Death: The Hardest Question in Life

In life, we have to face so many questions (some simple, some complex) on a daily basis. What do I order at my favorite restaurant? What do I want to write about for English? What university do I want to attend? The most complex, perhaps frightening one is what death means and what a transient life means. Flight by Sherman Alexie and The Stranger by Albert Camus have different approaches to what it means to have a fulfilled life. How both books relate to “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope shows the discrepancy. “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope is a poem in which the narrator celebrates seclusion from other humans, enjoys only what his habit has to offer him, and expresses his wishes of dying in solitude, unremembered.

Humans are social beings (without supportive, loving relationships life can be quite bleak), and many people, if not most, think that establishing relationships and connections is an essential part of having a meaningful life. Zits and Mersault do not conform to societal expectations. Zits is a rebellious half Native American, half Irish orphan who often purposefully gets himself in trouble. Mersault is successful in the sense that he has a job, fiancé, house, but lacks empathy, which people around him (including me, the reader) find off putting. However, there is a key difference in their loneliness. Zits is afraid of meeting new people while Mersault is content in being alone (yes, he seems to like Marie, but more her body than her as a person). An “Ode on Solitude” represents both facets of loneliness. For Zits, an “Ode on Solitude” represents the façade he tries to maintain. For example, he trust and looks up to Officer David, but constantly pushes him away. He wants to seem like he does not need other people like the narrator of “Ode on Solitude,” but he craves human connections with trustworthy, loving people because of the void his parents left. For Mersault, on the other hand, an “Ode on Solitude” embodies his attitude towards relationships. Even the most important people in his life, like his fiancé, are replaceable to him. The ending of The Stranger, especially, shows Mersault’s indifference, even aversion, to developing connections. He “… had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of [his] execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” Not only does he turn away from those who care about him, such as Marie, he wants them to turn away from him too.

Another aspect of a “successful life” is finding purpose and identity in life, to be able to answer the questions, “What do I live for?,” “Why do I want to do what I want to do?,” and “How do I achieve my goals?” This is why choosing an occupation is such a weighty decision for most. One’s occupation helps define one’s place and value in society, or at least assures them that they are needed in society. We are asked even in preschool “what we want to be when we grow up” (I  have wanted to be a ballerina, animal rescuer, artist, journalist, even architect in the past). In the beginning of Flight, Zits is confused about his cultural identity without a family and knowledge about its past. Throughout his body shifting, he has many experiences that help him develop an identity. In the beginning, he does not have the nurturing environment that the narrator of “Ode on Solitude” has. The narrator of “Ode on Solitude” is “content to breathe his native air,/In his own ground./Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,/Whose flocks supply him with attire,/Whose trees in summer yield him shade,/In winter fire.” The narrator finds happiness and a sense of belonging in his domain. Zits eventually finds the same feeling of acceptance from his adoptive family and comfort with his own identity. These same lines can be interpreted differently for The Stranger. For Mersault, self definition is arbitrary, and he is “content to breathe his native air,/In his own ground.” For Mersault, this extends beyond the physical boundaries of his town, or “ground.” He is unconcerned about improvement and is perfectly content in his current occupation, where he lives, even how he takes care of his mother. He turns down a job offer, which could allow him to meet new people, get another promotion, and generate the income necessarily to potentially take his mother out of the care home. He “can unconcernedly find/Hours, days, and years slide soft away,” spending away day after day stuck in his routine.

The most difficult truth about life that people have to confront is that it has to end eventually. When measuring success, many assess the value of their lives from the perspective of death. Questions such as “What have I accomplished?” or “How many lives have I influenced?” or “Will people remember me?” stem from pondering how to make the most out of life before death. Zits and Mersault face death in different ways. By living through the mistakes of people in the past, Zits realizes the value of human life. He starts to understand what may drive one to end one’s own life and how wrong it is to take another’s life. Zit’s journey in Flight shows that death is not easy. It is universal and inevitable, but it is presented as almost sacred in Flight because it binds humanity together. This contradicts “Ode on Solitude,” which presents death as something that can go completely unnoticed: “Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;/ Thus unlamented let me die.” In the same way, Mersault embraces existentialism and absurdism more fiercely in the face of death. Unlike other prisoners who turn to religion to cope with their death sentence, Mersault rejects the idea of an afterlife and turns to nihilism. He does not have any last pleas and does not make any attempts to get his sentences revised. Rather, he finds solace in that no matter what comes between birth and death, everyone is faced with the same ending, and that this is the ultimate truth. His last wishes is parallel to that in “Ode on Solitude,” in which the narrator wants to “Steal from the world, and not a stone/Tell where [he lies].” Both Mersault and the narrator of “Ode on Solitude” view death as ordinary and undeserving of commemoration.

