Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 615

Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and

Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021)

Absurdism in “The Outsider”

Ruoqi Han
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University Hong Kong Baptist University United
International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong519087, China
htcxlhhrq123@163.com

ABSTRACT
Absurdism is a milestone in the history of philosophy. When it is studied, Albert Camus can’t avoid being mentioned,
who is a representative of Absurdism. Literature leads mankind to concretely experience abstract philosophy. Camus’s
literature is the specific manifestation of his Absurdism. Among all his works, “The Outsider” is the most recognized
one, in which the absurd world and characters are vividly depicted to show his contemplation about life and living.
Based on the analysis of “The Outsider”, this paper will discuss the core concept of Camus’s absurdism and how it is
revealed in “The Outsider”.

Keywords: Absurdism, absurd, revolt, fight, The Outsider

Table 1 Works of Camus by genre and cycle[8]

1. INTRODUCTION OF CAMUS
Year Pagan Biblical Novel Plays

Albert Camus was born in 1913 in French Algeria, myth motif

who spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood, where 1937- Sisyphus Alienatio The Caligula
the tolerant spirit had influenced him. In his whole life, 42 n, exile Stranger The
he contributed a lot to existentialist literature. Academia (L'Étranger) Misunderstan
generally categorized his works into “three cycles”. “The ding (Le
Outsider” analyzed in this paper belongs to the “first Malentendu)
cycle”, whose main topic is absurdity and 1943- Prometheu Rebellion The Plague The State of
meaninglessness[2]. In this period, Camus worked for the 52 s (La Peste) Siege (L'État
leftist newspaper—Alger républicain, in Paris. It was this de siège)
experience that provided him with lots of ideas to write The Just (Les
his “first cycle” of work. The real-life prototype of the Justes)
protagonist, Mersault, in “The Outsider”, was his senior 1952- Guilt, the The Fall ( La Adaptations
and friend in the Alger républicain. Soon after he began 58 fall; exile Chute) of The
his work in Alger républicain, the second world war & the Possessed
started to affect Paris, which greatly influenced Camus’s kingdom; (Dostoevsky);
philosophy. The second world war was a significant event John the Faulkner’s
in Camus’s life. He was in Paris when the Germans Baptist Requiem for a
invaded France during World War II in 1940. Camus tried Christ Nun
to flee but finally joined the French Resistance where he
served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed
newspaper. During the second world war, he finished his 1958- Nemesis The The First
“second cycle” works with the core concept—revolt. The Kingdom Man (Le
representative works in this cycle are “the Plague”, “the Premier
Rebel” and “the Just Assassins”. In the post-second world Homme)
war, his works of ”third cycle” came up, with the motif This table has summarized Camus’s works in his
of love, which includes “Nemesis”[8]. After the war, he whole life. From it, we can see that his philosophy had
was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the been improving, enriching and adjusting through all his
world.

