Existentialism Is a Philosophical Movement That Views

¶ … Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing, that are primary and that cannot be reduced to or explained by a natural-scientific approach or any approach that attempts to detach itself." For existentialism, human beings can be understood only from the inside and it emphasizes action, freedom, and decision as fundamental to human existence and is fundamentally opposed to the rationalist tradition and to positivism (Wikipedia). The Stranger reflects existentialism that our world is a universe that has no place for us, in which our life makes no sense. In the novel, Meursault is portrayed as aloof, detached and unemotional. He does not think about events and the possible consequences. He also fails to express any emotion in his relationship with his friends. Meursault's complete indifference to society and human relationships causes him to appear as the actual stranger. His strange opinions and unexpected remarks put him in this position, without ever really giving him an opportunity to be truly understood.

Meursault's life was full of existentialism, for he believed that life just happened, nothing you could do would change the future, and that everything happened by a chance. He seems to live in his own world, socializing with others, but not caring too deeply about what happens in his life. For example, when his mother died, his thoughts were, "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know (3). He just accepted it and decided that is was what was supposed to happen without any extreme feelings about her death. Also he never cried at her funeral and he refused to look at his mother one last time after she had passed away. The funeral director viewed this as extremely odd.

Meursault's existentialism appears to be casual and indifferent about life events. After he kills an Arab, not once does he show any remorse or guilt feeling for what he did. Nothing seemed to be very significant to him. Based on Camus' definition of existentialism, which is people's freedom in designing their life, the novel The Stranger seems to indicate that Meursault is in the path of Camus' philosophy. In that, he designs his life to be almost oblivious, totally unruffled, and untouched by events and people around him. He didn't even consider his fate early on in his trial.

In part two of chapter 3, it was indicated that,

"People usually didn't pay much attention to me. It took some doing on my part to understand that I was the cause of all the excitement. I said to the policeman, "Some crowd!" he told me it was because of the press and he pointed to a group of men at a table just below the jury box. He said, "That's them" (83-84)."

He doesn't even care about death at this point, only how he is excited to see all these new people and be able to watch the court proceedings.

Before Meursault's incarceration, he lived a life of desire based on his own satisfaction. Another demonstration of how Camus applied to his novel the existentialism principle he believes in. Meursault's life was completely self-centered and focused on his own physical pleasures. His relationship with Marie was totally based on sex rather than love. He wanted to see a comical movie the day after he buried his mother. By letting these physical pleasures dominate his life, he created an attitude and behavior that was unaccepted and seen as wrong to the rest of society. He never asked anything from anyone and never did he expect anything from others. Meursault is passive and his passive nature set himself apart from others and caused him to live extremely independent (Bronner 44). This attitude was proven even further when Meursault refused a promotion based on the fact that he was satisfied with the life he had. When he had proposed a promotion he said,

..It was all the same to me. Then he asked me if I wasn't interested in a change of life. I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine here at all. He looked upset and told me that I never gave him a straight n=answer, that I had no ambition and that I was disastrous in business (41).

The thought of ambition and success never even crossed Meursault's mind and turning down the opportunity made no difference to him. This would appear extremely strange to anyone because there isn't anyone who does not want to earn more money, respect, and even have the opportunity to live in Paris. With all these traits that Camus illustrated about Meursault in the novel, it really showed how Camus views existentialism. In that, people should never be influenced by the absurdities of the world. Instead, they should be the ones to design their life as how Meursault did in the nove.

Meursault is an outsider not only for others but also for himself. He looks at himself without trying to analyze his actions and the possible consequences of his actions. He is far from social convention or intellectual problems (poplyansky 80). Initially, in his relationship with Raymond, Meursault always seemed to never truly consider Raymond's friendship even though they spent time together and Meursault did him a favor by writing him a letter. Also,

his final interaction with the chaplain, Camus showed how Meursault was unable to comprehend and understand others perspectives.

In the novel, Camus somehow showed how his belief of existentialism must not go away with the things that the society values. This was shown in the conversation between Meursault and the chaplain where Meursault saw the difference between him and the rest of society, which became clear to Meursault when he and the chaplain discussed their views of life and religion. Meursault never thought that the way in which he was living was wrong or even sinful and that is what set him apart from every other human being. His lack of awareness and his ignorance for social values appeared in chapter five, when the chaplain said, "More could be asked of you could be asked to see." "See what?" (118)