Existential Crisis or Enlightenment? Does human existence hold any greater meaning? In the 1946 novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist and narrator, Meursault, a french man detached and estranged from humanity questions just that. In the first part, the story starts in the setting of the town of Algiers in 1940s French occupied Algeria. It begins with the death of his mother, to which Meursault does not feel much towards. He returns from the vigil held at the home that his mother lived at without much thought and proceeds to build a friendship with his shady neighbor Raymond Sintes, who has been in trouble with the brother of his moorish mistress. A few days after his mother’s death, Meursault decides to bring his love
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The book discusses many ideas on the absurdity of humanity and the irrelevance of our actions. For example, on the very first page of the novel, Meursault states, “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.”. This shows not only how estranged Meursault is from his own emotions or what make him human, but since he is incapable of assigning meaning to a what seems like a traumatic event to most people, he reacts rather nonchalantly. Later on, in the story, Meursault says, “With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start all over again.”, which shows that he does give his mother’s death meaning at the end, regardless of how deep. Meursault realizes that since our action in life have no meaning we are somewhat trapped in a world where there is no true right or wrong, and the only way you can fully free yourself from a pointless journey through life is to attach meaning to life, death, and everything in …show more content…
Although the Meursault’s journey isn’t very relatable to most young adults, the thoughts and problems that he faces in his own mind are. I would recommend this book to all of my peers as I think that it is not only helpful but in some ways enlightening. I think that every person who reads this novel will take something different away from it. The stranger is a book that has a various complex lessons in it, which makes it beneficial to people from all walks of
The book discusses many ideas on the absurdity of humanity and the irrelevance of our actions. For example, on the very first page of the novel, Meursault states, “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.”. This shows not only how estranged Meursault is from his own emotions or what make him human, but since he is incapable of assigning meaning to a what seems like a traumatic event to most people, he reacts rather nonchalantly. Later on, in the story, Meursault says, “With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start all over again.”, which shows that he does give his mother’s death meaning at the end, regardless of how deep. Meursault realizes that since our action in life have no meaning we are somewhat trapped in a world where there is no true right or wrong, and the only way you can fully free yourself from a pointless journey through life is to attach meaning to life, death, and everything in …show more content…
Although the Meursault’s journey isn’t very relatable to most young adults, the thoughts and problems that he faces in his own mind are. I would recommend this book to all of my peers as I think that it is not only helpful but in some ways enlightening. I think that every person who reads this novel will take something different away from it. The stranger is a book that has a various complex lessons in it, which makes it beneficial to people from all walks of