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

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life. In this paper, only the absurdism in his earlier work, faith in others or some metaphysical things. From their
“ the Outsider” will be discussed. perspectives, reflections and questions of lives will bring
people confusion and anxiety. However, they play an
2. THE BACKGROUND OF CAMUS’S important role in awaking people.
ABSURDISM Though Camus and Sartre had reached some
agreements in existentialism, their definitions of the
The advent of Absurdism is based on the needs of the
concept “absurdity” and correct responses to absurdity,
time. It is a philosophy satisfying human’s demand to
are very different. In Sartre’s view, absurdity is a
answer the question, “how and why should I keep living”,
phenomenon and mental state. Sartre’s absurdity lies in
after the second world war. The second world war
the contradiction of the real world itself, as what he
destroyed the spiritual supports of people. Religious
depicted in his book “Nausea”[7]. Nevertheless, Camus
beliefs can not provide support strong enough to enable
stated that absurdity is a connection and conflict between
people to live in such a hopeless world.
humans and the world. For him, absurdity neither exists
Science and technology, which people were once in human nature nor in the world, which is created by the
proud of and saw as the result of reason, brought dreadful interaction between humans and the world. In the
havoc to people. The atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb comparison to these two perspectives, Camus’s absurdity
destroyed people’s lives and homelands. Consequently, theory is more unified.
the worship of reasoning, science and technology also
With different definitions of “absurdity”, the two
collapsed. Moreover, technological development began
philosophers chose different ways to respond to it. Sartre
to mechanizing people, reversed the relationship between
insisted on “freedom of chooses”. He held that even if the
people and machines to make people serve for
world is absurd and meaningless, humans can create
mechanized production and deprived their distinctive
meanings by themselves. Nothing can decide a man’s life
characteristics and personalities.
meaning except for himself. There is also no universal
All this above result in unprecedented loneliness, meaning or value of life, which can be applied to
emptiness and powerlessness among people in that everyone. Everybody has the equal right to decide what
period. In another word, facing such an absurd world, is meaningful and valuable to them. According to Sartre,
people gradually couldn’t find the meaning of their lives choosing one’s life meaning freely is the most effective
and felt vacuous and despairing day by day. A new way to live in the absurd world.
philosophy instead of religious belief, is desperately
As for Camus, when facing the absurd world, what
needed for people to rebuild their mental world and direct
one should do is to revolt. Not as active as Sartre’s
them on how to live. In such a background and under the
responding way, many protagonists created by Camus
requirements of times, the Absurdism was born. The
actually didn’t change their behaviors. However, the core
absurd philosophy, also called the Absurdism of Camus,
of Camus’s philosophy is that one should keep living
aims to answer the question that whether the hopeless life
after realizing the pessimistic reality. At this moment,
is worth living and how can we insist on living in such a
Although those protagonists hadn’t made any change,
life. The content of his philosophy can be divided into two
they successfully revolted the absurd world, which will
parts—The absurdity and how to respond to the
be analyzed later in this paper. But if being evaluated just
absurdity. In the following sections, these two concepts
in the aspect of acts, Camus’s philosophy about how to
will be further explained in the context of “The Outsider”.
live in the absurd world is more passive than Sartre’s.
3. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
4. THE ABSURDITY IN “THE OUTSIDER”
BETWEEN SARTRE’S AND CAMUS’S
PHILOSOPHY Absurdity is a feeling, a kind of emotion and
condition. Human has lots of expectations and demands
Sartre and Camus were both extraordinary of the world. They want certainty and order to make sure
existentialists in France. They were good friends at the they can live in a reasonable world. Rational human
beginning of their acquaintances, but finally became hopes to use their reasons to grasp their lives. However,
enemies in the academic field, due to their differences in the world is completely unreasonable. There are so many
existentialism. Before analyzing Camus’s philosophy in uncontrolled and absurd things in this world so that
his literature. The philosophies of Camus and Sartre will people can’t get what they want from the world.
be compared for a deeper understanding of existentialism.
In “The Outsider”, Camus’s masterwork, this kind of
In the philosophies of Sartre and Camus, the same absurdity is vividly shown through the plot. In this novel,
conclusion that the world is absurd and life is painful was a story once the protagonist, Mersault, read in an old
made. They both believed the world full of uncertainty newspaper was mentioned. The newspaper said a man
keeps making people anxious and depressed. Therefore, who left his hometown at an early age, came back with a
to escape from torments, people tend to put their hope and huge fortune. To surprise his mother and sister, he

