Libraire Gallimard Essay Example for Free

Libraire G allimard turn upWith people nowadays trying recall the meaning of their existence and the true way to give way, ace prat understand why there would be confusion among the members of society since there will, inevitably, exist differences and approaches on how to find the answers ace is looking for. Yet we go to forget the basics and focus on the outside, on the humanity and permit other people dictate how we be supposed to stand our lives and who we are supposed to be. I, on the other hand, believe that existentialism is the only way to truly live ones life.To live is to hold the reigns and refuse to let other people define how you must act. Quoting one of the passages from the book by Albert Camus entitled The Stranger With death so near, Mother must have felt like soulfulness on the brink of shrivedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It wa s as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the firsttime, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that Id been happy, and that I was happy still. The agonist in the novel clearly demonstrates the basic idea of existentialismwhere man is free and is the author of his life and his decisions sponsor shape his destiny, personality and where his life will lead him a man who is free also asserts himself and does not conform and is against totality or the collectivity or any tendency to depersonalization. (Copleston 22). The protagonist, in the end, realized the indifference of the conception and accepted the feature that in the end, there is no meaning and letting ones compassionate (for how other people see him) control him entraps him in the label that is unhappy when in fact he wa s happy all along. With these tendencies, it is not surprising that individuals themselves forget how to live and concentrate on pleasing others by living by the terms that are imposed by other people.In the novel, The Stranger, the protagonist was on trial for the murder of a manwhat condemned him in the end was not the murder itself but for the fact that he refused to show remorse at his mothers wake, which is absurd. Yet, if we think about it, in principle, those situations tend to happen, from simple gossip of ordinary people to the accusations hurled by powerful figures in the government.People tend to model a definition of good or evil, what is socially acceptable and what is not the tendency is that people are trapped by these set definitions whereas in the total schema of things, life and the world itself is meaningless. There is no real definition since definition itself is manmade. In the end, the protagonist realized that he was happy and he was free despite the fact tha t other people have defined him as a heartless manslayer and an indifferent son.Most of us tend to take into consideration how other people see us how we fit in our society and refuse to be ostracized and be different example is the wake of the protagonists mother in the novel. In a wake of a loved one, one is expect to show remorse. If one fails to do so, one is automatically branded negatively. If one would let go of these cares and live life according to their definition, one can be happier and can truly live.What is happiness or universe alive for us will and must be defined by none other than ourselves for if we let other people set the standards for happiness and living, it is not our happiness and life but theirs. Of course, one must never see existentialism as an excuse to murder a man or commit a wrongone should always remember that even if existentialists would live life by their own definitions, these people are still principled people and answer to themselves.Works Cit edCamus, Albert. The Stranger. France Libraire Gallimard, 1943. Copleston, F. C. Existentialism. Philosophy Vol. 23, (1948) 19-37.