The Stranger

Umberto Eco once said, “I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.” That quote is a good example of existentialism, which is seen quite often in the book, The Stranger. By definition existentialism means, “A philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” (Oxford Dictionary) Something that was also very relevant in The Stranger was absurdism, which by definition means, “The belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe.” (Oxford Dictionary) The Stranger has a
There was an example of absurdism was when Monsieur Meursault was talking to his boss about an opportunity to work in Paris. “’You’re young, and it seems to me it’s the kind of life that would appeal to you,’ I said yes but that really it was all the same to me.” Camus continued, “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 at all.” (Camus, 41). His boss even directly said that he had no ambition, “He looked upset and told me that I never gave him a straight answer, that I had no ambition, and that that was disastrous in business.” (Camus,
He did not think that it was wrong to kill somebody, and only felt the slightest amount of guilt after being in prison for a while. That leads me to believe that there was actually something mentally wrong with Meursault, not just him having different beliefs than others. During a court session Meursault, we saw that he really did not feel guilty until them, “I felt a stirring go through the room and for the first time I realized that I was guilty.” (Camus, 90). Later, we found out that he does not really feel bad about anything. “I would have liked to have tried explaining to him cordially, almost affectionately, that I had never been able to truly feel remorse for anything.” (Camus,