Examples Of Meursault As An Existential Hero

Meursault and the Existential Hero
Existentialism is a philosophical concept occurring in literature and the arts that emphasizes the individual person existing as a free and independent being responsible for determining their own pathways and life through acts of their will. It is a term that now exists describing the work of a few late 19th to 20th century philosophers.
For Albert Camus, the existential hero takes to life by rising above the meaninglessness of an existence devoid of the Emperor by facing that meaninglessness head on (1) and accepting it anyway. This is a distinct trait of the heroes of his writings. King Sisyphus in The Myth of Sisyphus is one such existential hero. Condemned for eternity with the meaningless task of pushing
Sisyphus recognised the pointlessness of his task, and chooses to embrace it anyway. He repeats his routing, time and time again, knowing he cannot truly succeed. In many ways, this is a metaphor for the fact that we cannot really accept and know life for what it is, unless we also appreciate and accept death (2). Death is the thing that concludes our lives, erases their meaning for there is no longer an existence to mean anything. People cannot only be grateful for life when they are content, but not while they are sad. Sisyphus in a way overcomes his fate by choosing a “heroic attitude” toward life's apparent meaninglessness. In this way he proves man can command himself to will meaning into any situation; Sisyphus finds it in simply reconsidering his attitude toward his fate, something that eventually all of us must do, at the end of our days. In Camus’ The Plague of the Catholic Priest Father Paneloux realises this very fact – that he
Rather than conduct himself in accordance with what society has deemed sane and correct, Meursault tries to live as honestly as he can, minding his own business while doing what he wants to do and befriending those people whom he likes. He also refuses to attempt feelings that he does not feel, regardless of the fact that society deems it right to feel in such a way, and so he doesn’t force himself to weep at the funeral of his mother, or mourn her death in any significant way. He is the narrator of the novel of his life, and is one of those well-known existential anti-heroes. As we read of him we see he is locked in his endlessly repeating cycle of daily events. His live is a void lacking of emotions, aspirations or preferences. Like a mindless servo automaton Meursault responds to every occurrence automatically, neither feeling nor caring about those actions. In the book, when Meursault if offered a job opportunity in Paris, however as he has no preference one choice or another, here simple stays as moving would be more trouble. When his mother passes away there is again a similar lack of response. There is no despair or grief because he does not see the need to feel such emotions. Meursault is largely unaffected by and uncaring for the world around him, although his