Finding Joy in Albert Camus’ The Stranger:
A Different Perspective

Existentialism is often defined as a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes a few main points, such as the freedom to choose and how the choices you make should be made without the assistance of another person or standard. From the existentialist point of view, you must accept the risk and responsibility of your choices and follow the act and result to wherever it takes the individual. Someone that is put in a certain situation understands it far more than someone looking in on that same situation; one commonly used situation that appears often in existentialist works is that of death. The existentialist should learn to accept death when the time has to come and should know that the most important questions in life are simply inaccessible to reason or science. Acting on your own experiences is essential in arriving at the truth and "man is condemned to be free” (Sartre). As a result of the diversity associated with this term it is impossible to define precisely. As is evident through the root of the word, exist, there is an emphasis on fixed individual existence and freedom of choice. Certain aspects of existentialism are shown in Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Existentialists attempt to direct our attention to ourselves as individuals. They force us to think about our relation to such topics as the existence and nature of God, the nature of values, and one's own death. Man is the only known being that is defined merely through acts of living. First you exist, and then the individual emerges as life decisions are made: “existence precedes essence.” Many existentialists believe the greatest victory of the individual is to realize the absurdity of life and to accept it. Existentialism is liberating for those of us who do not rely on fate, God, or chance to guide us through the path of life. One aspect that is questionable is our ability to continuously reinvent ourselves through our actions. While this is possible, most people tend to stick to old ways of doing things. Despite incorporating various ideologies, the concepts of existentialism are simple. Mankind has free will. Life is a series of choices. Few decisions are without any negative consequences. Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation. If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through. The decisions you make define who you are. In The Stranger, main character and debatable protagonist Meursault embodies six key themes within the realm of existentialism. And through these themes we can see a clear argument behind the shift in expected perception, a change from the apathetic and nihilistic to the empowering and liberating, which can even provide a sense of joy, specifically when discussing Meursault. The first of these themes is freedom. Freedom means that whatever happened prior to now do not influence what your next choice in life will be; we are free to make any choice we want. Meursault displays freedom by just doing as he wishes to do. In part one of the novel Maman dies so he attends the funeral, nothing out of the ordinary. While attending his mother's funeral, Meursault decides to smoke cigarettes, drink a cup of coffee, and he fails to show emotion. This just shows how Meursault is displaying his free will; he does not let the influence of his mother dying effect what he wants to do. The second and the third theme's Meursault presents together. These themes are existence, which is the awareness of our choices, and passion, which are psychological feelings that we understand before we act. Meursault displays both of these themes at the end of the novel. Meursault wants his life to be here and now, and this is shown multiple times through the novel, such as when he states: “Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.” He is not concerned with the hereafter. But somehow the reader can extract a sense of dedication and beauty within his seemingly detached viewpoint. As he says: “I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world,” we can see the blending of reflection and triviality within himself, and therefore a sense of passion, in a more unconventional sense, but passion nonetheless. The fifth theme involving existentialism within Camus’ novel is individuality. An individual is a single unique member of a collectivity. Meursault lives out his individuality. The strongest display of individuality is at the end of the novel when Meursault wants a large crowd of people to witness his death, and he also wants them to greet him with cries, but those of hate. "I had only wished that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate." By being hated Meursault preserves his individuality. If Meursault goes out there begging for forgiveness he would just become a member of a collective group. The final theme is reflection. It refers to the capacity to bring that which we are unaware of into awareness. Meursault leads a pre-reflective life. This means that he goes through his daily events and is so absorbed in each moment that he never reflects on them. Meursault does this until he looks at a reflection of himself for the first time in prison. Meursault looking at himself shows his transition from pre-reflective to reflective. “And, a few days after I’d been sent to prison, I decided that this phase of my life was one of them. However, as time went by, I came to feel that this aversion had no real substance.” Here he begins to become aware of what he was previously unaware of; he reflects on not his actions per-se, but more so his existence within the prison as he is there. He continues this by saying: “I learned that even after a single day’s experience of the outside world a man could easily live a hundred years in prison. He’d have laid up enough memories never to be bored.” Again we get a reflection on not the actions that led him to prison, but the experience of prison itself, in a way where this experience is embraced to the point of a