Exploring Existential Absurdity and its Acceptance in Naipaul’s The Mimic Men

Abstract

The study aims to explore the existential absurdity of human life and condition in Naipaul’s The Mimic Men in the light of Camus' philosophy of Absurdism that presents the idea of man's freedom, his absurd life and actions in a meaningless world and his realization of being an absurd.  It also investigates the concept of human liberty of making a subjective choice and accepting responsibility while existing in the purposeless world. The study is qualitative, and a thematic analysis of the text has been conducted. Naipaul’s novel demonstrates the life of the people who undergo a long struggle for a meaningful existence in an indifferent world. It finds out the characters' struggle to give meaning to their lives, the thoughts that arise from that struggle, and the absurdity of their actions that the characters face and accept. The research reveals that humans face absurdity due to their continuous futile journey and concede to it as a revolt against the irrational world.