While discussing existentialism for the first time I was very confused and frustrated. Lots of the things that I thought brought meaning to life were illusions in the eyes of existentialism.

While discussing existentialism for the first time, I was very confused and frustrated. Lots of the things that I thought brought meaning to life were illusions in the eyes of existentialism.

Existentialism defines life as absurd, and I do believe life can be wild and unpredictable, but not that friends and family don’t bring meaning to it. Existentialism overall is about living a life as an individual and for oneself.

In The Stranger, we can witness the philosophy of existentialism through the narrator’s perspective. Meursault, the narrator, lives his life as an individual and does things his way and when he wants too. The book focuses on Meursault’s outlook on life, and he realizes that it is about living, not for others, but yourself. Meursault finds meaning while sitting alone in his jail cell, which isn’t an exciting place to be, but he gets used to it.

As the book comes to an end, we see Meursault contemplating in his head about life. He is not thinking about others, but himself and the fate that was to become a reality. He was learning to exist, which brought happiness to him.

Overall after reflecting on the ideas of existentialism and The Stranger, I can grasp their purpose better. But I don’t think I can give up on the “illusions” that I believe brings meaning to my life. Everyone has a different way of seeing themselves in the world, but I think I can say my isn’t through existentialism, but others might so keep living on as an individual.

Existentialism is a complex philosophy. Due to the very nature of existentialism, to question one’s purpose and reject the conventional meanings people give to life, most would be led to believe that existentialism is simply a synonym for pessimism. Other existentialist philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, strengthen this stereotype that existentialism parallels nihilism. However, a common misunderstanding is that all existentialists believe in a life without meaning. While Albert Camus accepts that life is absurd, unlike other existentialists, he rejects complete hopelessness. Camus argues that one must accept that their life will not mean anything in the long run, that one’s actions will be ultimately futile and human life will always be absurd, but one must live on nonetheless. Even with this knowledge that the universe was not made for us, Camus still believed that life is worth enduring. The fact that you as an individual exists at all is meaningful on its own. We must acknowledge the absurdities of human existence, but to strive to be as happy and content as we possibly can anyway. As Camus writes in The Myth of Sisyphus, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”. After Sisyphus accepts the hopelessness of his situation, he embraces his burden and thus, it is no longer a punishment for him. Once you realize that there is no inherent meaning to life and that we do not truly have any particular purpose, only then can you become truly free to create your own meaning. When you really look deeper into the message behind Camus’s ideology, you’ll realize that it’s actually about being happy.

“Breathe, breathe in the air. Don’t be afraid to care. Leave, but don’t leave me. Look around and choose your own ground. For long you live and high you fly, and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry, and all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be.” These are the first stanzas of ‘Breathe (In the Air),’ the first song on Pink Floyd’s existential masterpiece, “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

A concept album is any album, particularly a rock album, featuring a cycle of songs expressing a theme or idea. “The Dark Side of the Moon,” often cited as one of the most important concept albums ever released, highlights the pressures of society which can ultimately drive someone mad.

While natural actions such as living and dying or simply breathing can have an effect on someones life, socially constructed “values” such as time and money are often falsely idolized and lack of these “values” can lead to even more pain and suffering.

In ‘Time,’ Pink Floyd provides a full explanation of what time is and the effects it can have on ordinary people. Like Meursault in Albert Camus’s “The Stranger,” sometimes people try to kill time whether out of boredom, depression, or hysteria. However, time moves in a way that it seems to get faster every day. So by killing time, Pink Floyd argues, you are essentially only killing yourself.

“Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way. The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say.”

Although completely instrumental, ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ is an exact compilation of a lifetime. Starting softly and slowly, a piano begins to play and eventually a woman joins with an unforgettable shrieking. The shrieking and piano playing start to ramp up, getting louder, representing hope in young life. Eventually the shrieking and piano slow down again, but more and more overtime, reflecting adulthood and eventually old age. With 12 seconds left in the song, the music completely stops. Death.

While arguably the most popular song on the album, ‘Money’ analyzes the greatest false idol to man, one which can either leave you in a strong state of power or leave you rotting in a back alley somewhere, money. Songwriter Roger Waters writes that people believe money can lead to happiness, maybe by buying a new car, a Lear jet, or a football team. Though he quickly refutes that assumption calling money a gas, a crime, and the root of all evil today.

Those who have money are seen as selfish and those who don’t are seen as greedy. People will do anything to acquire more money if they are in need and if unsuccessful, one’s life could be ruined, making one feel like a failure. And eventually, as Pink Floyd argues, that failure can turn into madness.

In ‘Brain Damage’ Pink Floyd illustrates the total downfall of man. After running out of time, money, and breathe, one is driven insane, shortly leading to them to the after life, or as Pink Floyd puts it, the dark side of the moon.

I do not understand why life gives life purpose. As soon as Mr. Heidkamp said that in class, I questioned it. How can life give life purpose?

We as humans value our lives because we know that one day they will end. In some cases, people who know they are dying soon adopt and Existentialist point of view. In an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a patient is diagnosed with lung cancer. After she is diagnosed, she realizes that she never really enjoyed life. She never smoked, drank, and always watched what she ate. Once she comes to this realization, she orders a dozen cakes to eat, shoplifts chocolate from the hospital gift shop, and gets drunk at a bar. She was motivated by death.

In the Percy Jackson book series, Percy is offered immortality by the gods at the end of the last book. To everyone’s surprise, he turns it down. He doesn’t want immortality because it would take away the value of life.

