanimity, that murder has its justifications, it is because of this indifference to life which is the mark of nihilism” (22). Camus then references “the Hitlerian apocalypse of 1945” (23), in which prominent Nazis (including Hitler) committed suicide while abandoning the German people to suffering and death. Camus’s invocation of the Nazis is important both in terms of the work’s historical context and in terms of the role nihilism plays in Camus’s arguments throughout The Rebel, in which he consistently argues that too much nihilism in European thought directly contributed to the destructive 20th century.