The Stranger #1

A common theme throughout The Stranger is the idea that life is meaningless. In the first couple chapters of the book, this is most prevalent in the relationship between Mersault and Marie. It is understood that Mersault and Marie had a previous relationship, but it did not work out. Since then, there appears to be no motivation for love on Mersault’s part, even though he enjoys Marie’s presence and the time he spends with her. When Mersault invites Marie over for lunch, she asks him if “[he] loved her” (35), to which he replied with, “I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (35). Less than a chapter later, she asks him if he would marry her, and using almost the same disinterested expression assures Marie that it would not “make any difference to [him] and that [they] could if she wanted to” (41). In his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus discusses the meaningless nature of life, and uses Mersault’s outlook on life to support that claim. The simple fact that Mersault has no interest in love or marriage means that he does not live his life to find passion or sustenance because he cannot find the point. The belief that life has no redeeming purpose coincides with Camus’ absurdist philosophy, and it appears that Mersault is just a proponent of this theory. Although this appears to be an awful outlook on life, the meaning and direction behind Camus’ argument is truly fulfilling and it will be interesting to see how the timeline of the novel plays out in the following chapters.