What Is The Meaning Behind The Stranger Ending?

Question

The protagonist's final moments in Albert Camus' novel feel oddly triumphant. Can someone break down the core absurdist philosophy reflected in that last line?

Jerome Navarro · Answer

Camus saw the end of Meursault’s journey as the final comment on the meaninglessness of life and that true freedom is found by absurding the search for justifications from the universe. His acceptance of death brought him a kind of peace before his execution as he had found a strange sort of freedom by rejecting all expectations the world had of him. In another vein of literature, books with ‘Stranger’ in the title are often diverse and vary greatly in theme, particularly in relation to alienation. A good example of this would be ‘The Stranger’s Baby’ and how the main mystery of the book unfolds from a bizarre and unexpected claim by a parent or relation to the main character and how this event causes the stranger to question every relationship in his life and search for answers and identity.

Liam · Answer

There is much power in the end to Meursault’s story as he doesn’t have some great realization. Instead, he simply ceases to resist. He was already alienated from society’s games and now he finds peace in being alone as an outsider. The stars, the salt in his mouth – all very concrete and immediate. None of it is metaphorical. He is just existing. Camus has done well in making us uncomfortable with the idea that honesty is more important than being in society.

Flynn · Answer

I return to The Stranger every so often. The ending of The Stranger has gotten more powerful each time I read it, maybe even in reverse proportion to Meursault’s growing affect. At first, I saw Meursault as aloof. But I’ve come to realize that in the end he has achieved a sort of revolutionary perception. His perception of the world is not that it is pointless, but that he is free to give it any meaning he chooses. The collapse of night sky onto Meursault in the cemetery is a wretched and beautiful image, of a universe recognizing a single speck of stardust. The trial scenes in The Stranger are so absurd and yet so real. The last line of the book, where Meursault opens himself to the world’s gentleness, gives me chills. It’s not a redemptive moment – it’s a reconciliatory one.

Jade · Answer

The ending of 'The Stranger' is one of the greatest depictions of absurdism and of existential freedom. The way Meursault can find peace in the “benign indifference of the universe” is the very Camus-like scream into the void, and find peace there. He is the opposite of despairing because he has found freedom in the only way possible: by rejecting all the societal constructs that try to give life meaning (religion, for instance, or pretending to feel things deeply) and finding meaninglessness to be liberating.

This really gets to me every time. The physical world, the heat, the stars in the sky, the sea – this is his only reality. And the trial scene before where Meursault is able to expose how so many people are just searching for stories to give meaning to their lives, and how he refuses to lie to save his own life (even in this sort of pseudo-legal-setting) – that that he’s able to see this and respond in such a sincere and unique way to it is just… The end isn’t nihilistic. It’s sort of hopeful, in a really raw and unflinching sort of way. If nothing matters, then we can just do whatever we want.

Delaney · Answer

Man, I was depressed for days after finishing this book. It was so cool how Meursault finally connected with something greater than himself in that last scene: the starry universe and its complete indifference to human existence. I read this in college, probably during my ‘I don’t care about rules’ phase of life, and Meursault’s search for meaning within meaningless actions really struck a chord with me. He wasn’t giving up on life or anything; he was coming to life. The ridiculous trial in which they tried Meursault for not displaying sufficient enough mourning for his mom at her funeral more than for actually murdering someone was so incredibly hypocritical and typical of how we judge people for not expressing sufficient emotions instead of how they act. It’s nice to see someone accept something for what it is in such a ridiculously, moronically judgmental society as ours, a kind of big finger to all that pseudo-morality.

Sunset Moth · Answer

Meditations on mortality: We know we’re going to die, but act as though we’re going to live forever. In Meursault’s case, his death sentence is a fact that he must come to terms with in the present. The entire meditation on death is a way for Meursault to come to terms with the knowledge that he’s going to die. And what does he learn from this? That knowing we’re going to die and nothing matters, the sensations, feelings and memories we have are even more real and vivid than they would otherwise be. The weight of mortality brings life into focus. When he says that he’s ‘ready to live it all again’, he isn’t saying that he wishes to come back to life in some form or another. Rather, he has come to terms with the finite nature of his life, complete with pain and pleasure. And it’s death that gives life its weight.

Abdullahi Fatimah · Answer

I have tried to represent the ending of the book and, in particular, Meursault’s final monologue, as a challenge to the reader. Just as the reader has tried to read Meursault in order to condemn him, Meursault in his final monologue tries to read the reader in order to justify himself. But he does not do this in a rational way. His justification is based upon his sensations: the stars, the smell of the grass, Marie’s smile. The meaning of the book is an epistemological one: how do we know another human being? The answer of the book is: we don’t know him or her completely. We are all strangers. And this ending attempts to leave the reader as estranged from Meursault’s peculiar joy as Meursault is himself. I hope that the ending will also make the reader aware of his or her desire for meaning, for a conclusion to a story, for morality.

Barbara Lee · Answer

The novel is a very structured thing. It begins with the death of his mother and ends with his own impending death. At the start he is a rather passive character drifting through life, whereas at the end of the novel he is a very active character in his own mind. He erupts into the confessional and asserts his own existence, and that is the completed journey of the novel of a man who says ‘Nothing matters’ and of a man who says ‘Nothing matters’ with a difference. That is between emptiness and fullness. The last words of the novel are of this fully realized character for the first and last time in the novel.

What Is The Meaning Behind The Stranger Ending?

8 Answers

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