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.
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I drank the coffee. Then I felt like having a smoke. But I hesitated, because I didn’t know if I could do it with Maman right there. I thought about it; it didn’t matter. I offered the caretaker a cigarette and we smoked.” In this scene Meursault is very detailed when describing what is happening and what he is seeing, like a detective. Easily, you can picture Meursault sitting near his mother’s grave calmly smoking and drinking as if it was a typical day. In particular the author describes the scene in a very simplistic way, also it’s easy take notice on how Meursault lack of emotion. It’s fairly ironic that Meursault acts indifferent at his mother’s funeral which should be an emotional experience. Even so his thoughts are clear, distinctive, deliberate, he is meticulous not frivolous. His writing style easily explains the Absurdist viewpoint because the writing is so detached from what’s really going on in the big picture of his life. He describes his surroundings and what’s happening, though he never acts on what is happening. Mostly, Meursault is impartial as a absurdist should be, he is aware of the purposeless universe so he lives his life at whim. Not only do the author’s writing effect the books, but Meursault's actions and reactions clearly define the book even further. It brings to life the idea of an existential life and deepens the reader’s understanding. For example, Meursault experiences events in his life that would have made a big impact for most people, such as a marriage proposal or a parent’s death, do not matter to him. He says, “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if i wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her.” He simply does not care if Marie loves him or not. This section in particular gives perfect examples of how an absurdist life would really be played out. The author is trying to explain his beliefs through the actions of his Meursault, and he does this with ease. Easily, the reader catches on to Meursault's absurdist beliefs. He is honest,he displays his indifference, openly he challenges society’s accepted moral standards. Parallel to The Stranger, in No Exit by Jean-Paul Sarte, Sarte also uses a very clipped, direct, and clear writing style. The language between characters is minimal and clear, which is similar to the writing style Albert Camus uses. However, when a frivolous paragraph does arrive we read intently and carefully paying close attention. Though the dialogue between the characters make the existential view come alive, especially in the character Inez. She says “Well, I was what some people down there called “a damned bitch.” Damned already. So it’s no surprise, being here.” In this small bit of dialogue, lot’s of information is learned about the character. the reader is now fully aware that Inez accepts who she is and what she has done. She new she was free and responsible for her own actions. Though Meursault came across as reserved and less willing to speak compared to Inez, they both share the same beliefs, that they are who they are, and they do not intent to change their way of living despite the consequences. On the other hand, the setting in No exit especially brings out the idea of existentialism.
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
not. In conclusion, both writers do a outstanding job of explaining existentialist beliefs through a concise book and a play. The authors painted a perfect idea of existential life through style, setting, and the character’s actions.
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.
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
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.
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.
French author and playwright Albert Camus once said, “He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.” In the The Stranger and The Guest this philosophy is expanded on by demonstrating how those who do not conform to society are isolated, and portrayed as a threat to society because of their unique beliefs.
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.
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.
Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and a few answers. He created an outsider to society and showed us how he lived, Meursault.
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.
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.
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.
(1991) The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. 4 2.5.26 Camus, Albert. “The Stranger” Vintage International (1942). 5. Camus, Albert.
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.