Albert Camus' novel, The First Man, shows how one man, Jacques Comery, who's father died while he was an infant, and is forced to grow up in a poverty stricken part of Algiers with his mother, grandmother, brother and uncle in a small two bedroom apartment. Has come to an understanding of love, death, poverty, and life. The following passages are some of Camus' best examples of how Jacques has come to this understanding, as well as some of Camus' own opinions on these and other matters.
This first passage is a conversation between Jacques and his friend Malan it tells us about Jacques opinion on life and death. ""At sixty-five, every year is a stay of execution," Malan said. "I would like to die in peace, and dying frightens me. I have accomplished nothing."
"There are people who vindicate the world, who help others live just by their presence."
In this next passage Camus tells us about poverty. "Few indeed are those who continue to be openhanded after they have acquired the means for it. Such as these are princes among men, before whome one must bow down."(117). In this passage Camus is sasying that most people are only willing to give when they have nothing to offer, because they have nothing to lose. It is rare to find a preson who has come from little or no beginnings, who now has everything and is still willing to give with no thought of accepting anything in return.
In this passage Jacques has come to the understanding that all me die, whether they accomplish great things or not. As long as you live a good life there is no use in regretting the life you live, because even if you do not change the lives of thousands, you will at least touch one other person.
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