In our society, The Bible is considered one of the most famous written literatures, and within this book there is over a thousand pages explaining christianity entirely. However, Albert Camus is able to explain existentialism and absurdism theories in just a hundred and twenty five pages. But how does he manage this? Within the works of The Stranger by Albert Camus, and The Exit by Jean Paul Sartre, the authors help explain the meaning of existentialism through style, setting, and the characters in the story itself. Right away as you begin The Stranger, already you notice the unique writing style Camus decides to use throughout the book. He states, “I like milk in my coffee, so I said yes, and he came back a few minutes later with a tray. …show more content…
Alternatively, Sartre creates a hell that we do not think of what hell traditionally is depicted. In his hell, there are not devils, flames, people writhing in pain and agony. Instead the setting consists of a simple room with furniture that cannot be moved. It’s a room in which we find every day, and something we experience everyday. Individually a valet brings each character into this room where they intend to live out hell together for eternity. In this way, the author creates the idea that hell is everyday life, it’s all around us, and most importantly people are hell. Furthermore, there is no sleep, no bathrooms, no breaks, death is impossible, there is no exit. This idea is important because existentialism is based on the fact that we all exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe. Even if the characters could suddenly escape hell and visit earth, it wouldn’t change anything, and if it did it wouldn’t matter. Even when you affect other people’s lives it doesn’t matter, because there is not a purpose in life. Everyone is brought in to the word and you leave the world.Life and people would move on without you, and on earth life moves on as well, whether you want it to or
Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought which contemplates the issues of meaning, life itself, the search for purpose, and how it applies to the humanity. Introduced by Søren Kierkegaard, the father of Existentialism, and coined by Gabriel Marcel in the 40’s, there has since been many philosophers, authors, works, plays, and debates over these principals. Two of the most renowned pieces of existentialist literature are The Stranger by Albert Camus, and The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato. Both novels deal with two opposite men struggling to find meaning and a place in the world itself, and are widely considered prime examples of an existential hero. But what is an existential hero? How would one describe and determine
In the play No Exit, by Jean Sartre, the author attempts to describe his vision of what Hell is, a subject that many have pondered, but none really know. Sartre was under the impression that Hell had nothing to do with the fire and brimstone, as many people before him believed. He instead voiced his thoughts through the characters of No Exit. “Obviously there aren’t any physical torments…and yet we’re in hell. And no one else will come here. We’ll stay in this room together, the three of us, forever and ever…in short there’s someone absent here, the official torturer…each of us shall act as the torturer of the two others.” (No Exit, p. 22) The three main characters in this play, Inez, Garcin, and Estelle create the hell they were banished to, but not by using the “racks and red-hot pincers” of the past, but by hurting each other in a disturbed form of a “love triangle”, where the love really doesn’t exist.
But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” This build on the essential idea of existentialism being in “a world that is stripped of all comforting illusions, explanations, and guidelines, and an existence that is essentially solitary and personally challenging. The absurdity arises in the paradoxical confrontation between the human hunger and yearning for meaning, purpose, and explanation and an awareness of the meaninglessness or the meaning-neutrality of a universe that cannot provide a grand design or a set of directions for living.” Albert Camus, defends his theory and writings by accepting the fact that many of existentialism questions are unable to be answered due to the nature of the philosophy understanding that it’s not comprehendible through reason. He even argues towards other existentialist who seek to answer the questions proposed by using transcendence through God as a cure for
What is hell? Is it fire and brimstone? Is it one’s worst fears come to life? Is it an endless nightmare? Is it an eternity of demon torturing? Is it reliving the same horrible day over and over again for forever? What is hell? Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the play “No Exit.” It is an existentialist play. Sartre uses his characters to describe the setting saying, “Yes we have lots of time in hand. All time,” (43) and “... yet we’re in hell.” (17) Garcin, a character in the one act play, thinks that hell is simply other people. This is a running theme in the play as even another character, Inez, says, “I mean that each of us will act as a torturer of the two others.” (17) While many religions have their own versions of hell (like
I, Albert Camus, am a famous French author who wrote The Stranger in 1942. I was born in Algeria, and my experiences there have deeply influenced my thoughts, my work, and my philosophies. The Stranger strongly represents my philosophy of the absurd and existentialism. When I was twenty-five, I moved to France and joined the resistance movement during World War II. After the liberation from Nazi Germany, I became a political journalist and a columnist for Combat, a French newspaper.
