The Stranger, By Albert Camus

Through an existentialist lens, humans are no more than a grain of dust in the vast polarized darkness of space. There is no purpose behind the birth of life, but rather to just exist. Humans coexist with reality not because we are strained to some pre-arranged destiny, but to forge our own collective meaning. Independently, walking down the path to find your meaning is daunting and baffling, so, the idea of forming relationships helps ease the pathway to find happiness and a meaningful life. In The Stranger, Albert Camus illustrates the importance of relationships, as they help provide meaning but also the realization to cherish and hold life with significant value.

The ideals of an existentialist philosophy reveal that there is no coherent
This idea is exhibited through the relationship of Meursault and Marie. Meursault tends to only care for his physical desires and appears nonchalant with his emotions towards her. While at the beach, Meursault expresses his physical feelings towards Marie, detailing about how she looks and the things that they do together, however, not even mentioning once how he feels about her. Meursault’s negligence towards emotional feelings exists that he only focuses on the present moment and the things in front of him, rather than the bigger picture of love and relationships. Camus shows this to signify how abstract meaning are meaningless in the face of reality and is unnecessary when seeking happiness. Meursault even says when Marie asks about marriage that, “... it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if he wanted to... I answered the same way I had last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her,” (41). His words express inhumanly attitude, especially to a topic that is cherished and unforgettable. His words seem pale and short, inferring that he lacks the emotions or care for his future with Marie. However, we are shown that Meursault is happy and quite cheerful when interacting with Marie. He likes to structurize his relationship on what’s happening right now; Camus describes the scene as light and joyful, displaying Meursault as enjoying his time with Marie. Even though Meursault expresses ambiguous thoughts about his future with Marie, his relationship with her helps him find his own happiness and meaning in life at the present