Student Essay on The Role of Sex in "The Outsider" and "Siddhartha"

Essay discusses how both Albert Camus and Hermann Hesse use sex in their novels as a tool to developing the protagonist and their philosophical views in "The Outsider" (newest translation of "The Stranger") and "Siddhartha."

Both Albert Camus and Hermann Hesse have rooted their novels in profound philosophical themes. Even more absorbing than the actually philosophies presented in "The Outsider" and "Siddhartha" is the manner in which they are fictionally presented. While the individual novels present two very different ideas, they compare in that both Camus and Hesse present these philosophical themes through the eyes' of their novels' protagonists; Meursault in "The Outsider" and Siddhartha in "Siddhartha." It is as the characters of these two young men develop throughout the novels that Camus and Hesse are able to elucidate their themes. While the life altering journeys of these two main characters that comprise the plots of "The Outsider" and "Siddhartha" are very different in context, one similarity shared by the two is their partaking in sexual relationships. Camus and Hesse are.....