Existentialism: A Brief Introduction Existentialism is a philosophical thought that became popular and reached its peak after World War II "commonly associated with Parisian cafes of the left bank and to the “family” of philosophers Jean -Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir who met there in the years immediately following the liberation of Paris at the end of the Second World War. (Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction ix). The Oxford Dictionary explains existentialism as “the theory that humans are free and responsible for their own actions in a meaningless world.” Here, more emphasis must be placed on the “meaningless world”, because it is in it that the essence of existentialism resides. Existentialists explain interactions between humans and the world as meaningless or absurd. Sartre said: “Existence precedes essence”, in his famous conference Existentialism is humanism. Where the essence is the meaningless human condition of all that it is, that which it is not in reality. Simone de Beauvoir also states that a woman is not born a woman. It is the world that acts on an ultimately meaningless existence, which leads to more existential crises, for which Camus says "there is only one philosophical problem, which is suicide" (p. 11). Camus uses the allegory from Greek mythology of Sisyphus, who was condemned to push a stone to the top of the mountain only to find it rolling away and repeat the same thing eternally. Camus suggests that human beings are also doomed in the same way, human life is chained to habit and meaninglessness. This quote from the Myth of Sysiphus gives us the key: “To tell the truth, it’s a futile question. On the other hand, I see many people dying because they judge that life is not worth living. Paradoxically I see others being killed...... middle of paper ......amus, Albert. The myth of Sisyphus. Trans. Justin O'Brien. London: Hamish Hamilton Publishers, 1961. Print.Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Stuart Gilbert. New York: Vintage Books, 1956. Print.Camus, Albert. The rebel: essay on the man in revolt. Trans. Anthony Bower, New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Print.Das, Arnab. Sisyphus' men: the absurd heroes of Albert Camus. Pondicherry University Thesis, 2014. Print.Dave, Jagdish Chandra. The human predicament in Hardy's novels. London: Vintage Books, 1985. Print.Flynn, Thomas. Existentialism: a very brief introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.Hardy, Thomas. The return of the native. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1995. Print. Thompson, Frank H. Hardy, The Return of the Native. Lincoln: Cliff Notes, 1964. Print. Williams, Merryn. A preface to Hardy. New York: Longman Group, 1976. Print.