Existentialism is most evident in The Stranger, while Meursault is in prison. During Meursault's time in prison, he experiences a time of boredom and loneliness. A time unlike Meursault's life in the free world. While incarcerated, Meursault has nothing but time to contemplate life and try to assert a deeper meaning for existence.
Before being locked up, Meursault was independent but he was too influenced by his surroundings and didn't live life with much purpose. Meursault was only focused on remaining honest and truthful with everyone in his life, but he had no deeper reason to care about life. Part of living life with meaning, is a person's ability to be consumed by a topic or a person. Meursault never seems to deeply care about the people that are close to him, he just seems to have respect for them. Meursault is incapable of delivering his own opinion and remains indifferent to almost every one of his decisions.
It is not until Meursault is incarcerated that he recognizes an importance in life after the court hearing. It is after Meursault is sentenced to death, that Meursault starts to live his life in fear of his inevitable death. While he is waiting for his call to death, he can only sleep at specific times in the day and becomes consumed by the idea of being dead. At this point Meursault starts to evaluate the importance of those who were close to him and finally understands why Maman took to a new man as she was nearing death. By the time of his execution, Meursault can only hope for there to be a large hateful crowd to be present at his execution.
It was not until this time that Meursault could finally experience some personal growth and begin to understand the importance of those around them. It took the looming execution for him to find a reason to do more than just exist in his life. In the end, Meursault was able to take some responsibility for his life.
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