My AP Literature teacher posed a question to the class today. He said, “Now, if an 11th grade Honors English student came up to you and said that he read The Stranger, but didn’t know what it was all about, what would you say to him? Why is The Stranger important?” He gave us some time to think through our response, and then proceeded to call on Joel, a boy who will major in literature in college (he wants to be a writer). He proceeded to explain the events in the book in correlation to Camus’ existentialism, and upon fading in and out of the classroom mentally, there was one point Joel made that had me confused. He said that the protagonist had no meaning in the first part of the book, and in the second part, came to terms with his meaninglessness before his execution. There was mentioned a “resolution” and somewhere in his lengthy explanation some sort of final “meaning.” That, to me, didn’t add up. Philosophy is one big geometry proof with ideas, so all puzzles must make a whole somewhere.
Then Joel was done talking, and his friend Drew started talking, and then my teacher became very excited with all the points they made and things they said, but I was still confused. So I raised my hand and said, “I guess I still don’t understand. What I’m hearing from you is that in finding that life was meaningless, the protagonist found meaning.” I really wanted to understand what they all were saying about existentialism, but it really is so myopic and totally opposite of all I’ve ever known. So I was happy to get the 10 minute explanation from my teacher, all of which almost made sense, but fell just short. Through it all he became very excited but paused at the end when he said, “I’m getting the feeling that you still don’t get it. Am I right?” To which I said, “No…” And he continued again. This next part made perfect sense to me. He drew a stick figure on the board and said, “Let’s say this is you,” drew a big circle around me, “and this is the universe. According to previous thought, all these morals and ideals determine your decisions, whether they be by religion or spirituality or whatever.” He drew some arrows pointing down on my head to represent the causes of my decisions. “Now, in existentialism, there is none of that. It’s just you, and your own free will determines the decisions you make. There are no other people in this circle, see? It’s just you, and your actions in the face of eternity don’t matter.” He then proceeded to explain that The Stranger’s protagonist determined by himself, with no other factor influencing him, that killing the Arab was wrong.
I understood. “So,” I said, “in his resolution, he did recognize a moral system in the end.”
That made my teacher pause a little. He said, “You’re very good,” and tried to reexplain what he had already explained to me. So I helped him see what I was seeing. “I’m not saying that he recognized the murder of the Arab for religion’s sake, but that he did recognize a moral system.” To which my teacher replied, “I’m not so sure about a moral system, but a moral, yeah.” He then related his answer to a discussion we’d had earlier in the year in the difference of generosity of men: the man who is generous for generosity’s sake was more virtuous than the man who was generous to get a reward in heaven. I remember that discussion. It was between him, me, and a girl I used to sit next to. That one left me a little uneasy. His answer didn’t quite sit right with me, and I didn’t know why at the time, but now I do. Christians do charitable work because of the fluidity of God’s Spirit in our hearts, not because we want a prize in heaven. When God’s Spirit is able to move through our lives and hearts, all is transformed. We don’t do things out of selfishness, but because the Spirit has so worked in us that love acts are done unconsciously.
This whole portion took the rest of the class time. Towards the end, Drew seemed to pick up on what I was saying and took it a little further on his own track. I don’t remember what he said, but my teacher did say that my point was where existentialism gets “a little murky.”
Now, I want to say that this teacher happens to be a particular favorite of mine this year. I wouldn’t say that he’s trying to ram existentialism down our throats, but rather understand a philosophy. He is totally open to discussion and debate all the time, and he respects our principles and beliefs as he expects us to respect his. So I’m afraid, Babba, that I didn’t do a very good job giving him good representation in my last post. I don’t know if he does or doesn’t doubt himself, but he is a great teacher, and I am very happy to have had him this year.
2 Comments
May 2, 2009 at 6:33 am
This is a great proof of the Apostle Paul’s warning that “we are without excuse” because we are to “(love the Lord your God) with all your heart, MIND, and soul” and so “nothing can separate us (from his love)”, for “indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing.”
Even an existentialist, through the point you made, will eventually come to find a universal moral code, and thus saving grace.
May 2, 2009 at 11:45 am
Hannah, I’m in Washington D.C. the Vatican of Existentialism. I’m halfway through my first cup of coffee so I’ll try to make sense.
Looking for geometric proof in philosophy is like trying to find meaning in a Pauly Shore movie. People do what makes sense to them and what’s in their self-interest. They decide how they want to live and then shop around for a philosophy that validates what they believe. That is the appeal of existentialism. It doesn’t challenge a person, it doesn’t require anything. Hence, existentialism is a DIY (do it yourself) religion.
The pure existentialist will be reduced to one option, suicide. A person needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Without meaning all those people on the Washington beltway might as well be a hoard of ants exiting the ant hill.