Existentialism in Albert Camus' The Stranger

Existentialism is a philosophy centered upon the reasoning of existence and the way people find themselves living in the world. The comprehension of existentialism is that each person spends a lifetime changing their aspect and nature. Existence is mainly the problem, therefore, people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their beliefs and experiences. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be capable without any laws, rules, or custom. Existentialists are defined by the fact that they exist, or are in world and occupy it. For this reason, existentialists are wrong for no meaning in life, but they are right for saying that people should choose and create a meaning in life.

In The Stranger by Albert Camus, we can clearly see aspects of existentialism. There are many themes that display existentialism. For example, life is a series of choices, without any consequences. Some things unreasonable without an answer. If a person makes a decision, they must follow through with this decision. One of the major themes of existentialism is freedom. The belief that whatever happened before now does not have an impact on your next choice. Meaursault displays freedom by dealing with Mamans death as if it was something that happens everyday. Meursault does not show any emotion during Maman’s funeral. This depicts free will by not being affected by his mother's death. “Maman died today, Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.”  The thoughts of Meursault in the opening of the book show the lack of care he has towards everything. He depicts a view of thinking death is meaningless. The awareness of Meursault choices and passion and how we understand before we think is another theme that depicts existence. Meursault wants to live his life in the moment, not thinking about the consequences and not being concerned with the future.

Another theme depicted among The Stranger is uncertainty. Life is unpredictable and unexpected. Camus shows how unpredictable life is throughout the novel when one minute Meursault is happy with the sun shining on him, but suddenly something not explected happens and Meursault's happiness is not there anymore. “I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I’d been happy.” 

There is also a theme of individualism. Individuality is a main theme of all existentialists but Meursault lives of his individuality when he wants a crowd of people to witness his death and greet him with cries of hatred. “To feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” Meursault's world view shifts, he accepts the indifference of the world. In a world where he did not see any meaning, he has accepted the meaningless of existence.

The overall theme is the belief that life is meaningless and without desire. The meaningless shows missing any obvious meaning to our life. No one can explain someone else's meaninglessness towards life. Meaursault shows his lack of moral in society when he is sentenced to death after killing the Arab, he refused to conform to society's rules which ended up killing him.

Meaursault cannot abide by the same rules because he does not understand them. His entire being is unemotional. This separate him from society, Society has strict guidelines focusing on right and wrong. Meaursault sees the outcome in life as unpreventable. He cannot understand any right or wrong in killing the Arab. Meaursault did not hate the man, at the trail Meaursault says “because of the sun.” The sun at the beach, similar to the sun at his mother’s funeral, was tormenting him. The sun represents something deeper, it represents Meursault's emotions. The heat and the sun are too much for his senses, which he cannot put up with,. The death of the Arab was due to Meursault's lack of emotion. He has came to a conclusion where he must create his own meaning in life. He is a stranger to himself and to others around him. Since Meursault refuses to conform, it will cost him his life.

Creating own meaning in life is right but does this go against faith? Existential belief is an acceptance that cannot be found in religion or texts. Following religious rules within a religion is not what true faith is. Existential belief challenge that faith must be individual. Since most people are born into religion, they do not have true faith. Religion is not a way to deeply connect to your individual self, it is more of a way to connect to other people. Few people are genuinely intangible but not every person that was born into religion has an absence in faith. “Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.”— Anita Brookner (b. 1938), British novelist, art historian. Existential thinking is influenced by questions of faith. Questions and beliefs such as “Man...probably the most mysterious species on the planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all.” — Run, Lola, Run. The questions are mainly of the absence of any Creator and what that means for human existence. Through the twentieth century religion was important within existentialism. Many of the major people who were associated with existentialism were not only philosophers, they were religious leaders who were within their faiths. As a part of any study of existentialism, you cannot ignore faith. Faith is the meaning of life that many existentialists believe we must create “… There is a very strong spiritual current that carries through into Existentialist writing well into the twentieth century and why there is often a desire to go beyond the present material, physical being and to achieve some kind of transcendence”. Existentialist to not try to withdraw from the illogicality of life, they do not feel a meaning from religion. If there is a creator, an existentialist believes that this creator is beyond reasoning, existentialism does not understand the creator.

As many existentialists believe they have to find their own faith in life, many people who study existentialism psychology have to submerge themselves into their patients world. Existential psychology is a path to psychology based on viewing a person as a “whole” and understanding people by inspecting social relationships whole understand that people have different lives of self-awareness that cannot be ignored. This is a process that views meaning within the whole persons actuality. Conforming to the leading existential psychologists, Swiss Psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger, '…while the existential therapist enters into the phenomena present before and with him or her, existentialism does not confine itself to states of witness. It includes the existence of the whole being.' Meaning that, existential therapists are absorbing the whole of their patients as they can experience with them. The leading existential psychologist, Binswanger, concluded his belief with three different views of human life. These included the “world around,” which means the natural drive of humans, “with world,” which means the social relationships a human has, and “own world,” which is the life-world of the self.

The social relationships a human has on the world is what relates to modern day society today. Existentialists support the concept that there is no running away from the meaning of life, what it means to be human. Our modern day society existentialists are removing the awareness of anxiety brought upon existential awareness into consciousness. In many ways modern society believed we need an existence amount of education to understand “being in the world.” Many people in today's society are unfamiliar with existentialists philosophy and how it applies to or lives. The world needs what existential psychotherapy is offering. In today's culture many people are looking for enlightenment, something that is going to wake them up and change them. In order to meet the need of enlightenment, the modern day existentialists must learn to be in the same experience in order to understand people and bring up to them the works of existentialism. In existential psychotherapy many of the patines have trouble or are against to transform while the therapist tries to provide a safe place. The therapist needs to pose a way to understand the patients pain, what Schneider (2009) calls ““effortful nonattachment,” meaning that one is deeply engaged in the present moment without an agenda or desired outcome.”

In conclusion, existentialists are wrong for believing that life is meaningless but, are right for believing the choice of an individual is brought upon to their own selves and that humans must make their own meaning in life, living in an irrational world and trying to make rational decisions. As Albert Camus portrays Meursault's decisions as making his own choice for his emotions, as creating your own faith for yourself, as psychology has to view these people as a whole, and as the modern society believes existentialism will be the answer to lighten up today's world.