Matthew Sunderman

IB English 11
World Lit. Paper 2c

Meursault is Existential

In Albert Camus’ “The Stranger” uses existentialism in the character of

Meursault to express the existential meaning of life, morality and values, and the
concept of the absurd. Though Albert Camus was not an existentialist, he
incorporated many existential ideas into his novels. Meursault is the embodiment of
an existential human being in “The Stranger.”
In existentialism “existence precedes essence” and existentialist Jean-Paule
Sartre coined. In this statement I states that as humans we are born without a
purpose, no reason for being alive. What it is to be a human is not given as a
definition but has to be found within oneself and decided by the individual. This
means that there is no definite human nature and social norms cannot exist because
of it. The essence of being, the purposes of life, has to be discovered by the
individual. In “The Stranger” Meursault has no purpose in his existence. He goes
through his life without regards to what others think of him. He is emotionally dead
and exists only in the physical. This is seen through how Meursault focuses only of
the heat and light at his mother’s funeral and does not cry or mourn. He does not
feel attached to his mother at all. Meursault’s identity is not constituted by neither
nature or by culture. He lives within the society and the culture of French Algeria
but that does not define him as an identity. Meursault is not merely a Frenchman; he
is an individual with no essence in life and a different set of morals and values.
Meursault shoots the Arab not out of fear of the knife that he thought he saw
the Arab take out but because of the heat and light that discomforts Meursault
throughout the day. He has no recognition of human worth, no guilt of murder. But
during the trial the prosecutor begins the trial with a conviction of murder but
Meursault is ultimately convicted for being an individual and not being a part of
society. The main focus of the trial was how Meursault did not cry at his mother’s
funeral and did not wish to see the body, which is unusual by social standards.
Individuality of Meursault was hindered by the society and culture that he lived in.
Meursault lived in a different set of morals than the average man in the novel. He did
not think about the consequences of his actions in the future after he shot the Arab
but only noticed how it disrupted the peace of the day. Meursault is Nietzsche’s
“Ü bermensch” or “Superman” because the morality that governs the society in the
novel does not apply to Meursault, he is above what society thinks is right or wrong.
In existentialism, it is up to the individual to decide what is right and wrong for him,
and to come up with their own moral standards and values. Though Meursault does
not decide whether killing the Arab was right or wrong, he is only reacting to a
stimulate, in this case being the light reflected of the Arab’s knife. Meursault has no
conception of love. Meursault is distant from his mother showing no “love” for her
and no feelings for her at her funeral or when questioned about her in the trial. He
also does not love Marie. He was only interested in the physical of their relationship
and when asked if it was another woman in the same position whether he would
marry her too he said yes. Twice in the novel the priest tries to convert him to
Christianity and both times Meursault refuses to convert. This can be seen as
Atheistic existentialism in place of theistic existentialism or absurdism because in
theistic existentialism the individual must find meaning before God and in
absurdism there may be a inherent meaning of life either given by oneself or by god
but humans will never know it for certain. Meursault rejects any idea of a God and
the moral standards that come with Christianity. It is the Christian morals that the
priest is trying to install into Meursault, and with those morals Meursault would not
have to face his death.
Albert Camus rejected the label of existentialism and embraced absurdism.
Absurdism focuses mainly of inability of human to find meaning in life and the
pursuit is doomed to failure and is “absurd.” The absurd is the conflict of the human
inability to find the inherent meaning of life and the universe. Meursault confronts
the absurd by dealing with his death. And through this confrontation Meursault
finds meaning in his life and becomes happy. There are three basic ways someone
deals with the absurd: elusion, suicide, and coping. Elusion being just avoiding the
fact that everything is absurd and living and suicide is avoiding the absurd by taking
their own life. Meursault copes with the fact that life is absurd that there is no
meaning in life and embracing the absurd Meursault finds his peace. In accepting the
absurd, in this case his death, Meursault becomes free. In the first time in his life he
reflects on his life and decides that he had been happy and that he was happy once
again. “In a manner of speaking I am thus brought face-to-face with my own finitude,
my “death” as the possibility in which I am no longer able to be anything. This
experience of my own death, or “nothingness,” in anxiety can act as a spur to
authenticity: I come to see that I “am” not anything but must “make myself be”
through my choice. In committing myself in the face of death—that is, aware of the
nothingness of my identity if not supported by me right up to the end—the roles
that I have hitherto thoughtlessly engaged in as one does now become something
that I myself own up to, become responsible for.”(Crowell)
Though Albert Camus was not an existentialist, existentialism is seen through
his novel “The Stranger” and particularly the character of Meursault. Meursault is
the embodiment of existentialism, an Ü bermensch in the sense that he exists before
he has a purpose, has his own moral standards and faces the absurd. He lacks
emotion, love and he is rejected by society. Convicted of murder he is executed for
not crying at his mother’s funeral. Albert Camus used existentialism in “The
Stranger” to advance his own philosophies through Meursault.