The Stranger Journal #4

In the last chapter of The Stranger, Meursault has his final epiphany. "And I felt ready to live it all again too. As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself-so like a brother really-..." (122). Meursault here is opening himself, letting himself sink in that the gentle indifference of the world really is like him. The indifference of the world means that everybody else in the world doesn't pay much attention and does not care about the rest of it and thus will not react. For example, hundreds of thousands of people suffer from disease, war, malnutrition, etc. but really is anybody mourning about that right now? Obviously not. Meursault sees this and realizes and accepts the fact that its just almost like him, "Finding it so much like myself-so like a brother, really-I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again," (123). The world he sees now has always been indifferent, just like himself, and not caring so much as to other people's actions and what will become of them. An example of how Meursault portrays indifference, "They were announcing departures for a world that now and forever meant nothing to me," (122). The overall effect of this epiphany is that Camus wants to get the reader that, in the idea of existentialism, he wants to give up on the world, give up his caring, and has also become indifferent to the world, because of how he sees everything in his perspective.

Meursault's final epiphany connects to the idea of existentialism. It connects to existentialism because right before Meursault even has his epiphany, he has a physical and sensual experience, "Smells of the night, earth, and salt air were cooling my temples," (122). The idea of existentialism states that you rely on physical and sensual experiences as you move forwards in your life. The starting point of philosophical thinking has to start with these sensual feelings you experience through life. Since Meursault is considered to rely on and depend on his sensual experiences he reaches his epiphany at the end of the novel. This is purposely done by Camus to portray the fact that since Meursault relies on his physical encounters he is able to achieve his "philosophical" epiphany. Since the ideas of existentialism state that moral and scientific thinking alone cannot achieve this, it explains that Meursault never has curiosity or either the desire of knowing, which is almost a human instinct.