Living in the present

Meursault's entire life was based on his present physical state. His mood and behaviour changed as the landscape and weather changed. He felt passion and emotion only when he thought of Marie in a sexual way. He felt everything was meaningless and devalued what society valued like marriage, religion, family, and even death. However, in spite of all this indifference, he was honest. He was honest to himself and to others. He said what he thought or felt even if it wouldn't help him. For example, when his lawyer tries to figure out a good defense for him by trying to defend him by saying Mersault was in shock of his mother's death, Mersault honestly said he wasn't and that his mother's death didn't really bother him. When the chaplain comes to his cell to talk to him about God, he feels it is unnecessary because everything he had done, he didn't regret. He had done everything honestly for himself. Unconsciously, his actions were meaningful only for him, but not for society. So he didn't feel guilty for the murder or not mourning for his mother's death. He says, "I had been right, I was still right, I was always right." Moursault had lived his life the way he wanted and so it didn't matter to him what anyone else believed or thought. However, the Chaplain believed religion is Truth and God is the truth. For this reason that the Chaplain didn't live by his own ideals just like Mersault, he wasn't sure the Chaplain "was alive, because he was living like a dead man" (120). Meursault says, "But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than I could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me" (120). After becoming so certain of his death, he acquires freedom, and happiness. The chaplain would never feel this way because he would have hope to go to heaven and never live life to the fullest because of fear of God. In this way, we can see how Meursault rejects social institutions like religion as an interferrence to living in the present and attaining happiness.