Absurdism And The Theme Of Absurdism In 'The Stranger'

Devrim Aras

Mr. Braccino

English II

PD 1

Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and, on most cases, did not answer them. He designed a different character to society and showed us how he lived. His name, Meursault. His ideas on absurdism are shown many times in part one of The Stranger. In class, we had explored the idea of absurdism and had gone over examples in the story of it. Absurdism is definitely a theme in this novel.

Meursault was always shown as different to the outside world. Meursault accepted his and his mother’s death. Meursault saw the purpose of life meaningless. The reader is taught of the idea of absurdism. The idea of the Absurd is easily misunderstood and relates itself with negative meanings. To keep the absurd alive you only have to live the absurd. “Life will be more fully lived in so far as it has no meaning.”(Camus I) is a quote from the stranger that shows this.

To read a book of Albert Camus, the reader must realize, first off, that the rader is dealing with an author who does not believe in God. He is majorly atheist. Major characters in the stranger is fiction, therefore, can probably be expected either to disbelieve the problem of belief. One's first response then, as a reader, might profitably be a brief consideration of what might happen to a character who comes to realize that there is no God. What happens when he realizes that his death is final, that his joys, his disappointments, and his sufferings are brief flickers preluding an afterlife of nothingness is that he accepts it. Not caring for the death of his mother, he is perceived as a worse person which would come back at him in the end of the story. This is an example of absurdism because his decision to be lazy and si...

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...hoices that ultimately decide your existence. And therefore, Meursault’s existence was meaningless after he killed the arab and that is why he wanted the people to come to his execution and be angry towards him, so he could be remembered. The choice of killing the arab made any future action inevitable because he had ended his life and, as he had expected, made no difference to the universe. If people had gone to his execution, he would prove himself wrong in that his existence was not a waste.

In the novel the Stranger, Absurdism is an invaluable theme. Our exploration into his concepts show these ideas of the absurd. Whether it is the consequences of not caring enough for his mother leading to his death, or his desicion to kill the arab, it shows the idea of absurdism and the impact of your choices. This is why the theme of absurdism is so important to the novel.