Stranger: #1

            From the little information that is given so far in The Stranger, I would argue that, at the moment, Mersault is not abiding by the absurd philosophy. The absurd philosophy says that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail and are absurd. Mersault is doing the complete opposite of this. He is not searching for meaning in his life. In fact, it is more as if he does not care at all. This is similar to Winston in the beginning of 1984. Neither Mersault nor Winston see the value in their own lives; therefore, they live a life that lacks emotion and personal connections. When Marie asks him if he loves her, he responds with, “I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (35). She later proposes to him and he replies, “I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married” (41). Marie proposes to him and Mersault brushes it off as if it were a usual comment. His distant and detached demeanor point to his lack of emotion and lack of curiosity for life. Raymond then talks to Mersault about the cop incident, which Mersault responds with, “I said I wasn’t expecting anything” (37) and “It didn’t matter to me” (37). Once again Mersault does not find an interest in any aspect of life. He does not wish to delve deeper into an issue or even skim the surface of emotion. Perhaps Mersault is depressed by his mother’s death and will later realize that death is inevitable. This recognition of fate could turn Mersault into an absurd hero because he would finally realize that there is no meaning to life; therefore, he can cheat the system that decides his fate.