The Prevelence of Existentialism in The Stranger by Albert Camus

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One of the ways existentialism is created in The Stranger is through the use of the philosophical idea of nihilism that the main character, Mersault, holds true to. Nihilism is the dismissal of all religious beliefs and essentially is the belief that life is meaningless. Mersault is of nihilist thought in that he puts no meaning to life through the total concentration of the physical and virtually believes in nothing. Rejecting any consideration of being thoughtful towards any potential meaning is an obvious point being made in Camus' attempt to convey this perspective of existentialism throughout the novel. During the scene of the priest's visit to Mersault at the end of the last chapter, the priest tries desperately to reach Mersault and Camus uses his character's strong beliefs even further to develop the idea of existentialism: “'Every man I have known in your position has turned to Him.' I acknowledged that that was their right. It also meant that they must have had the time for it. As for me, I didn't want anybody's help, and I just didn't have the time to interest myself in what didn't interest me” (Camus 117). Camus creates Mersault to concentrate predominantly on his own needs and desires in order to truly represent his existential philosophy, and therefore blatantly denies any consideration to the meaning of life. In this way he detaches himself from the world and causes himself to find more importance in the physical. Furthermore, the extent that Mersault goes to avoid confronting potential religious beliefs allows him to hold strong in existentialist thought by determining his own purpose, through his physical and impulsive desires singularly.
Throughout the text, Camus incorporates the philosophy of fatalism by the ...

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...e of skepticism that Mersault looks so broadly through. Mersault is skeptical of the value of life, much less any thing, and by doing so uses minimalist thought to express that he does not place importance on any one thing because they all are in equal in the end. This view inherently leads him to be unemotional towards people: "Salamano's dog was worth just as much as his wife" (Camus 121). It is clear that Mersault is skeptical on the meaning of anything at all, and inescapably, it is difficult for the reader to not adopt the skepticism exemplified in the novel. We are left to judge whether anything the character does has any meaning through the knowledge that we ourselves already have. This explains existential skepticism in that he creates his own meaning this way and will not leave himself to conform and allow others definitions of things impact his chosen path.

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