The Stranger

At the end of the Stranger, Meursault is faces death without fear. Explain how he is able to do this without belief in an afterlife.

Unlike most of us, Meursault does not live for anything. He exists, not controlling and altering his environments and the people around him, but being completely determined and defined by them. When he faces his own death and is confronted by the chaplain's persistent attempts to get Meursault to engage in external, constructed value systems, a transformation occurs in Meursault, allowing him to exert his subjectivity. Meursault's violent cry demonstrates his rejection of the evil that cleric represents and his ability to accept death without the crutch of meaning that the chaplain offers.

Initially, Meursault does not engage in self-reflection, living only for physical sensations. He spends a day sitting on his balcony, doing nothing, not even willing to go out and buy food, just watching and experiencing the people walking beneath his window. Diction in parts of the book where we are told what he is thinking is short and conscience, contrasting the longer, vivid passages about what he is experiencing, the imagery of the book. He has no need to justify his life to himself, so he does not create meaning though religion or other prescribed methods of living. Beside his mother's coffin, he fails to take part in the rituals which would impart meaning to her life because he does not understand the desire to give meaning to life, smoking instead of paying respect to the dead.

His lack of reflection also results in him being defined by other people. In the first part of the book, he has no will, no subjectivity, just existing and passing though life. When Marie asks if he loves her, if he will marry her, he consents because he is not able to examine his own feelings and determine his feelings towards her. Similarly, he agrees to be Raymond's friend because he can't think of any reason not too.

When he goes to jail, he is deprived of physical sensations, forcing him to engage his own mind. At first, his reflection is limited reminiscing on his previous sensations, remarking that that one day of life would be enough to link about for a hundred years. This state of contemplation could continue indefinitely, he has his memories, and he is able to pass though the days. For the majority of the time he is in prison, he does just that, sitting in his cell, doing nothing, waiting for time to move on.

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