Albert Camus is a writer who is categorized as a philosopher of existentialism. I mostly read Camus, because I was attracted to the idea that the world is absurd, which doesn't need to be taken too seriously, I agreed that I read his book, "The Stranger", for some reason I felt disgusted.
To be honest, Camus' writing style and novels are generally excellent, as literature. but his idea of hating God, which was exemplified by Mersault (the main character) made me not understand.
Some of the novels do show how gray life is. yes, some people or even everyone experiences the same thing as Meursault, for example, sometimes some good people become friends with bad people, and end up being "guilty" people. but some of what is written in stranger makes me angry and disgusted.
How flat and "empty" Mersault soul is and there is no effort or ambition in him to do anything, his boring static life, even though his relationship with his lover is fine, and he has few friends who are less than good in society. Maybe that's what made him say that life is all the same, a life not worth living. Because there is nothing that is the reason for living, there is nothing that he gives to others, although there is, in the end, it leads to the guillotine, very tragic.
Mersault allowed himself to be too free. The freedom that kept him imprisoned and the prison that made him imagine his freedom. Mersault as a person who has no grip on life, because every day he doesn't know what to do (and it's very sad because most of us often do: don't know what to do). Then why should he be angry with God?
Is it true that humans themselves have to change their fate but without a hand from God?
Not only the idea of God that he discusses, but in The Stranger he also highlights the paradoxical human life, both liking and hating an object, which is exemplified by his neighbor who torments dogs and then loses his dog and misses beating the dog he hates the most. absurd.
This book is not suitable for consumption for teenagers, even for adults (personally) it is a bit too "hard". the writing of the idea is too harsh, and well, because this is good literature, even though the idea is about disgusting (see the paradoxical effect of this existentialism sucks).
Without being pretentious, there can be no contradiction between man and God. However, humans are still creatures. If Karl Marx said that religion is opium, it is true, and it is good as long as it is done right.
Because of these various paradoxes, sometimes everything gets confused with one another, so a specific meaning of one thing turns out to be important. Overgeneralizing something without learning the basics will become chaotic.
So efforts to improve the human self are still carried out by themselves by continuing to move, study (specifications), interpret, and implement. It is not easy indeed, even nature and process take a lifetime.
Then, what do you think about the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus? Are you also angry with the character Mersault? Or do you agree with him?