I think that death gives life meaning. Death motivates us to make the best use of our lives. If we never died, we would never value our life experiences because we would always be able to repeat them, and that does not seem like a life worth living to me.

All throughout Camus’ book, The Stranger, the main character Meursault has an outlook on life that stuns everyone he comes across, whether it be his girlfriend Marie or his lawyer when he is in prison. Despite how society views Meursault as a person, he refuses to change any of his beliefs, even when it ultimately leads to his death.

After reading the stranger, I began thinking of whether I have seen any examples of this kind of existentialism in other works. I was reminded of the movie Groundhog Day, where the main character, Phil Connors, is forced to repeat the same day over in a town that he mocks for celebrating Groundhog Day. Eventually after a while, Phil views time as a pointless construct that is just a repeated thing, day, and idea.

Further into the movie, Phil goes on to develop an existentialist point of view that is very similar to Meursault’s. He feels as if life itself is just repetitive, so as an individual he can do what he thinks. By the end of this movie though, Phil escapes the loop and finds love in a woman named Rita. This shift in the movie is what specifically contrasts with Meursault’s views on love and life. In The Stranger, Meursault simply just does not believe in loving Marie because it did not mean anything.

Although Phil Connors and Meursault have similar views at one point, they both end their stories going in two different directions, one being finding love through others and the other being that things like love and death are essentially meaningless.

*SPOILERS AHEAD!*

“The Good Place” is set in a world where your afterlife is calculated by a complex point system determining if you spend eternity in The Good Place or The Bad Place (or in one very rare case the Medium Place). The show begins with certain demon, Michael, creating a special and revolutionary way to torture people without them even knowing – making them believe they are in the Good Place, but secretly make them miserable.

The selfish Eleanor Shellstrop is made to believe she has been placed by mistake when she is told about an amazing life she never led. Indecisive ethics professor Chidi becomes the confidant of Eleanor, and thus put in a stressful moral dilemma. Over-privileged and attention seeking Tahani is tortured by mentions of her overshadowing sister, and Floridian Jason is placed in the afterlife of a monk who has vowed silence.

However, one problem arises in Michael’s scheme: all 4 characters become better people and uncover that they are not in fact in the Good Place in every single simulation he runs. Micheal begins to see that maybe something isn’t wrong with his model, perhaps something is wrong with the system itself. Meanwhile, his boss, Shawn, finds out that he has been failing to torture the humans, and threatens to take away Michael’s immortality in court.

When faced with the possibility of death, Michael begins to question everything he is doing with his existence, and then the meaning of life itself in a full blown Existential Crisis.

Searching for meaning is philosophical suicide. How does anyone do anything when you understand the fleeting nature of existence?

Micheal, “The Good Place,” S2E4: Existential Crisis

Chidi, the ethics professor, seized this opportunity to explain that, yes the world is absurd and meaningless, but now that you know that, you are free to do whatever you want in this world. You can break free of the constructs in your life and create a new meaning for your existence.

In the end, Michael decides that since in the afterlife, everytime without fail, each ‘bad’ person became a good one, than maybe it wasn’t something wrong with the people, but something wrong with Earth. Taking away the complexities of the world, actions do not harbor any hidden consequences. Explained below by Michael to The Judge:

Michael decides to commit his existence to changing the point system that is failing humanity in the afterlife. Thus, in this example, existentialism is not just a depressing realization that everything we think we know about life is meaningless, instead it is a means to reexamine what YOU want to do with your life, and not what society tells you to want. Existentialism allows Michael to be free from his constructed roll as a torturer, giving him a sense of true gratitude for his existence.

Throughout the unit of The Stranger and existentialism many of the characteristics that describe Meursault and other existentialists reminded me of George Bailey during some parts of the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The indifferent and almost numb feeling that Meursault has is the same feeling George Bailey had when everything was spiralling out of control and going downhill for him. While maybe not as serious as Meursault, George Bailey has had a similar feeling of existentialism it just manifested differently. George believes that he doesn’t matter and that his life doesn’t really affect anyone else’s. Meusault believes he is useful to some people but doesn’t really have feelings or relationships with anyone. Both characters are missing a piece that helps them give meaning to their lives. Each of them represent different levels of existentialism.

But the way they deal with it pans out in a completely different way. The entire novel, Meursault is describing things with very little connection. He refuses to see the importance or meaning to many things. One could go through most of the book without seeing much change in how he views the world. It is easy to infer that he has always lived his life with a high level of detachment. It isn’t till the very end when we finally see him express some sort of emotion. The fact that Meursault remained indifferent up until he was about to be executed shows how much of an existentialist he really was. George Bailey was a little less extreme. He didn’t always live a somewhat sociopathic life like Mersault, but he did have a rough patch where he was starting to believe that nothing mattered. The difference with George is that he had an angel come down and help him realize that his life did have a purpose and that there is something for him to believe in. Both had moments of indifference which ultimately led them to a greater point realization.

The problem with existentialism in my mind is the idea that all life is that nothing matters except for the fact that life is innately valuable. I strongly disagree with this premise as there are gaping holes in such an argument. Surely the life of Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. has more value than the life of Osama Bin Laden, or any of the most recent school shooters. If life is deemed valuable for the sake of being a life there is no morality, and with out morals we are no different from animals.

Our yearn to build is what makes us human, and the need to do it together is what puts us above other species. It is the friendships and relationships we form over time that make life worth living, and it is existentialism that deems all of that worthless.