Albert Camus Meaning

Albert Camus had his own personal meaning of life, a revelation of his own, “I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless.” The meaning of life, in the world’s eyes, is a fleeting thing, ever evolving and changing like the days in a year. Many authors have broached this elusive topic but none have been as inventive or done so with quite as much success as Albert Camus in his book The Stranger. Camus, the man who brought notoriety to the absurd, used this book to explore humanity in “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd,” (Camus). Camus took this journey through the eyes of the main character Meursault as well as through characteristics within secondary characters such as Raymond and Marie. Through Camus’
use of characters he is able to reveal the powerful difference between different outlooks in life, such as absurdism, optimism and realism, as well as the importance in defining your own meaning of life within these outlooks. A person’s choices have a direct correlation their outlook in life.
From these choices society begins to judge the person, creating a mindset of that person with only half the information. All this does is make a close-minded world in where people are forced to think the same way, this was a world Camus despised. To counter society’s ideals Camus wrote about multiple outlooks within realistic characters throughout the book. The main character Camus uses to express his hatred for a robotic society is Meursault. Many label Meursault as absurdist, or someone who believes the world to be irrational, meaningless and that conquest for order just brings pain, and his reasoning can be found within the first few lines of the book, “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 (Camus 3).” This quote isn’t the only quote throughout the book that would label Meursault as an absurdist, in part two chapter five Meursault goes into an absurdist rant that is both passionate and disconnected, leading us to believe not only the beginning explanation of an absurdist holds true to Meursault but the second part as well. Camus captures the acceptance of this absurdist state through many of Meursault’s acquaintances. One is Celeste, Meursault says of him, “He was asked...if he had noticed that I was ever withdrawn, and all he would admit was that I didn’t speak unless I had
something to say (Camus 92).” This quote shows acceptance to Meursault’s attitude toward the world, a societal acceptance and in his own way, Camus’ acceptance and how he wanted the world to view different outlooks in life. Camus, through Meursault, portrayed the importance of different thinkers. Without mental diversity life would not be colorful or unique but instead bland. In Camus’ opinion society’s ideal was bland and unimportant.Camus’belief Another outlook in life was optimism, embodied by the character Marie. Marie gave Meursault the benefit of the doubt within the entirety of the book. It started when Marie and Meursault reunited at the beach and he asked her out to a movie. When she realized that his Maman had died she “gave a little start but didn’t say anything (Camus 20)”. She looked at the glass half full, laughing throughout the evening and even forgetting the existence of the supposed mourning period. She not only showed acceptance for others but Camus used her to bring out optimism in society. In the book there are multiple occasions when she tells Meursault that she loves him and wants to marry him even though he never quite shows the same emotions or enthusiasm she keeps pressing and hoping as seen on page 41, “That evening Marie came by to seem 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,” the conversation continues on with Meursault answering questions in the same way and after a short discussion that Meursault’s peculiarities are why she loved him (Camus 41-42). Even after Meursault is imprisoned she visits him in optimism, stating that they will be together again and they will get married (Camus 75) which was an optimistic outlook for the fiance of someone facing the death sentence. Camus used Marie to show that because of Marie’s optimism she was able to bring meaning to her life, a pursuit of happiness. She experienced love, lust, pain and rejection all throughout the book which turns into a feeling of accomplishment and meaning for Marie. After putting so much effort in she gains something, whether it be laughter or knowledge, and she finds that she is richer for it. Neutral to the glass half full outlook is realism, the mindset of accepting how things are and that sometimes they cannot be changed. The character Camus uses to portray this mentality is Raymond. This quality shines through in Raymond’s interactions with Meursault, one time was when the police take him in for questioning because he was caught assaulting his mistress, “...he pointed out that the cop could do anything he wanted, it wouldn’t change the fact that she’d [the mistress] gotten her beating (Camus 37).” Raymond embodies the idea of what’s done is done but what can we do next. Often times that attitude is considered lazy but Camus wanted to portray this outlook, like the others, as something beautiful and strong in its own right. Throught the book and his life Camus held to absurdist values, saying in The Myth of Sisyphus, “If I convince myself that this life has no other aspect than that of the absurd, if I feel that its whole equilibrium depends on that perpetual opposition between my conscious revolt and the darkness in which it struggles, if I admit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living.
(Camus)” Camus believed in the absurd but also in the fact that it was others decided in how they live, not society or even his own beliefs. Throughout The Stranger Camus revels in the beauty of human consciousness and individuality. Without Camus’ commentary people might still believe in an ideal world, a utopia, which would really be a
cage.