As Albert Camus said in one of his writings, “The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth of life.” The famous masterpiece of Albert Camus, The Stranger, gives us the true taste of existential philosophy and teaches us about the universality and inevitability of absurd in humans’ lives. However, one can meet very similar concepts and ideas illustrated in another piece of art, which is the movie “I Heart Huckabees” by David O. Russell. This philosophical comedy does, indeed, share many similarities with The Stranger. The four main principles of existentialism similar in the book and the movie are observation, meaning of life, coincidence, and absurd. The best place to start is one of the most important aspects of existentialism and absurd as well as of The Stranger, observation. In The Stranger, we read about the constant observation that is done by the main …show more content…
One of the examples from the book is when Meursault attends the funeral of his Maman. His monotone and indifferent style of description can be noticed throughout the book as in this part from the funeral when he tells the audience about a woman attending it: “A few minutes later one of the women started weeping. She was in the second row and I couldn't see her face because of another woman in front. At regular intervals she emitted a little choking sob; one had a feeling she would never stop.” As one can see, he discovers and examines the behaviors and appearance of people without any attachment of emotional content. This significant character of existentialism can be noted in the movie. One of the very first scenes illustrates the long pause of observation that occurs between the main actor of the movie, Albert, and detective Vivian Jaffe. That unusual length of silence for examining each other’s behavior can truly be considered as existential observation. Furthermore, throughout the whole movie, all the characters