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checked into their hotel without telling them his real All significant events that drove Mersault’s fate were
identity. However, what he never expected was being so absurd. He never planned to kill anyone. He met the
murdered by them for his money. After his real identity Arabian because of his friend, and then killed him
was unfolded, both his mother and sister suicided. His because he was affected by the dazzling sunshine. The
good motive finally brings an unpredictable tragedy. This reason why he was sentenced to death was that he
story clearly expresses the truth that the world is absurd remained dry-eyed at that funeral. What is behind this
and can never give people their wanting feedback. The absurd sentencing reason is people’s intention to believe
meaning and order they want are always inaccessible. in a certain value again, just like the religious beliefs of
People and the world are always in intensive conflict. The the investigating magistrate and the priest. People tend to
conflict between them gives birth to absurdity. comply with the certain moral value that humans should
be full of affection and always show them. Whether
Based on their demands, people tend to easily believe
crying at one’s mother’s funeral becomes the standard
some kinds of perspectives, values or rules, such as
they use to measure and assess others, instead of taking
religions, faithfully following them, even attaching
the matter on its merits. People always fall into the cycle
incomparable significance in those beliefs. Under this
of credulity, hardly get rid of it, and even use it to sanction
circumstance, if one day, these beliefs are proved
others.
untenable, false or useless, or even just are doubted,
People’s mental supports will face the danger of
collapsing and the anxiety will overwhelm them. At this 5. HOW TO RESPOND TO THE
moment, people will suddenly feel that the whole world ABSURDITY—REVOLT
and their lives are absurd, and then drown in the sense of
The core of Camus’s Absurdism is combat. Fighting
absurd. Though Camus had shown a more moderate
against absurdity is the only feasible way for people to
attitude toward religions in his later works, such as “the
live. How people fight against absurdity can be
Plague”, he still adopted a critical outlook of religions in
summarized into three parts.
his earlier work, “the Outsider”.
Such a sense of absurdity is also specifically reflected 5.1 See the reality, give up hope
in “The Outsider”. When Mersault first talked with his
investigating magistrate, he was asked to confess for In the view of existentialists, the main difference
God’s forgiveness. Mersault refused to do so and said that between men and other animals is that animals do not
he didn’t believe in God, which brought his investigating know they are bound to die, but men know they do[2]. A
magistrate great anxiety, since he insisted that everyone valuable virtue unique to humans is that they can see their
believes in God. If this belief was shaken and doubted by destined pessimistic fate, able to understand that mankind
himself, his life would lose all meaning and fall into makes no difference in the absurd world. The first step
complete absurdity. This typical example reveals how for fighting with absurdity is to face and admit it. When
people come to absurdity and implies the big threat of realizing the absurdity, people will find out that it is
people in the era when Camus lived, people’s religious meaningless to lie to themselves that there is still hope.
beliefs collapsed because of the war and their lives falling Hope is just a poison to deceive oneself. When reality is
into complete absurdity. At the end of the novel, the revealed, it will return its followers with an unbearable
reason that the priest wanted Mersault to confess to God toll. Mersault’s indifference to everything comes from his
wasn’t that Mersault needed it but the priest himself clear understanding of reality. At first, he still had some
needed it. illusions, hoping to escape from the prison, just like what
he said in the book.
Not only those details in books are manifesting the
absurdity of the world, but the whole plot of “The “Of a mad stamped to freedom that would anyhow
Outsider” aims to depict a complete absurd world and a give me a moment’s hope, the gambler’s last throw.
well-rounded absurd protagonist. The protagonist, Naturally, all that “hope” could come to was to be
Meursault, an office clerk in a company who seems like knocked down at the corner of a street or picked off by a
without any ambition or affection, was informed that his bullet in my back. But, all things considered, even this
mother died one day. He came to her funeral without luxury was forbidden me; I was caught in the rattrap
crying or any sad emotion. After the funeral, he kept on irrevocably.” The Outsiders, p.265.
with his normal life. One day his friend, Ramon, invited However, these hopes didn’t alleviate his pain but
him to the beach where Mersault killed an Arabian intensified it. It is abandoning hope that has solved
accidentally. In the subsequent endless court trials, Mersault’s pain and returned his passion of life again.
Mersault thought himself became the outsider of his case. Only when people don’t expect hope anymore, can they
At last, Mersault was sentenced to death because he gain real freedom. fight means one, realizing the
didn’t mourn at his mother’s funeral and seemed cold in absurdity and absolutely having no hope, still lives to the
his daily life. At the end of this novel, Mersault refused best of his or her ability.
to confess and eagerly waited for his death.

