Another instance in which Meursault sees selfishness in societal norms is his unacceptability of others mourning the death of his mother. He does not see his mother's death as a loss because she lived a full life. Although it is cliche to state the belief that death should not issue to mourning of the loss of a person's life but the celebration of the life that person lived, Meursault takes it a step further and declares it selfish to feel anything over the death of another person. Mourning the death of someone else does not do anything for the person who died, only the person grieving. It is selfish to feel sorry for someone else's death because in reality you are sorry that they will not be in your life anymore, not because they died. The concept existentialism for Meursault lies in the selfishness of the lives of the people around him.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Selfishness in The Stranger
Not only is Meursault a representation of existentialism, he is a rejection of the selfishness that plagues the human race. Meursault repeatedly displays his indifference with to the things everyone else in the world gives meaning to. Career success, family, love, justice, self-fulfillment, religion, sex. All things Meusault finds no meaning in. But, Meursault is not only disgusted with the fake sense of fulfillment that people feel when they satisfy these various parts of their life, he is disgusted with selfishness behind what people see as beneficial to others. He is repellent to the idea of marriage to Marie because he knows it will fulfill a societal pressure that gives no meaning to life. But, the fact that marriage is a mere social construct is not only what gives Meursault pause. It also the false sense of essence society gives to the idea of marriage. Not only is it the religion connotation behind the civil union that irritates Meursault, but also, it is the fake sense of completion people fill when they pledge their eternal life to another person. No one participates in a marriage because they think it will actually give meaning to their partner. They do it because they selfishly want to tick off the boxes that make them accepted in society.
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This is really interesting to me because I viewed Meursault the exact opposite way when I read the book - I saw him as extremely motivated by self-interest since his only pleasures are in the mundane, pleasurable tasks in his own life. I agree with you about how Meursault views the institution of marriage as meaningless and that he sees mourning as a waste of time. Your post makes me wonder: does Meursault actively reject selfishness or does he himself promote it with the fact that he's so focused on his physical needs?
ReplyDeleteOn one level I agree with your statement that Meursault is a rejection of selfishness, but at the same time, I feel like it might be a bit different. As Grace said, he certainly demonstrates a great deal of selfishness himself, which leads me to think that what he's actually rejecting is the illusion of selflessness. Let's think of a seemingly selfless act. Throwing yourself in front of a bus to save a kid. At a glance, seems selfless. You have nothing to gain, you help someone else. But if we really look at things closely, even this is selfish. Had you not saved the child, you would have felt guilty and regretted not saving the kid not because of any selflessness, but because of the guilt you feel. We always act selfishly to remove any feeling of guilt that we may feel, no matter how minor. If we act selfishly, we have merely deemed that the payoff is greater than the guilt punishment. When I look at Meursault, I see a man who does not bother to play into the illusion of selflessness. I see a man who realizes that the only thing he can be is selfish. After all, is selflessness not just another "system" created by society to try to distract us from the randomness of pain and death that existentialism supposed to reject?
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