The pointlessness of existence is uncovered and expounded upon with an approach such that the foundation of spirituality is disturbed in Albert Camus’ existential novel “The Stranger”. The conception that compels this novel is one Albert Camus named himself, the “absurd”. An absurd person lives simply to fulfill the obligation of existence. In addition, static tools of chance and coincidence govern all action. Camus uses Mersault, as the primary vehicle to relate this concept. Mersault, lives out a seemingly normal life of indifference until the central climax of the novel changes him. Here he concedes to the absurdity and begins the necessary acceptance of his own futile existence in order to find contentedness with his life before his death.
The Stranger is a 1942 novel by French author Albert Camus. Its plot and theme reflect Camus’s ideas on existentialism through the main character’s course of action. The novel is set in Algeria of 1942 under French rule.
The lecture “Existentialism is a humanism” (French: “L’Existentialism est un humanisme”, 1946), first presented in the winter of 1945, represents Sartre’s attempt to defend the existentialist philosophical thought by the attacks of the Communists and Christians, as well as the common understanding of "existentialism". Sartre argues that the notion of “existentialism” has gone beyond the philosophical though and has acquired a pervasive and negative connotation.
Hell, as envisioned by Dante Alighieri in his Inferno, is described by Robert Hollander as a “perfectly functioning bureaucracy” . The organization of it, however, creates many conflicting issues within the text. The way Dante organizes the circles and each of the sins within them is complicated and problematic, especially when considering how interrelated each of these sins are and how easy it is for a soul to fit into more than one circle. Not only does Dante fail to explain how these problems are dealt with, but his condemning of real people to his fictionalized version of Hell only serves to further convolute his concept of Hell, in its entirety.
Existentialism is defined as "a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will”. In other words, existentialism it emphasizes individual freedom. Throughout The Stranger, the amount of existentialism views is abundant. The use of Mersault’s experiences covey the idea that human life has no meaning except for simple existence. The idea of existentialism in Albert Camus' The Stranger reflects through Mersault's life experiences with his relationship with Marie, the death of his mother Maman, the murdering of the Arab, and Mersault's trial and execution, all these events show that Mersault’s life of no meaning.
Albert Camus was an existentialist. He was also not a religious person and even though he was born and raised a Catholic; he soon quit his religious faith and turned into an atheist, believing that religion was “philosophical suicide”. He described his attitude toward religion in the lines “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.” Yet, it is seen that even though he denied being an existentialist, he is seen to have ‘brooded over such questions as the meaning of life in the face of death.’ “Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.” This quote shows that Camus believed death was what created people in society and brought their life into the spotlight.
Imagine waking up one day and finding yourself in hell. What do you picture hell looks like? Who is there and why are you there? Dante Alighieri answers these questions from his own perspective in the Inferno translated by Allen Mandelbaum. Hell is a controversial subject with many different ways to consider what hell is and who deserves to go there. Different religions have different ideals when it comes to explaining what hell is, if they even acknowledge one, and how you end up there. Inferno is just an interpretation by Dante to show how he views hell from how it looks and who, from his time, would be there. If the it were to be updated today, there are, unfortunately, many more different choices to pick from to add to his Divine Comedy.
In the essay "Camus' The Outsider," Jean-Paul Sartre explains that Camus' book is more of an 'experience of the absurd' for readers than a 'novel' because it uses literary approaches to identify and clarify the absurdity of life. He then defines the absurd, people's reaction to it, and the narrative technique Camus uses.
The world took a strong liking to the existentialistic movement. Select countries, such as Sicily, United States, France, Russia, and Germany, bore different writers and philosophers. Such literary masterminds as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Ralph Ellison, Luigi Pirandello, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky have fallen under the label of existentialistic writers, though several writers refrain from conforming to the title. Therefore, as to correspond to the variance of people who may or may not call themselves existentialists, but in fact are, existentialism can be found in not just fictional novels, but also in analytical papers, memoirs, and nonfictional pieces. Works produced, from Camus’ The Stranger to Sartre’s essay entitled “Truth and Existence”, embodied the existentialism movement and covered all of the complexities of the period.
Overall, Camus’ The Stranger becomes the complete absurd work through the inappropriate uses of messages. We can show that he is not successful in making the straightforward messages because he does not clearly develop his point of the novel. This is how he illogically structures his novel by making aimless thematic point.