certain fondness of what it means to make memories. Quite possibly, the central theme in The Stranger that orchestrates the five previously mentioned is that life is absurd. In Albert Camus’, The Myth Of Sisyphus, Gods condemned Sisyphus to endlessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain. If the rock rolled back down the mountain, Sisyphus pushed it up again. While Sisyphus’ punishment sounds both pointless and tragic, Camus does not believe so. He believes that, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy.” Camus articulates that Sisyphus’ finds happiness through his ability to accept and rise above his hopeless and frivolous fate. He argues, “If this myth is tragic, that is only because its hero is conscious… Sisyphus, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition. While Sisyphus’ consciousness makes his story tragic, it also provides him with joy: “The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory… All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him.” The Gods wanted to punish Sisyphus with a fate worse then death, eternal and meaningless labor. However, Sisyphus found happiness in accepting his fate. In The Myth Of Sisyphus, Camus depicts a man who surpasses his absurd state to find happiness in an otherwise futile and hopeless life. In The Stranger, provides readers with a very similar message. Meursault, like Sisyphus, is forced to bear a hopeless fate, death. Just as Sisyphus transcends his meaningless fate, so Meursault transcends his. Camus argues, using Meursault as a parallel to Sisyphus, that one can still find happiness in futility, by rejecting God and hope, accepting ones temporal existence, and embracing the present. Reason is incapable of explaining human nature. Meursault's absurd beliefs are that life is meaningless and without purpose. The meaninglessness implies absence of any obvious meaning to our life. This cannot be explained, because no one can clarify another person’s sense of meaning or meaninglessness towards life. Camus' The Stranger presents the character of Meursault who, after killing an Arab, is sentenced to death. This conflict portrays the stark contrast between the morals of society and Meursault's evident lack of them. He is condemned to death, not so much for the Arab's actual murder, but more for refusing to conform to society's standards. The discussion of Meursault's responsibility takes place at the end of the novel. Meursault's execution brings forth emotion, as Meursault confronts his nothingness and the impossibility of justifying the immoral choices he has made. He realizes the unpredictable nature of his life, and that he has somewhat abandoned his own existence by failing to accept the risk and responsibility of the personal freedom of an existentialist reality. Meursault never really takes responsibility for his actions. Meursault is a bit of an anomaly in society; he cannot relate directly to others because he does not live as they do. He cannot abide by the same moral boundaries as the rest of the world because he simply cannot and does not grasp them. He is not phased by and is practically oblivious to events occurring around him. Meursault's entire being is unemotional. He gains a certain level of pleasure from eating and drinking, smoking cigarettes, sitting on his balcony. And with that simplicity, ignorance, or detachment from societal norms, truly becomes bliss of sorts. Meursault derives physical satisfaction from them, but there is no emotion attached. This is in direct contrast to society, whose strict guidelines focusing on right and wrong depend on an individual's sense of these concepts. Meursault is perfectly capable of analyzing the situation, but he is incapable of responding to it as society wishes him to. Life or death, and anything in between, makes no difference to him. Meursault sees the outcome as inevitable. He cannot perceive any right or wrong in killing the Arab. The action in itself was not out of deep hatred for the man but, as he reveals at the trial, "because of the sun." Meursault cannot deal with the intense heat, the light reflected off the Arab's knife, which seems to stab at him. Meursault's senses are being overwhelmed, and the only way to handle the situation is to end it, and so he fires the gun. The death of the Arab in itself is not crucial to Meursault's fate. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault sits at his mother's funeral, quietly analyzing details of the scene. The spectators do not understand him, but are actually afraid of him. The prosecutor says, "I look into a man's face and all I see is a monster." However, what Meursault has realized, by the end of the book, is that any meaning he finds in life he must create. Meursault is the absurdist, explaining the philosophy of existentialism. Man's isolation among an indifferent universe. There is no inherent meaning in life. It’s entire value lies in living itself. Meursault feels he has been happy, and longs to live. When he must die, he wants a crowd to greet him "with cries of hate." As the magistrate asked of Meursault, "Do you want my life to be meaningless?" Meursault understands how distanced the individual is from society. Until the conclusion, he was a stranger to himself as well as to the rest of the world. In the end, he opens himself "to the gentle indifference of the world," and "finding it so much like myself," he feels he has been happy, and is again. Society finds this unacceptable, and by refusing to conform to its face-value standards, Meursault must die. Albert Camus believed that to be a true existentialist you had to remove yourself from society as much as possible since conforming was such a dominant belief and oblivious practice. Conforming to societies norms is considered bad, because it doesn't allow the individual to progress and reach his own decisions. Camus realized, however, that restricting himself from all social conformity was impossible. Camus depicts a man with very little emotion. Once in a while he shows a