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Mersault and his mother had no hope in each other, fate endowed by power or the world, it is also a kind of
which allowed them to gain more freedom and choices. confrontation to accept this absurd fate and fight
By sending his mother to old people’s home, Mersault absurdity with enthusiasm for life.
didn’t need to bear heavy maintenance financial and time
The spirit Mersault got is exactly the same as that of
expenses, which would make his life stressful. His mother
Sisyphus. What under his seemingly cold behavior is his
also got the opportunity to make more friends in the old
incomparable love and passion for his life. He said he
people’s home, instead of spending all day in a small
didn’t love his girlfriend, Mary, and had no desire to get
house without communication, and even received the
married to her. However, he actually wanted to get
most precious gift, her loving “fiance”. All advantages of
this choice owing to the freedom drew by hopelessness. married to her, when seeing her talk with his friend’s
wife. When he saw her in prison and court, he always
Before being put to death, Mersault completely praised her beauty in his heart. Mersault can eliminate his
accepted his mortality, bravely facing the absurd reality boredom by recalling those objects in his room,
without any hope. remembering every detail of them, and even felt happy by
“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me doing this. He kept every happy moment in his heart,
clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky admitting that he loved this city and went through
spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the countless satisfying moments in his life.
first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the “I recognized, echoing in my tired brain, all the
universe.” The Outsider, p.297. characteristic sounds of a town I’d loved, and of a certain
In the last moment of his life, he still believed that he hour of the day which I had always particularly enjoyed.”
has always been happy. A great man can never be The Outsider, p.236.
destroyed while his life was destroyed by the absurd “Yes, this was the evening hour when — how long
world. Mersault used his spirit of never escaping, living ago it seemed! — I always felt so well content with life.”
in the moment and loving life to successfully prove that The Outsider, p.237.
one can live magnificently in a world of absurdity. He
fought against the world, embraced the world, and finally The cries of newspaper sellers, the singing of birds
conciliated with the world. and the sound of trams running, all these slight elements
always made him satisfied in the absurd world, enabling
him to claim that,
5.2 Refuse to suicide, live with passion
“To feel it (the world) so like myself, indeed, so
People generally have three attitudes toward brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy and that I
absurdity—suicide physically, suicide philosophically was happy still.” The Outsider, p.297.
and live passionately to fight against absurdity. Some
people can’t stand the absurdity, considering their lives 5.3 Live in the moment, believe in concrete
totally worthless, which makes them choose to end their things rather than metaphysics
lives. Under this circumstance, they surrender to the
Camus held that it is not possible to escape the
absurdity, completely deny themselves, and use the
absurdity with untenable beliefs, metaphysical things, nor
easiest way to perpetually escape from absurdity, which
with hopes, imaginations or illusions beyond human
is what Camus opposed.
control. What can actually help people to fight with the
Suicide philosophically is opposed by Camus as well. absurdity is to seize what they can at the moment. Living
Suicide philosophically means putting all hope on the in an absurd world, human will often live their lives on
religion and the other life, and believing that life is groundless imagination. However, the unreasonable
empty[3]. This attitude is clearly exemplified in the world can never realize their imagination. Consequently,
previous two examples of the magistrate and priest about it is wiser to devote oneself to concrete things rather than
religious beliefs. metaphysical things, focusing on the present rather than
the past or the future. Mersault didn’t mourn his dead
Different from the two negative attitudes, the attitude
advocated by Camus is to actively fight against the absurd mother, because he knew that was in the past and his
life, just as what Sisyphus did in “the Sisyphus Myth”. mourn couldn’t change anything. He always focused on
Undoubtedly, Sisyphus can never push the stone to the the present.
peak, having no chance to subvert the force forever. What When his boss offered him a bright prospect, he
he can only do is repeating his arduous work day by day. rejected without hesitation, claiming that life is the same
However, in such desperation, Sisyphus never considered wherever. His rejection wasn’t a manifestation of his
escaping from his work through suicide physically or unambitious personality, but a wise choice to not take
philosophically. He passionately embraced his work, comforts from metaphysical things or imaginations. The
using his strong and fearless spirits to fight against only life Mersault can imagine and expect is the life he
absurdity[4]. If it is impossible to overthrow the tragic lived in the moment. He rebelled at the priest’s pray

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because he knew the priest was not qualified. Compared [9] Yan, H. (2004) The significance of Sisyphus—a
with the priest who based himself on groundless religious review of Camus' existential philosophy. Journal of
beliefs and considered himself pretty sure of life, Guizhou University (Social Science Edition)., 05:
Mersault turned out to be the person who really seized his 28-31.
life, just as what he said:
[10] Zhang, R. (1989) Absurd life—a brief analysis of
“ Living as he did, like a corpse, he didn’t even be Camus's “the outsider”. Foreign Literature Review.,
sure of being alive. It might look as if my hands were 04: 52-57.
empty. Actually, I was sure of myself, sure about
everything, far surer than he; sure of my present life and [11] Zheng, G. Y. (2004) A study of Camus’s absurd
of the death that was coming.”[1]. philosophical though. Master Dissertation,
Southwest China Normal University.
Mersault never believed anything ambiguous or
metaphysical, which is also Camus’s attitude to the
absurd world.

6. CONCLUSION
As a literary work, “The Outsider” plays a good role
in showing the abstract Absurdism specifically and
arousing people’s resonance for it. This book also
established Camus’s incomparable position in the
literature world. The protagonist’s experience reflects the
absurdity of the world, and teaches people how to respond
to the absurdity at the same time. “The Outsider”
represents the generation in the war and their spiritual
needs. This work has eternal value, not only because it
satisfied the mental demand of people in war, but also the
Absurdism behind it reveals the essential state and
survival dilemma of humans all the time.

REFERENCES
[1] Camus, A. (2016) The Outsider. Tianjin People’s
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[2] Camus, A. (1946) The Stranger. Random House,
New York.
[3] Li, J. (2008) Camus’s philosophy of absurdity and
its literalization. Master Dissertation, Shangdong
University.
[4] Fang, L, H. (2010) A Brief analysis of Sartre’s
existentialsim. 13: 34-36.
[5] Feng, K. H., & Xu, L. Q. (2009) The absurd world
and the spirit of resistance—an analysis of Camus'
existentialist works. Jiangxi Social Sciences., 08:
127-129.
[6] Li, Y. (2005) On Camus' concept of "absurdity".
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[7] Lu, Y. (2009) Comparison of Sartre’s and Camus’s
Philosophy View, 06: 32-34.
[8] Sharpe, M. (2015) Camus, Philosophe: To Return to
our Beginnings. Brill Academic Publisher, Leiden.

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