Free Will In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, is an existentialist novel about a man who struggles to understand his free will. Camus’ personal philosophy is portrayed throughout the entire novel through the actions of the main character, Monsieur Meursault. For the entire book, Meursault does not conform well into normal society. For example, he does not mourn his mother’s death. He also does not feel any regret after murdering a man who did not deserve to be murdered. However, at the end of the novel, he finally grasps the fact that he has his own truth, or his own free will, and he ends up dying for his own version of the truth. Throughout the novel, Camus injects his own personal epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical views into Monsieur Meursault,
Camus would argue that we are all going to be held responsible for our actions made through our free will. Meursault was held responsible for his action he took against the Arab man when he was on trial for murdering him. At the end of the trial, the judge read the verdict to Meursault. He then said to the reader, “the presiding judge told me in bizarre language that I was to have my head cut off in a public square in the name of the French people” (Camus, p. 107). One philosopher that would agree with Camus’ metaphysical argument is Jeffrey Olen. Olen explains that we “love, contemplate, write and read poetry, for example, and are held morally responsible for our actions” (Olen, p. 88). In The Stranger, Meursault was held morally responsible for his actions by the verdict of the trial. On the other hand, I do not believe that Camus would agree with Rene Descartes would agree with each other’s view on metaphysics. Descartes explains that “I am distinct from my body, and can exist without it” (Descartes, p. 71). However, when it comes to Meursault, he is actually facing the reality of death. Plus, since he does not believe in an afterlife, once his life is over, there is nothing else for him to look forward to. The chaplain asked Meursault if he had ever wished for another life, referring to an afterlife, and Meursault responded by saying, “of course I had, but it didn’t mean any more than wishing to be rich, to be able to swim faster, or to have a more nicely shaped mouth” (Camus, p. 119-120). Meursault believes that once this life ends, there is not another life that awaits him. This goes back to the subject of free will. Meursault is trying to explain to the chaplain he does not believe in an afterlife because he does not believe in God. Believing in God would force him to give up his free will, which he is not going to