bit of heart, but for the most part, he gives a robotic appearance. In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses Meursault and his experiences to convey the philosophy that man is full of anxiety and despair with no meaning in his life except for simple existence. The concept of existentialism is reflected through Meursault’s experiences with his mother's death, his relationship with Marie, the killing of the Arab, and his own trial and execution. Camus uses the death of Meursault’s mother to convey his existentialistic philosophy. He seems more concerned about the time of death, and not the fact that he just lost a loved one. This creates a kind of protective barrier that separates emotion from reality. Whether this is an effective approach is uncertain, but it can surely bring forth a persona that is needed for emotional survival. It also conveys the existentialist idea that reason is powerless to the idea with the complexities of life. Furthermore, Meursault shows no compassion at his mother's funeral either. He does not cry or behave the way that society expects him to. This leaves the impression that Meursault is insensitive, or that he did not love his mother. An existentialist approach would argue that he merely accepts life as it is without seeking deeper meaning. Mersault's murder of the Arab is another example of existentialism. The absurdity of the murder is what makes it a good portrayal of the concept of existentialism. This part of the novel shows how Mersault is not only a stranger to his experiences in life, but also to nature. For the first time, the sun and his sensual pleasures begin to act against him, and cause him to lose control. Most of Mersault's actions have no true conscious motives. Mersault shoots the Arab because of his physical discomfort with his surroundings, but in any case he consciously makes the decision to shoot the Arab. When he is taken into police custody and is asked if he would need an attorney, he is genuinely confused. It is simple to him: he murdered a man and is now ready to face the consequences. Within this ongoing simplicity there is compliance and acceptance to one’s own actions, not in a way to be remorseful, but just showing that one is aware of their actions and knows that consequence is inevitable. Right or wrong hold little to no weight within the somewhat oblivious mind of Meursault, which can be an ongoing benefit from this detachment. Rather than being on trial for the crime, he is on trial for his values, like the lack of grievance of his mother's death. Meursault is found guilty and he is convicted and sentenced because of his lack of moral feeling. While awaiting his execution, he thinks about how his life has no meaning besides just living and how death does not scare him. He realizes that life is meaningless and the world is irrational. This suddenly makes him happy and he accepts his death. Nothing discussed in the trial had anything to do with the murder. It was all about the way he acted and how different he was. This was used to prove that people who are different are the ones who are judged by their character over their actions. At the end of the novel Meursault is able to understand the meaning of life. He was able to do so because he was approaching death, which is an existentialist principle; death is the one certainty of life. Before, when his mother died or when he killed the Arab, he did not have any feelings. When he thought about his own life and that he was about to die, he accepted it. He realizes that one can truly enjoy their lives when they approach and accept death. The understanding of this allowed Meursault to be at peace with himself. Albert Camus's philosophy in the novel can be related to the philosophy of existentialism, which stresses that the individual is solely responsible for the choices they make, there is no predetermination and there is no supreme being who decides morality. This philosophy is extended with the philosophy of the absurd, which states that human beings live in isolation in a pointless and senseless world, and it is vital that we accept that everything cannot be controlled in our environment. This is how Meursault lives his life. In existentialism, there are some things that cannot be rationally explained and just happen out of your control. A majority of the book can make the reader relate to the rest of society, which was not accepting of Meursault's behavior. However, the ending can easily change all of that and further analyzing can reveal more justifiable reasons for his actions. Meursault is a fascinating character. His ideas and beliefs seem wrong but are very right. Meursault is able to accept the fact that everyone dies and realizing this allows you to live a better life. He lives a life that he controls and accepts all his actions that he does. In both The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus weaves his philosophic message through the actions and thoughts of his main characters. In both stories, hopeless and meaningless fates face the characters. However, both Sisyphus and Meursault look beyond their tragic fates and gain control. They become conscious of their punishments and turn them into their salvations. Through these two characters, Camus reveals the importance of living consciously. Camus also shows that even through the absurdities of a life with no meaning, one can still find significance and happiness. Death is inevitable. Man must face his fate with acceptance or one day he will look back and wonder where his life went. And within the existentialist themes previously discussed: freedom, existence, passion, individuality, and reflection, a whole new take on Meursault’s behavior and being emerges. A change can be seen, one from emotionlessness and distantness to one of relatable contentment through (most likely conscious) emotional abandonment. And this is something that although can be seen as tragic or troubling, can actually bring about a sense of freedom and true ownership of one’s own identity.