The novel "The Stranger" by Albert Camus is one of the most important and popular of his works. It has a direct connection with the philosophy of existentialism and the absurd like most of the works of the author. The writer once again demonstrates the human and social relationships, as well as the internal conflict of the man himself by the example of the protagonist's life and feelings. The problem of the story touches upon many issues, but one of the main problems is the existence of God. The life of the protagonist Meursault is the way to truth and repentance. That is, the presence of God is in serious doubt because of the details of the plot and the main internal conflict of the character. The problem of existence and faith is revealed in the end of the work, after the character's resignation to the inevitability of his death. The analysis of the plot details makes it clear that a human is not able to find God and to know the truth, even though he is able to repent under the conditions of existential and absurd existence.
Summary and Perspective of the Novel. The storyline and the composition of "The Stranger" are linear. The story consists of two parts: during the first part, the Frenchman Meursault, who lives in Algeria, receives the news of his mother's death and comes to the funeral. The protagonist passes the next day in Algiers with a woman named Marie, who becomes his girlfriend. Meursault's neighbor-souteneur Raymond invites him and Marie to spend a weekend on the beach, but on the way to the beach they notice that they are watched by the Arabs, one of whom is a brother of Raymond's former lover. The skirmish between the Arabs and Meursault's friends ends in nothing. After some time, the character sees one of the Arabs on the beach of and kills him. The second part consists in the prolonged Meursault's court action that lasts 11 months, which results in his capital sentence.
Despite the simple plot, the idea of the author is very deep. What matters is not the story line, but the reaction of the protagonist to what is happening around, or rather, the lack of any reaction. Camus draws a person who does not experience the traditional, accepted in society emotions: "Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure" (Camus 1). He does not cry at his mother's funeral, he does not care about Marie's proposal, he does not feel anything at the time of the murder: "When leaving, I very nearly held out my hand and said, “Good-by”; just in time I remembered that I’d killed a man" (Camus 40). The trial of the protagonist seems dreary and lengthy; however, he does not pay attention to what is happening. The story has two levels of meaning, i.e. social and metaphysical. The first level is the reality and the response of others. The second level is cut off from the real component; it reveals the inner world of Meursault. This is the starting point of the analysis of the problem of God's existence. The actions of the protagonist are penetrated with existential romanticism. Meursault is an outcast in society, his actions cause confusion and are censured. For example, even his counsel for the defense describes him, saying, "we cannot blame a man for lacking what it was never in his power to acquire. Especially when this lack of every decent instinct is such as that of the man before you, a menace to society." (Camus 63). Neither the jury, nor the judge, nor Marie understand Meursault. Only Raymond creates a visibility of understanding and friendship, however, in the end, he does not care about Meursault.
Another component of the romantic image is the character's actions are driven by the power of nature. He is the only one who likes to look at the sky: "I had the sky full in my eyes, all blue and gold" (Camus 14). Even murder seemingly directs the scorching sun that shines in the time on the beach: "Then everything began to reel before my eyes, <>, while the sky cracked in two, from end to end, and a great sheet of flame poured down through the rift" (Camus 38). The author's style is very vivid in this novel. The text is a mixture of description and narration in the past tense in the first person singular. The main character succinctly lists all that he did, without making a difference between drinking a cup of coffee, going to the cinema, and the murder. All Meursault's actions are soaked with the air of absurd - his actions and his inner world are absurd. The jury's arguments are filled with absurdity too: ultimately, the main argument in favor of the death penalty is that Meursault did not cry at the funeral of his mother: "after being charged with murder, he were executed because he didn’t weep at his mother’s funeral" (Camus 75).
The climax of the story is the last night in the chamber where the main character leaves indifference. Meursault is torn and he suffers from the nightmares. He feels the desire to relive it all over again: he opens the soul to the world and realizes that the world is the same as he is: " It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, <>, for the first time, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe" (Camus 75-76). The protagonist is indifferent to the world, as the world is indifferent to him. Meursault feels lonely and sees his calmness only in one thing: "on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration" (Camus 76). Thus, the novel "The Stranger" fully manifests the existential absurdist views and ideas of Camus. Interestingly, the author does not condemn the actions of the protagonist. Censure is the inheritance of the traditional society, the absurdity of which is shown in the story. These main problems of the plot can directly guide to the main issue of the existence of God.
