THE STRANGER

Meursault, Meursault, Meursault... what to say about Meursault. I'll start off by saying that Meursault is a weird dude. He's completely amoral and is seriously lacking in the emotions department. He lacks the capacity to judge morality versus immorality, and in doing so (or rather in failing to do so) inadvertently challenges society's moral codes. In addition to, and probably as a result of, his amorality and inability to judge right from wrong, Meursault is also honest – at times brutally so. To me, his lack of emotional capacity and psychological detachment make Meursault a character as intriguing and appealing as he is frustrating and obscene – especially when it comes to his relationship with Marie. Half of me thinks he's great for being so earnest with her and leaving no room for her to misinterpret his feelings, while the other half of me wants to shake him for not even trying to really love her. Meursault and Marie are pretty similar when you really think about it. Meursault derives nearly all his of pleasure, or really any feeling at all for that matter, from the physical world, be it the cool of the ocean or the taste of coffee. Like Meursault, Marie is also highly receptive to the physical world, she often kisses or hugs Meursault and makes it clear that she enjoys having sex with him, however, in spite of their similarities, Meursault and Marie have one major, glaring difference. Whereas Marie's physical responsiveness to Meursault indicates her underlying emotional affections, Meursault's responsiveness is purely physical, because the physical world is really all Meursault has the ability to recognize. I'm certain Camus meant for Meursault and Marie to be so similar and yet to glaringly different, and I think Meursault's final passing thoughts of Marie in which he states he can't feel anything for her if she isn't physically present, exemplify the extreme limit to his emotional capacity.

Meursault's emotional detachment and lack of traits so inherent to humanity, isolate and make him a stranger (hence the title) to society and perhaps to himself as well. Society doesn't understand him, nobody (Meursault included) can seem to make any sense of his crime or provide an answer as to why he did it. Without any apparent rhyme or reason, the judges, prosecution, and majority of the courtroom attempt to construct their own rationale as to why Meursault shot a man to death. The courtroom's insistence that there must be some explanation for Meursault's action and the prosecutor’s unyielding attempts to attribute his crime to his callousness, illustrate humanity's often unavailing attempts to find rational explanations for the endlessly irrational happenings of the universe. Camus uses the trial to illustrate the futility and absurdity of this subconscious and ubiquitous human act.

Although I would like to disagree with Camus' major assertions illustrated by the novel – those of the absurdity of the universe and the futility and meaninglessness of human existence – I find it difficult to do so. Camus suggests that because human existence has no meaning, people try to construct a rational order by which to live their lives and create concepts that give their lives meaning. There is certainly solace in the belief that everything happens for a reason and your life has great purpose or destiny, but it seems much more rational and reasonable to accept the void Camus proposes. In fact, to me it seems more rational to deny the existence of any rationality or order of the universe and to reject attributing any great meaning to existence, than it is to insist that there is great meaning to life and some sort of logical order and structure to the universe. If everything means nothing and one accepts the absurdity of the universe, life seems simple and pressure-free, and one could certainly find solace in that. It seems to me that no matter which doctrine you live by, either that life has great meaning or no meaning or somewhere in between, you'll find solace in something, be it destiny or death. And as long as you find solace enough to keep the absurdity at bay, you'll exist. Whether by destiny or chance is irrelevant, you'll exist – and what could possibly mean more than that?