George and Meursault: Two Peas in A Pod

The Stranger by Albert Camus is a widely recognized existentialist novel written in 1942. Then in 1989, the first episode of Jerry Seinfeld's and Larry David's sitcom Seinfeld. However, it is not as widely recognized how evident existentialism is in the script. The Stranger and Seinfeld both explore existentialism through their characters actions and thoughts.
The Stranger, is narrated by M. Merusault, a young man who lives in Algiers, Algeria in the 1940's. When the story begins his mother has just died, but he does not feel excessive amounts of sadness or despair despite the fact that he cared about her; he views her and her death as an excuse, "I asked my boss for two days off and there was no way he was going to refuse me with an excuse like that." Someone is mourning would not be as concerned with work as Meursault seemed to be. This shows that Meursault could be an existentialist because he merely says things as they happen; no one thing is more important than another. This can be seen in Seinfeld as well. George Constanza is short, chubby man in the show. He is often considered an existentialist because something important or concerning could be happening, and will seem to be indifferent and talk about something trivial. In the episode "The Alternate Side," he gets a temporary job parking cars. At the same time he is parking cars on the street his friend, Elaine, another main character, is with her older boyfriend and he faints. George comes into the apartment where Elaine and her unconscious boyfriend are and starts raving about how he his having trouble parking the cars. He does not even acknowledge the ill man lying on the couch right in front of him. This shows his existentialist nature because compared to the situation with Elaine's boyfriend, he is obsessing over a few cars he has to park in the street below. He is obsessing over something relatively trivial compared to the fact that someone close to his friend is in trouble. Similarly, Meursault does have any emotional connection to significant things happening around him. When he is talking about old Salamano and his dog, he simply describes the situation; he never expresses any emotion in his narration, "Then he beats the dog and swears at it. The dog cowers and trails behind." Not once does he ever say that he feels bad for the dog.
There may be no meaning to life. Everything that one does as a human being simply may not matter at all. With that being a possibility, maybe the human rave should go through life as George and Meursault do; just looking out for themselves, void of emotion. However, our human nature is to hope for the best, so as long as there is a possibility that life does matter, we will keep living our lives as if it does.