Existentialism is a philosophy that rejects man-made or conventional values or religious doctrine. An atheistic perspective, existentialism sees a Godless universe with no meaning or justice inherent in the world. Solomon and Higgins (279) maintain that existentialism views existence as "a sense of confrontation between ourselves and our demands for rationality and justice, on the one hand, and in 'indifferent universe' on the other." Existentialists often remained detached from life, whether it offers joys or tragedies, seeing little meaning in an unjust and meaningless universe in the face of man's mortality. Fewer descriptions could better describe Mersault, the main character in Albert Camus' "The Stranger." This analysis will use Mersault's attitudes, feelings and behaviors in "The Stranger" to illustrate various elements and attitudes of the philosophy of existentialism.
Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913 and died in an automobile accident on January 4, 1960. Camus lived in poverty as a child and lost his father to WWI. He was educated at the University of Algiers, where he contracted tuberculosis (Albert 1). This put an end to Camus participating in his favorite sport, football. Camus is typically associated with existentialism. With respect to his views on God, he once wrote, "I do not believe in God" (Albert 1). During his literary career, Camus was also associated with the "absurd," a condition similar to existentialism's worldview in that "His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality" (Albert 3). In his works, like The Stranger, Camus tried to demonstrate that "We cannot live with the paradox 'I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless'" (Albert 3). Camus died in a car crash in Sens, a vehicle driven by his publisher and friend Michel Gallimard, who also died in the accident. Camus was su...