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Meursault Existentialism Analysis

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As the invisible man’s journey begins, he is invited to an event with the most prominent white citizens of the city to make a speech. Once the invisible man attends he is asked to perform dreadful activities such as wrestling with other blacks and picking up money from an electrocuted floor just for the mere entertainment of the white folks- that ultimately find their his existence as frivolous; he cooperatively obeys their wishes, all the while in hopes that he will be able to deliver his speech. He completes that which is socially accepted from him, and accepts this himself without protest, oblivious to others and their outrageous expectation of him as a result of his skin color. The primary notion of Existentialism is that “Existence comes …show more content…

It is in these bizarre acts that the others deem Meursault a stranger. His disregard for social constructions presents the views of the existentialist philosophy. Love is known to be deception by existential theory due to one’s desire to have someone else love him or her. Also, as mentioned before, Meursault’s conviction in God’s nonexistence makes him detached not only concerning death, but also to love, morals (Meursault also befriends his neighbor, who is also thought to be a pimp by others), and other basic human conceptions. When new friend-the pimp- asks for his help to embarrass his ex-girlfriend, Meursault again with any consideration agrees to something that would have normally been thought of as insane, and does not contemplate that there may be consequences for this agreement. Without the presence of God, there is no real need to be morally correct and there is no way of knowing what truly is righteous in terms of ethics, as there is no other creed that dictates such. The first traces of the characters existentialist ideals soon become apparent though short-lived for the time being. Despite Meursault’s entire neglect for social consistencies and the invisible mans momentary protest against whites, they still remain ignorant when it comes to the matter of making decisions-the invisible man can have a mind of his own, Meursault can choose to take …show more content…

The apexes in their life are an example of another aspect existentialism touches upon, and that is the absurd. Meursault’s meaningless crime later appoints him a sentence of an inevitable death and the invisible man’s speech lands him underground for quite a while works to reveal the irrationality in our lives we are living in the world right now but for what reason and why at this time or at this place. Existentialists believed that to truly live you must have tackled this inevitable fact of irrationality of the world, now giving both characters a chance to actually comprehend how the world

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