The artist at work

 Gilbert Jonas found his true passion: painting. He is an artist who believes in his star and acknowledges that he will be granted much without ever deserving anything. He becomes  very popular and is offered to live on a monthly remittance awarded to him by a picture dealer. His wife is devoted to him and their three kids, and even though they hardly manage to live on that remittance, they happily adjust to make it happen.
  Jonas is content with everything the way it is. He does not waste time trying to change anything because he believes deeply in his star.
  His popularity grows so much that his picture dealer increases his monthly remittance. Everyday his house is crammed with visitors and disciples who claim to want to learn from him. In reality, they want to be praised, and so he praises them. He is also solicited to take an active part in exposing revolting injustices and supporting protests. Jonas is always available and strives to meet everybody's expectations, but, eventually, he finds it difficult to satisfy everybody. Then criticism starts to strike him, no matter what he does. In the process of trying to meet everybody's expectations, his family is pushed aside, his art is left behind. He is no longer able to paint much. He does not find the time and the serenity to create.
 When his best friend asks him about the criticism he endures,Jonas says to him:  "My painter friends who criticize me are not sure of existing, so they look for proofs, they judge and condemn. That strengthens them, it's a beginning of existence. They're so lonely. You have to love them." Then Jonas confides that he is not sure of existing either.
  When his reputation declines, Jonas takes a distance from everybody and struggles to find the core of his own existence. He searches for his star.
  He ends up building  a flooring halfway up the walls, a loft, to hide away from people. The story is filled with irony and humor. It exposes the conflict between the artist and the society he lives in. The artist could be any person in search for his identity when the expectations of others pull his strings in different directions, as a result of their own motivations, fears and interests.
     There is a transformation in Jonas as he tries to reconnect with his own star which, to me, is his source of inspiration and conflict, his true self, his unique way of looking at the world.
    Thank you, Albert Camus, for this timeless story.