"The Silent Men" is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 written in 1957. It is the third short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom

Exile and the Kingdom

Exile and the Kingdom is a 1957 collection of six short stories by French-Algerian writer Albert Camus.These works of fiction cover the whole variety of existentialism, or absurdism, as Camus himself insisted his philosophical ideas be called...

by Albert Camus

Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

.

The Common Fate

A common theme in the works of Camus is that death is the common fate of all. From the rich to the poor, privileged to the destitute, the guilty to the innocent, the old and sometimes the young. Death is inescapable and makes all equal in the end. Just like Father Paneloux and the plague-stricken young boy in Camus' The Plague

The Plague

The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their labour as the Algerian city of Oran is swept by a plague. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition...

, death belittles our other problems and emphasizes man's struggle to make sense of what he has.

The Silence

The silent men are the workers at a cooper's shop. They have recently returned to work after a failed strike. When the owner's daughter has a serious, acute illness requiring an ambulance, the men do not offer any words of condolence. Where once there had been a sense of being all part of a whole, they no longer feel such for the owner whose refused them.

Source

The Plague, The Fall, Exile and The Kingdom and Selected Essays (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics) (Hardcover) by Albert Camus (Author), David Bellos (Introduction), Stuart Gilbert (Translator), Justin O'Brien (Translator)

See also

• Overtime
  Overtime
  Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
  
  
• Work Life Balance
• Exile and the Kingdom
  Exile and the Kingdom
  Exile and the Kingdom is a 1957 collection of six short stories by French-Algerian writer Albert Camus.These works of fiction cover the whole variety of existentialism, or absurdism, as Camus himself insisted his philosophical ideas be called...
  
  
• The Adulterous Woman
  The Adulterous Woman
  "The Adulterous Woman" is a short story written in 1957. It is the first short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.-Characters:...
  
  
• The Renegade
  The Renegade (Camus short story)
  "The Renegade" is a short story written in 1957. It is the second short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.-Plot summary:...
  
  
• The Guest
  The Guest
  "The Guest" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It was first published in 1957 as part of a collection entitled Exile and the Kingdom . The French title "L'Hôte" translates into both "the guest" and "the host" which ties back to the relationship between the main characters of the...
  
  
• The Artist at Work
  The Artist at Work
  "The Artist at Work" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus from Exile and the Kingdom .- Synopsis :...
  
  
• The Growing Stone
  The Growing Stone
  "The Growing Stone" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It is the final short story in the collection Exile and the Kingdom.-Plot summary:...