Essay Comparing Change in The Stranger and Nausea :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing Change in The Stranger and Nausea Existentialists mean that we cant rationalize, since we cant explain human fear, anguish, and pain. To rationalize is absurd, because in the final analysis, we will find nothing. Life is absurd. This leads to the term Nothingness. Thus, since we cant find a meaning of life more than what we attempt to create by ourselves, we anguish. brisk in the same era, Camus and Sartre individually helped to form the school of existentialism. Of course on that point were others Kierkegaard, Heidegger, etc. But I have chosen Camus and Sartre because of the closeness in the publication of their first novels. Camus produce his first novel, The Stranger, in 1942, while Sartre published his first novel, Nausea, in 1938. I am interested in the representation they look at change in The Stranger and Nausea. In The Stranger, the chief(prenominal) character is Mersault. His mother dies and he travels to her home for the burial. The day after the funeral , Mersault gets together with a woman, Marie. He becomes friends with Raymond, a neighbor. Raymond is having an argument with some Arabs. Mersault is then pulled into the difference of opinion between Raymond and the Arabs. Finally, on a sunny afternoon at the beach, Mersault kills mavin of the Arabs, even though he really has nothing against him. Mersault is put on trial and sentenced to death. Nausea is the journal of Antoine Roquentin Nausea is the resulting disorientation Roquentin feels from having his existence revealed. by a self analysis, Roquentin discovers that his existence is meaningless. He has been living for the past terce years in the French town of Bouville and is working on a history book. Mersault is characterized by an indifference to change. At one time, Mersault gets an invitation to move to capital of France by his boss, but he declines. Mersault says that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn t dissatisfied with mine at all. (Camus, p. 41) Mersault is content with what he got. He has his work, his home and his girl its all he needs. He lives, interchangeable Roquentin, in solitude, reflecting upon the actions of others. But he never gets involved since it doesnt matter to him. He neither feels happy nor sad. It is as if all emotions were drained from his body.