Need a proper way to live? Mersault has one!

Okay okay okay, so I finished the book and...

Drum roll please.

*Drum roll*

I liked it!

*Drum roll turns into crashing of cymbals and high hats. This goes on for about 20 seconds before I yell for it to cease*

But as much as I enjoyed it, it had raised many questions in my mind. Mostly concerning the proper way to live or the possible ways to live rather. Before this book, I never considered it possible to look at everything indifferently. Now I can certainly see how one is able to do this. Towards the end of the book, Mersault seems to directly link his indifferent perspective of the world with the indifferent world itself. He talked about "The gentle indifference of the world" and how it made him "happy again." If you ask me, that's the only way to live. Find a connection through something and live with it. Mines is writing or basketball. If you ever had a conversation with me, you know I will refer to those things at least three times each. It doesn't matter if the conversation is 24 seconds long (NBA REFERENCE! The shot clock is 24 seconds! Okay, I'll stop now).

Now look back throughout The Stranger. Has Mersault not constantly found comfort or reliance in connecting everything back to his surroundings? I mean, it's the reason he killed a guy. Would I kill someone for writing or basketball? Pssh...maybe! But that's aside from the point. Now I forgot what my point was -_-.

There is no "proper" way to live. That would be only slightly ridiculous. Our human nature is to make our own pure and imperfect connections to something and...not live through it but to find comfort in it. Something we can identify with. I mean...that can be a "proper" way to live in itself. Kind of. But there is no "proper" connection. Then we would be robots and our status as the human race would be nothing but a label. It is with this that we are the most advanced species on earth. Not the technology! Not the thumbs! THIS!

I was going to end it there but I came back for more because my brain is just oozing with these thoughts of the right way to live. Mersault reminds me a lot of Wes Bentley's character of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty (my favorite film in case you're ever taking some Brandon Sanders trivia). In American Beauty, Fitts appreciates nature and his surrounds just as much as Mersault. He constantly records his surroundings and at one point admits that, "There is so much beauty in the world, I feel like i can't take it. Like my heart is just going to cave in." Sound familiar? I thought it would.

At another point in the film, Fitts nonchalantly offers to his next door neighbor that he'll kill his father. NONCHALANTLY. Some would argue that he's joking but I don't think that's clear since he's always so indifferent and emotionless.

Gee, that reminds me of someone...

Point being, I think I kind of love this book now. It caused me to address a question that I thought had a blatantly obvious answer. I was wrong. It made me realize how I live and how I want to live. Where I can find happiness and where comfort lies. But most of all, Mersault reminds me a lot of one of my favorite characters of all time in Ricky Fitts. So thank you Albert Camus for creating Mersault. More importantly, thank you Sam Mendes for creating Ricky Fitts. In fact, I want everyone to call me Rick Fitts from now on.

...In fact, don't do that.