The value of life and eminence of death is a question that every individual has to grapple with. As Flight by Sherman Alexie and The Stranger by Albert Camus show, we are constantly brought together by similar viewpoints (like how nihilists, absurdists, existentialists have found each other) or pushed apart by differences as we seek to address these questions. What is clear through how both relate to “Ode on Solitude” is that no matter how we choose to confront life's truths (whether it is finding purpose in ambition or routine, believing in the gift of life or nihilism), we all have a choice in being alone or with company.

Two Truths and a Lie: Albert Camus

 Albert Camus began his writing career as a journalist, and moved on to writing essays, novels, and plays. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, and is know for his philosophical ideas as well as his writing. Throughout the years, Camus has been given many labels, but not all of them are evident in his writing. His novel, The Stranger, tells the story of an insouciant man who shows no emotions and has no cares. His name is Mersault. He loses his mother, shoots a man five times, and is sentenced to death, but his mindset never changes. He remains a carefree absurdist and adherent nihilist. Camus reveals his own philosophical ideas of absurdism and nihilism, and reproaches existentialism through Mersault.

Between his lack of response to his mother’s death, and his insouciant attitude towards life and his relationship, Mersault’s character reveals Camus’s absurdist views. After returning from his mother’s funeral, at which he sat like an emotionless statue, and resuming his boring daily routine, Mersault remarked “Really, nothing in my life had changed” (Camus 22). Life is chaotic, and death is inevitable. Maman’s death does not change anything in Mersault’s life because her life was purposeless in his mind. Just like his life is purposeless, and the universe is purposeless. A short time after Maman’s death, Marie, Mersault’s girlfriend, asks him to marry her. Mersault consents , and when Marie questions his answer, he answers thusly:  “I explained that it had no importance really, but, if it would give her pleasure, we could get married right away” (Camus 55). Like his mother’s death, marriage holds no significance in Mersault’s mind. Mersault views his agreement to marry Marie without loving her as a simple solution that will please his girlfriend, not as a decision that will have any impact on his life. Perhaps he thinks that a happy wife means a happy life or perhaps he just doesn’t give a damn about what happens to him because life is absurd. This “I don’t give a damn” attitude is what Camus uses to acknowledge his absurdist views.

           Mersault’s out of character outburst towards the Chaplain’s suggestions of religious salvation explains another philosophical idea of Camus’s-- Nihilism. As the chaplain tries to convince Mersault of a need for religion in a time of execution, Mersault shows emotion for the first time. He describes his passionate outburst as so: “Then, I don’t know how it was, but something seemed to break inside me, and I started yelling at the top of my voice. I hurled insults at him, I told him not to waste his rotten prayers on me; it was better to burn than to disappear” (Camus 103). Mersault is insulted by the chaplain’s persistent demands of conversion because he believes in the meaninglessness of life and rejects all religious principals. As his rant continues, Mersault explains: “Nothing, nothing had the least importance and I knew quite well why. He, too, knew why. From the dark horizon of my future a sort of slow, persistent breeze had been blowing toward me, all my life, from the years that were to come” (Camus 104). As well as denouncing the idea of a God and purpose in life, Mersault concludes that his fate was sealed long before his mother died, or he shot the Arab. His belief in his predetermined path makes him the opposite of an existentialist. Camus’s anti-existentialist views are made clear in Mersault’s final moments.       

           Of course, Camus is not the only absurdist, nihilist author in the world. The poet James Tate also explores the concepts of absurdism and nihilism through the beliefs and actions of a character. In one of Tate’s poems, “The Cowboy,” the narrator comes in contact with an extraterrestrial with extreme absurdist qualities. The extraterrestrial arrives, a bond is formed, plans are made, and suddenly he says, “I Just received word. I’m going to die tonight. It’s really a joyous occasion, and I hope you’ll help me celebrate by watching The Magnificent Seven” (Tate). One minute he is set on seeing a cowboy, and the next minute he is content with dying without seeing one. He’s content with giving up the thing that would make him the happiest and  delighted to die. His acceptance of his death, determined by an unknown source, is a true example of the acceptance of absurdism. In another of Tate’s poems a vagabond, a symbol of nihilism, attacks a minister, a symbol of religion. As the vagabond attacks him, “The minister reels under the weight of his thumbs, the vagabond seems to have jutted into his kernel, disturbed his terminal core. Slowly, and with trifling dignity, the minister removes from his lapel his last campaign button: Don’t Mess with Raymond, New Hampshire” (Tate). The vagabond’s creation of chaos and assault of a religious leader displays Tate’s nihilistic views as the extraterrestrial displays his absurdist views. 

Absurdism, nihilism and existentialism are not solely ideas of Camus or Tate, or even writers and poets as a whole. These ideas are found in countless songs, movies, TV shows, and in the minds of many. Seinfeld, Office Space, and Catch-22 are three examples of Absurdism in TV, movies, and in literature. Absurdist and nihilist and existentialist perspectives are found in people everywhere and are manifested in all forms of art. As far as I'm concerned Camus is not an existentialist but is both an absurdist and nihilist; and his work is like a complex and meaningful game of two truths and a lie.