The Problem of the Existence of God in the Novel. Camus' work has a clear connection with such phenomena as faith, religion, and the existence of God, this is indicated by the protagonist rethinking of his life. If one considers the behavior of the individual characters of the novel, the analysis of the problem of God's existence becomes more reliable, because the author laid the meaning of faith in almost all his characters. It is necessary to start with an analysis of the behavior and personality of the magistrate who conducted Meursault's case. The magistrate's behavior clearly indicates his highly excited state. Camus confirms this himself, describing the magistrate the following way: "he believed in God, and that even the worst of sinners could obtain forgiveness of Him. But first he must repent, and become like a little child, with a simple, trustful heart, open to conviction" (Camus 43). Such a strange magistrate's role represents a line of a preacher, priest, suggesting that the magistrate is driven not so much by professional motives as by a deep personal need in this case. Camus text allows making the assumption that the issue of religion and faith in God properties are extremely important for the investigator by some deeply personal reasons. That is why the magistrate asks the accused if he believes in God, but when he receives a negative answer, he becomes angry and say: "all men believe in God, even those who reject Him. Of this he was absolutely sure; if ever he came to doubt it, his life would lose all meaning" (Camus 43). An extremely anxious and stressed-emotional state of the magistrate indicates that the questions asked by Meursault are largely addressed to him. The investigator wants to hear from the accused that he believes in God and trusts him, that there is a natural thought if he believes in God himself?
Therefore, the man for whom this question has been settled, who firmly and unequivocally believes in God, does not look for a reinforcement of his faith in another person so desperately: "while I was talking, he thrust the crucifix again just under my nose and shouted: “I, anyhow, am a Christian. And I pray Him to forgive you for your sins" (Camus 44). The existence of God and His participation in human destiny is an axiom requiring no proof for the believer. Camus describes the investigator in the state of a personal crisis when faith in God has become, in fact, his only support, the only salvation in life. Camus writes nothing about the magistrate's identity, circumstances of his life; this character appears in the pages of the novel only fleetingly, gives a very emotionally intense fragment, and disappears. At the same time, one can say that the magistrate's identity and behavior give the image of a deep understanding of the essence of faith and the existence of God.
Therefore, the author considers the question about the meaning of life to be the most urgent question of all, and of course, the issue is directly related to the existence of God. A person addresses the world in an effort to understand the meaning of his or her life. However, the Meursault looks at the nature, the more aware he becomes about its difference from himself and its indifference to his concerns. This situation can be seen by considering the life of the protagonist, who has a fairly close relationship with nature, constantly turning his attention to it: "Now, in the full glare of the morning sun, with everything shimmering in the heat haze, there was something inhuman, discouraging, about this landscape" (Camus 11). The Indifference and initial hostility of the world do not allow people to understand things. If the ideal of understanding is not feasible, then the world itself can be characterized as irrational. Trying to escape from the despair, people look for spiritual support for hope and find it in God by using the mind.
