April: Existentialism

The main philosophy behind the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus is existentialism. The idea behind existentialism is that the only meaning in life is whatever meaning we as human beings give it. It sounds like a depressing concept, but in reality humanity is ignorant to the true workings of the universe. We tend to follow religion and morals blindly without knowing if they even have a meaning, or if things just happen because they happen. The protagonist ,Meursault, perfectly exemplifies this belief. Instead of putting a label on every little relationship or event that happens to him, he simply accepts things for what they are. To Meursault there is no right or wrong there is just what is. As a society we tend to forget this. We want to find meaning in anything and everything to prove that there is meaning to life. We want to know what happens to us after we die. We want to know that if we lived a good and meaningful life we will be rewarded after we die. We are afraid of being pointless. However in contrast to the existentialism philosopher I do believe there is a greater meaning for why we are here. I believe that if there was no meaning to our lives than we would not be aware of our own existence and we would not question things we don't understand. If there was no meaning in life shouldn't we all have the same mind set as Meursault?