First off, lets define existentialism. According to dictionary.com existentialism is "a philosophical attitude...that stresses the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her choices." Throughout Albert Camus's novel The Stranger, his main character Meursault demonstrates a present only, attitude of living. Meursault's mother dies, and after attending the burial and returning to his home, instead of mourning he simply thinks "It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed."(pg. 26). The past or future not once crosses his mind. The audience would expect to read about a depressed character, when in fact that character makes a bigger deal about it being a Sunday, then about his Maman's death.
While his philosophical view may hold his feelings back and lack of interest in new environments, it also provides Meursault with the life of a curious "adventurer". For example, one night Meursault was dinning at Celeste's. As he was eating a strange women asked if she could sit with him. He watched eagerly watched her every move. After dinner he decided the lady intrigued him and he watched the women put her jacket on and leave. "I didn't have anything to do, so i left to and followed her for a while."(pg. 43). This decision was made on the spot much like all his other ones. Meursault never really thinks through what he is going to do on a specific day. He just does what he feels like in the order that the opportunities come.
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