David Wang

Mrs. Parkinson
AP English Literature Period 6B
10 November 2010
Life worth Living

Is it fair to characterize the human condition as merely tragedy, like a cosmic

work of Sophocles? Modern philosophy characterizes human lives through the

inevitability of death because it is quite hard to overlook the inescapable mortality

that we humans possess. Our lives seem so short compared to the limitless

potential of our rational, conscious minds; self awareness can be a bitter pill to

swallow. This is the commentary Robert Burns makes in his poem, “To a Mouse,”

writing:

But och! I backward cast my e’e,

on prospects drear,

An’ Forward tho’ I canna see,

I guess and fear. (44-48)

The ability to look back and regret, look ahead and fear, and most of all to imagine

and wish, are talents that many of us would like to disinherit at times. Every

moment of life that is not perfect seems to be a moment wasted because we are

painfully aware of their limited time. And to make matters worse, it seems so often

that life “Leaves us nothing but grief and pain” (Burns 41). The ability to understand

the fickle forces in our lives becomes a curse because we, unlike a mouse, can

imagine better. In this respect, the simple ignorance of a mouse’s life can seem to

be a welcome reprieve, “… Proving foresight may be vain” (Burns 38). Burns is

conveying that human condition is that we are doomed to ultimately fail, that we

will die and we are aware of it.

Yet in that very same breath, this same rational consciousness that prophets

our end is what enables a passion for life. If we are aware that a life ending is a

tragedy, then by default we are also aware that life is something worth having. This

is something that Joseph Heller’s absurd hero, Captain Yossarian understands.

Yossarian has a conscious fear of death, and show we know that he has things worth

living for. Yossarian knows he may have a limited time, and this ignites in him a

great passion for life, most physically symbolized by the how spontaneously he falls

in “love.” One such instance is characterized in this exchange between Yossarian

and Luciana, “His heart cracked, and he fell in love …‘I will. I'll marry you’” (Heller

169). Heller makes Yossarian fall in so often because it is perhaps the most

passionate act that humans can have, and Heller wanted to show that Yossarian was

not just afraid of dying, he was just enthralled with living.

This is similar to the “Myth of Sisyphus” where a Sisyphus that actually lost his

life before he realized how much he actually enjoyed the “water and sun, warm

stones and the sea” (Cannes 89). In these two examples we see characters coping

with the human condition: the limitations, the death, the fear, by actual becoming

more passionate towards life. It is our consciousness that creates to value our lives.

Because we worry about the future, because we can learn from the past, because we

can imagine greater and better ventures, these abilities create a desire to live.

This passion for life has also becomes the fulcrum for human progress. Much

like an absurd hero, humans will continuously push beyond the natural order of the
world, showing contempt for our gods and limitations in our perpetual quest to

continue our existence, much like Yossarian had to defy his godlike bureaucracy for

the cause of self-preservation. For instance, in order to prevent a bombing run over

Bologna, “Yossarian knocked on wood, crossed his fingers and tiptoed out of his tent

to move the bomb line up over Bologna” (Heller 119). His act would have put him at

risk of treason and possible court martial, yet because of how much he values his

life, the risk is ironically inconsequential.

The character of Sisyphus is another case of defiance toward gods for the

cause of life. Sisyphus made a habit of annoying the gods but his gravest mistake

was to refuse to return to the underworld after he had once again experienced its

pleasures. His defiance earned him a torturous punishment, but that was “the price

that must be paid for the passions of this earth,” (Cannes 89). Like Sisyphus’s

punishment, the price of our consciousness is also high, creating the perception of

our tragic human condition, but the fact is that the price is miniscule compared to

the joy that we receive from being rational creatures. And Sisyphus is well aware of

that, as strains to push that rock uphill, because his toil, “makes the fate of the

human matter,” (Cannes 91). Through his scorn of the gods and by taking control of

his own fate, Sisyphus makes himself relevant, and makes his life valuable and joyful

despite his punishment.

There is no denying the inevitability of death, but it is certainly not the plague

of the human condition. Our lives cannot simply be summed up by its ends, but is

represented instead by the means of which we lived. No mouse can have the passion

for life that an understanding death and rational thinking can create. Yossarian
understood this as he lay on the beach with Nurse Duckett or when he prepared for

his flight to Sweden. Sisyphus understood this as he “[taught] a higher fidelity that

negate[d] the gods and raise[d] rocks,” (Cannes 91). Our consciousness allows us to

understand the grief of life, but it also this grief is enables us to also feel joy. Our

struggles create a life worth living, our limited time creates moments worth

remembering. Our fates, our fickle gods, our limitations, they are simply part of that

struggle, and so part of our joys. In the end, we leave Sisyphus pushing that rock

slowly up the hill, and Yossarian in the middle of the sea eating raw codfish, but it is

without a doubt that they are both smiling.

Works Cited

Burns, Robert. "To a Mouse." The World Burns Club. 2004. Web.

Camus, Albert, and Justin O'Brien. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York:

Vintage, 1955. Print.

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. Print.