Nothing, Nothing Mattered

What does it mean to be human according to

The Stranger?

To consider what it means to be human is to also consider if being human involves being tied to a higher purpose.  Can one temper the violence and desolation of the human condition without a meaning in life, a calling greater than the urge to merely survive?  If one has no purpose, is he truly more comparable to the animals than to other humans?

In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault seems to live off the philosophy that existence has no “true meaning,” with “true meaning” representing some sort of absolute truth or purpose than humans were created for.  Although many religions argue for the existence of an absolute truth and a greater purpose in life, is the knowledge of a greater purpose in life necessary for survival as humanity?  If humans do not subscribe to one of the many religions seeking to offer answers and consolation, then must they create their own greater purpose to survive?

Meursault seems to defy the argument that humans need a greater purpose to live.  Meursault is undefined by religious, political or societal views that offer a greater purpose in life, believing they are unnecessary to survive this chaotic existence.  Instead, Meursault looks to the small things in life for joy and himself for the answers to questions that trouble many others—if he even bothers to answer them.  Rather than finding himself tied up in questions such as, what is the meaning of life?  is there absolute morality?  do I have a greater purpose?  Meursault lives his life apart from confusion.  He simply lives.

When Meursault says, “Nothing, nothing mattered and I knew why,” he is not a depressed cynic with a bleak worldview.  He is a man at peace with his imminent death.  Meursault realizes that nothing matters because he is a small player on a large stage, because his life will be over and very few will remember him, because his life was comprised of small joys and not great ambitions.  But rather than mourning that he does not have a greater purpose in life, he accepts it calmly as simply a reality.

I propose that according to The Stranger, one does not need a greater purpose in life, an absolute sense of meaning, but rather the ability to find joy is the small things of the world.  The Stranger, in fact, seems to be a novel more about perception than about meaning.  One lawyer comments during Meursault’s trial that “everything is true and nothing is true.”  This proposal of the absence of absolute truth reflects an idea similar to the belief Meursault seems to hold: that nothing is right and nothing is wrong, it’s your perception that makes it right or wrong to you.  Meursault even seems to take this idea to the point of being amoral (although I think it is fair to say here that Meursault seems to sacrifice some of his humanity when he murders the Arab, in the context of Shelley’s definition “overcoming vice with virtue.”)

The Austrian existentialist Victor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, wrote in A Man’s Search For Meaning that meaning is not given or created, but rather “detected.”  Meursault does not seem to believe in absolute meaning and does not seem to need absolute meaning to retain a degree of humanity, but he does seem to want some meaning.  However, rather than subscribing to any number of philosophies that promise meaning, Meursault detects that meaning all around him in the small things.

“I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn’t mine anymore, but one in which I’d found the simplest and most lasting joys: the smells, of summer, the part of town I loved, a certain evening sky, Marie’s dresses and the way she laughed.”

I propose that to be human does not require absolute meaning, but rather that one detects some level of meaning around them.  The meaning found in religion, in politics, or in social activism is no more necessary for humanity than the meaning in summertime, in the sea or in the sun.  To be human, one must detect the meaning place around them, for meaning can be found in one thing or many things, or any combination of things.  To be human, one must only find a degree of meaning that allows them to find joy in the chaos of the human condition.