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

Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5 Summary: “Thought at the Meridian”

In the fifth and final part of The Rebel, Camus returns to the theme of what constitutes a true rebel and a true rebellion. He reiterates his previous idea that true rebellion is not about demanding absolute freedom. By its very nature, rebellion is a force for moderation: The rebel wishes to assert the necessity of limits and the worth of moral values, as limits and values are what protect human beings from abusing (or being abused by) one another. Camus stresses that while rebellion is sometimes difficult to cope with due to its often messy and ambiguous nature—since it lacks the ideological clarity and fervor of revolutionary thought—it nevertheless helps sustain a sense of common purpose and dignity to which everyone can commit themselves and help uphold.

Camus also argues that while historical contexts do play a role in shaping mankind, mankind is not bound entirely by such contexts. Rebellion is about disrupting the usual course of history by reacting against one’s circumstances, usually in the name of moral values or something in human nature that is worth protecting. For this reason, Camus believes that rebellion is often not a result of historical circumstances, as thinkers like Marx argued, but a reaction against historical circumstances. True rebellion is a reminder that man has free will and can try to shape his own destiny accordingly.

Finally, Camus asserts that both art and rebellion are intrinsic parts of the human experience, and that both will vanish only when the human race itself vanishes. He also proclaims that the way to create a better future lies not in abstract utopian thinking but in doing one’s best to make the present the best it can possibly be.

Part 5 Analysis

In some ways, Camus comes full circle at the end of The Rebel, ending where he began: with true rebellion. He uses the concluding part of his text to reiterate his most important ideas, including the notion that rebellion is not about rejecting limits but about upholding them. As Camus writes, “Moderation is not the opposite of rebellion. Rebellion in itself is moderation, and it demands, defends, and recreates it throughout history and its eternal disturbances” (651). Rebellion is the opposite of nihilism because it acts in the name of upholding values that nihilism rejects as invalid.

Another of Camus’s key ideas is centered upon rebellion and history. While many revolutionary thinkers advocate for an “end of history” with the arrival of an ideal society, and also tend to interpret rebellion as the inevitable result of historical processes, Camus instead argues that rebellion operates in reaction against history: “The rebel, far from making an absolute of history, rejects and disputes it, in the name of a concept that he has of his own nature. He refuses his condition, and his condition to a large extent is historical” (628). Rebellion is, in a sense, a rejection of the idea that the forces of history are indomitable and entirely out of man’s control. What is more, Camus definitively rejects the revolutionary argument that building an ideal society could ever serve as an adequate justification for present abuses: “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present” (659).

At the end of The Rebel, Camus offers something of an antidote to the nihilism and destruction he witnessed in the 20th century. He sounds a hopeful note when he affirms the indelible link between art and rebellion and the timeless nature of both, writing that “art and rebellion will die only with the last man” (656). While revolution had overtaken rebellion at the time of Camus’s writing, his insistence that rebellion had not vanished entirely suggests that rebellion could once again assert itself against totalitarian revolutionary ideologies. Though Camus writes that “the secret of Europe is that it no longer loves life” (662), his concluding remarks in The Rebel suggest that a fresh spirit of rebellion could one day rescue Europe from its moral and cultural malaise.