However, such searches represent the absurdity and apogee of illusions, payment for which is "metaphysical suicide," i.e. a renunciation of mind. Therefore, having realized the indifference and silence of the world, and having lost faith in God, an "absurd" man comes to the conclusion that only he or she can be the source of all values and the only judge. This self-determination expresses freedom, which nobody can take away, and which makes him/her a God. This freedom expresses "human truth" and gives meaning to human life. Hence, a person's task is to learn how to live in the absurd, the meaninglessness of all human endeavors and moral guiding lines. One should pay a particular attention to the words permanent denial. Here lies an indispensable requirement of the absence of any kind of hope, i.e. hope that can give meaning to human life. And even if a person is always and everywhere conscious of the absurdity of life, he/she still hopes about the eternal life, about the reunion with the One or God, therefore, the absurd dies. In this case, the hope is perceived as self-deception, as human reluctance to accept the obvious, albeit very difficult truth: "And his voice was quite steady when he said: “Have you no hope at all? Do you really think that when you die you die outright, and nothing remains?” I said: “Yes.”" (Camus 72-73). The only real knowledge of true human of absurdity comes down to the fact that there is no place for hope in the framework of consciousness. The whole life of a stranger, Meursault, is held under the sign of hope of denial. Meursault is different from other people in the real world, as he lives his real life and he does not need anything else. When the priest asks Meursault how he perceives the eternal life, he answers: "I had no luck; I’d never seen it, and now I’d given up trying. Indeed, I’d never seen anything “taking form,” as he called it, against those gray walls" (Camus 73). According to Meursault, the afterlife should consist of memories of life on earth, and it is a crucial description of the protagonist. Rejection of hope is seen as the most difficult conditions of the absurd. In this case, hope can be perceived as a departure in the transcendental or the acceptance of the incomprehensible and contradictory God.
Camus contrasts his absurd image of human traditional and modern philosophical-anthropological, moral, religious designs, ideas about human nature. In this work, Camus concluded audacious claim that he can come to the true nature of man closer than it was possible to other researchers. Nevertheless, "an absurd man" has too specific philosophical structure. Its creation in the work of the writer turns into a continuous debate. First, it is being waged against the religious approach to man, as well as against the teachings, imposing man outside moral norms - according to the requirements of society, the precepts of religion, etc. Absurd person is ready to admit that there is only one morality, which is not separate from God: it is imposed on him from above morality. But the absurd person lives just without this god.
Albert Camus World described the world of an absurd man as something tough and strong. This is a man who does not believe in God, Divine Providence, and God's grace. This person does not believe in future, being deprived of hopes and illusions. The sense of the absurdity waits for an "outsider" at every corner. The reason is that the natural world and a person always contain something irreducible to knowledge. Boredom brings a human out of the rut of routine, monotonous life. It pushes people to understand that it is necessary to carry out the load of a dreary life on their own shoulders. Boredom is the result of an afterthought life, but it also drives the mind. Boredom awakens it and provokes further: thus, unconscious returns to a routine or a final awakening is coming. Therefore, there are some consequences after this awakening: it can be either a suicide or a restoration of life course. Boredom becomes almost the protagonist and in Camus' work. It is depicted so vividly, so skillfully that the way from the true "metaphysical" boredom to suicide does not seem an exaggeration. The writer reveals the deep, existentially inextricable link between the "strangeness" of the world, its "primitive hostility," between the exclusion of other people, the loss of faith in God and moral values: "What difference could they make to me, the deaths of others, or a mother’s love, or his God?" (Camus 75). Camus examines the question of a rebellion as well. In the context of this book, rebellion is the protagonist's uprising against his person and the inheritance of the whole universe. This rebellion is metaphysical, since it contests the final end of a man and the universe. The value of metaphysical rebellion is great. This rebellion does not infringe on the elimination of God. Camus traces the stages of metaphysical rebellion gradually with the emergence of the trends of the "equalization" of a man and God: "I’d been right, I was still right, I was always right. I’d passed my life in a certain way, and I might have passed it in a different way, if I’d felt like it. I’d acted thus, and I hadn’t acted otherwise" (Camus 74).
Conclusions
The analysis of the novel "The Stranger" by Camus gives a complete understanding of the problem of God's existence. The plot is filled with elements of existentialism and absurdity, which are embodied in a vital position of the main and secondary characters. Meursault ignores the outside world, the events and the people in it throughout the story, and only at the very end, he is fully aware of his existence and the structure of the world. This Camus' character is a stranger not only to society, but also in relation to God. From this, it follows that there is no God for Meursault, because he cannot believe in His existence, though he is able to repent of all his sins.
Work Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York: Infobase Pub, 2011. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 27 March 2016.
