In The Stranger by Albert Camus: the protagonist, Meursault, appears to be indifferent to everything throughout the book. Even on fundamentally important concepts such as death, love, and time. Because to Meursault, “we’re all going to die, it’s obvious that when and how doesn’t matter (2.5.114).” This general lack of interest is similar to the Universe because if the grand scheme of things, our lives, and our deaths mean nothing and would have no real impact on the future of the Universe. Our deaths turn meaningless over time, eventually love will fade away, and time will blur together to the point that 100 years will seem like a millisecond. And this is the embodiment of Nihilism.
The thought and process of dying and having the death of a
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No matter the strong pull of love though, Meursault escapes its grasps though his lack of empathy and basic human connections. This ideology is shared by those around Meursault: such as how Salamano lost his wife and “He hadn’t been happy with his wife, but he’d pretty much gotten used to her (1.5.44).” Meursault knows that love is only temporary and knows that love means nothing in life and cannot change anything: “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to (1.5.44).” He does accept that love is something tangible but understands that there is no significance to it, how it has no reason, and is not required for living. So, therefore, why should he care about this emotion if it serves no evolutionary purpose to help us thrive and grow in the universe? Like Meursault, the Universe is unforgiving and ignores feeling to continue the circle of …show more content…
Meursault knows that we have no impact on the future of the Universe as he knows that “Nothing, nothing mattered (2.4.121).” For time is always continuing where we do not, and this thought can affect people to their cores and “The utter pointlessness of whatever I was doing there seized me by the throat (2.4.105)” however Meursault decides to no longer carry the burden of having to prove his existence in time. Like water off a duck’s back, the desire to prove himself washes off and he is able to be comfortable with the fact that nothing truly matters overall, but in this specific time it may matter. He may think about “...when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered (5.41)” and may have been concerned at first but knew this meant nothing and his Nihilistic ideas took over once again. To Meursault “It was all the same (2.5.120)” and just like how everything is similar in the Universe so the Universe and Meursault mirror each other in their thoughts about how in this current moment in time, something will mean end up meaning
Nihilism is the rejection of all religious and moral principles and the belief that life is pointless. A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, is a novel in which Jefferson, a young, black plantation worker, is wrongfully sentenced to the death penalty. While in court, his lawyer calls him a “hog” and his godmother is very displeased with this. She makes Grant, a black teacher, visit Jefferson in jail and teach him a lesson to make him feel like a man before he dies, hence the name of the book. Ever since Jefferson has been in jail, he has lost all faith and does not believe he is is worth anything.
We are boats subject to the tides and currents of our emotions. Strong and powerful emotions have been the ignition fueling countless social movements as well as horrid tragedies. Emotions are as unpredictable as they are complex. Implementing Eleonore Stump’s analysis of love as well as the arguments for eliminating anger by Owen Flanagan and the Stoic philosophers, the new sentient robots should not be given the ability to experience human emotions because of their characteristics of destructiveness and unpredictability. Eleonore Stump argues that love is the desire for the objective good and union with the beloved.
She writes, "Moths, small and insignificant, die as we all must die: alone." This sentence serves as a reminder of the universality of death and the fact that, no matter how insignificant or unimportant we may feel in life, death will come for us all. In addition, Dillard uses imagery and metaphor to draw a contrast between the moth's brief and fragile life and the seemingly infinite and unchanging nature of the universe. She writes, "The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part."
What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him.
“Love led us on to one death” says Francesca (). She portrays herself as helpless and defenseless against the power of love. Furthermore, she says “love…swiftly kindled in the noble heart…still injures me” (). Her repeated usage of love shows that she believes that she did nothing wrong. Love is an implacable force and thus, it overpowered and seized her.
