The Meaning Of Life In The Stranger By Arthur Camus

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There are over seven billion people in the world, all different, yet all the same, each living their life in unique ways, yet all heading to the same place. Each day hundreds of thousands of people are born and hundreds of thousands of people die, every birth a meaningless miracle and each death an insignificant tragedy. Humans are the most influential species in the universe that we know of, and yet we barely impact anything. So what is the meaning of life? Or is life just senseless? In The Stranger, Arthur Camus explores the idea that no matter how an individual lives his or her life, the same fate awaits as that facing any other individual who may have lived life in a completely different manner. Therefore, a person should never try to repress feelings or feign emotions in order to satisfy social constructs such as religion, romance, and friendship. Camus reveals this theme through both Meursault and Raymond’s behaviors. Both men’s actions are products of how they want to live. They never let the expectations of others impact their behavior. This is most evident when Meursault is actually facing his own death.
While Meursault is certainly not a hero, people who stand up for their beliefs are to be admired. Meursault is certainly a model of a person who cannot be swayed by the opinion of others and remains true to himself, so oddly he …show more content…

Later that night Meursault claims that “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself --so like a brother really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again” (123). Although it may seem strange at first that Meursault is “happy” in his current situation, it is not. From the beginning Meursault accepted that he was going to die just like everyone else, and because he believed it did not matter how he lived his life, he was able to live it according to how he

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