This relates back to the idea that he’s an emotionless person. Another example is the way he responds when his girlfriend proposes to him. Meursault responds to her by saying, “It didn’t make any difference to mean that we could if she wanted to”(41). He is agreeing to mary Marie despite his lack of emotional attachment to her. An example of
Introduction Fredrick Nietzsche, a German philosopher who came before such varied phenomena as Nazism and postmodernism supported the concepts of individualism, self-reliance, competition, and elitism (Scott, 2014). These are the three terms that sum up the motives for the ongoing controversy over his theories, and the result of Nietzsche questioning the theory of nihilism (Scott, 2014). Nihilism is the understanding the higher values that people and society have undervalued themselves, by which they have become insignificant and outdated. It is the loss of all importance, sense, and purpose (Moroney, 1986). Nihilism is a rational result of corruption, corruption is an inevitable fact of life.
Nietzsche wrote about some moralists and posits that they just accept their cultures’ morality and serve as its shield bearers rather than as rigorous critics. Nietzsche here specifies that his task is not simply to expose the psychological and historical contingencies that make for different moralities, but to question moralities for their objective functional value. According to Nietzsche, that a particular morality comes from an erroneous, mythical tradition does not by itself tell us that, that morality is worthless just because it has traditionally been falsely conceived. Similarly, the psychological ways that we form moral concepts does not invalidate their claims to objective value. Neither does showing the historical and cultural processes
Through literature, one can receive many valuable lessons that are continuously thought about and learned from. A piece of literature that continuously challenges me to think and consider the nature of life and death is the novel “The Stranger” by Albert Camus. This novel has received much controversy and criticism, and while many claim that the novel suggests that life meaningless because death is inevitable, I think the opposite. Through the characterization of Meursault, the author claims that life should be lived to the fullest; death can occur at any time and it is necessary to stop looking to find meaning in life and instead live spontaneously. It is not possible to plan the future or create a rational structure, and one must take life
In The Stranger, the crucifix appears to represent Christianity, a religion that Monsieur Meursault refuses to believe in or accept. Additionally, it represents rational beliefs that the magistrate attempts to thrust upon Meursault. He wants Meursault to accept God so that his sin will be forgiven. However, Meursault rejects the notion that his life have any significance or rational explanation.
Existentialism is a philosophy that invites us to find purpose and meaning in life by thinking independently and acting deliberately, without overt influence from social norms. This philosophy manifests in Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger in the strange character of Meursault, who defies many major social norms throughout the novel. He places no faith in justice or authority figures. He does not pretend to grieve for his dead mother.
The belief in nothing, the rejection of all values, moral principles and religions. The philosophy that all values are baseless and believing that life is meaningless, this is Nihilism. In Hamlet, there are three different kinds of nihilism that are shown; passive, active and ubermensch. Passive nihilism is when there is belief that there is no going further, its the end. Passive nihilism can be distinguished by rejection, death/suicide, and defeat.
A greater number of people see the world in twofold classes. They trust that there is either, an inborn good great that we should all comply, or there are no guidelines and life is pointless political agitation. Nihilism contends for a central way: we need inborn request, yet are characterized by our decisions, which implies that we should begin settling on more brilliant decisions by comprehension the truth in which we live more than the human social reality which we have used to supplant it in our brains (nihil, 2016) So what is nihilism?
In Camus’ novel, The Stranger, the main character Meursault depicts the absurd man and consequently shows the somewhat negative effect that has on a person. Throughout the novel Meursault is apathetic, detached, and a stranger to society. He embodies the meaninglessness of life through his indifference, he shows the atheistic aspect of absurdism, and indirectly lives by a quantity of experience. The beginning of the novel shows this acceptance and embracement of the absurd. The story starts with, “Maman died today.
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the main character Marlow relays his tale of an expedition to Africa. While Marlow describes his journey through darkness, Conrad parallels Marlow experience with that of the Europeans in Africa. The darkness, in this case, represents the unpredictability of not only Marlow’s journey into Africa, but also the effect of the Europeans entering and exploitation of African commodities, namely ivory. Marlow’s journey is also a journey into the criticism of his own culture and his exploration into the meaning of human existence. While in Africa Marlow’s external journey gradually shapes his internal expedition, in which he concludes that life has no meaning and thus society is clueless of this fact.