Meursault and Kramer's affliction

Meursault, in Albert Camus's The Stranger, is similar to Kramer from season three, episode ten “The Alternate Side” of the popular TV show Seinfeld. Both characters words and actions create an impression of absurdism in the minds of the reader or viewer. Absurdism is when a person doesn’t believe there is a meaning to anything; however, participates in the events of life for their own fulfillment. With the absurdist view of life comes a selfish take on reality, people tend to worry about themselves and how events pertain to them then the overall problem. Kramer and Meursault are unique characters; however, their absurdist view on life makes them similar.

Events throughout both stories create the impression that Meursault and Kramer are absurdists in the reader or viewers mind. Meursault shows no sign of remorse after his mother has passed; instead, he comments on how tired he is and how he would like to take a nap. If is perfectly natural for Meursault that his “physical needs often got in the way of his feelings” (Camus 64). This take on life fully represents the absurdist mindset because of how selfish it is. Kramer, likewise, demonstrates a common attribute when Seinfeld’s car is stolen and instead of fretting the loss of Seinfeld’s car, he cares about the gloves that he left in the glove compartment. Both exhibit highly selfish attitudes towards life. Kramer and Meursault also exhibit indifference toward other peoples ideas or problems. Kramer demonstrates this when he barges into Seinfeld’s apartment after Owen Marks has had a stroke. Marks is lying on the couch and being transferred to a stretcher by paramedics and not once does Kramer comment on Marks condition, instead he speaks to George about his appalling ability to move cars and the offense woody allen had taken to it. Similar to the level of indifference of Kramer, Meursault's take on marriage is shocking, both to the reader and to the characters in the book. When Marie asks Meursault if he loves her, his response was no; however, when Marie asks if he would like to marry her his response was that marriage “didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married”(Camus 41) despite not loving her. To Kramer and Meursault ideas that are incredibly important to most people (like well being or marriage) do not mean as much, they choose to worry about themselves instead.

Kramer and Meursault are unique characters that demonstrate an absurdist attitude on life. Their actions are selfish and indifferent to the likes of other characters and events around them; however, they are still both highly functioning characters that participate in all the joys in life, for their own benefit. Although there are also many differences between the two stories, the absurdist tendencies of Kramer and Meursault is an irrefutable connection between Seinfeld and The Stranger.

Cyclical Circles

           Kandinsky’s abstract work of concentric circles perfectly captures the cycles of revenge highlighted in Alexie’s Flight. Death follows in the brutal wake of revenge. Throughout all his transformations, Zits becomes more enlightened about the importance of human life. He slowly begins to grasp the concept of revenge and comprehends the vicious cycle of murder and revenge. There are many parallels between the cycle explored in Flight and Kandinsky's art. 

          Every circle in the painting is different in its own unique way, as are the intricate never-ending revenge and death circles Zits discovers throughout the novel. His own cycle had to do with the death of his mother. Out for blood and under the false assumption that more casualties could bring his parents back, Zits shot up a bank full of innocent people. At first liberated, Zits in time regrets his decision as he experiences life as other men and witnesses their circles of death and revenge as his own. Kandinsky’s circles are similar in nature yet completely unrelated as are each of the cycles Zits lives through. 

            Circles have no clear beginning or end point. Whether a painting or murder for revenge, these circles are the same in their meaning. The circles continue to exist for all eternity unless an extreme effort is taken to break them. Circles are strong and difficult to break apart. It took everything in Zits’s power as Gus to destroy the lust for revenge in the elderly Indian hunter. Putting the thoughts of the old man aside and taking over control of his borrowed body, Zits was able to break the cycle and save a younger soldier and Indian boy. One circle in Kandinsky’s painting is blurred and almost unrecognizable. This circle correlates to Zits’s cycle as Gus. All the other circles remain unbroken and exist as if untouched in the painting and in the novel. 

Seinfeld and the Stranger?

The television show Seinfeld is rarely considered a philosophical work, but like more traditionally philosophical works like The Stranger by Albert Camus, Seinfeld subtly explores the absurdity and pointlessness of life.
In both The Stranger and Seinfeld, the main characters act absurdly. In The Stranger, Meursault, the main character, goes to his mother's funeral but feels nothing.

“As I was waking up, it came to me why my boss had seemed annoyed when I asked him for two days off: today is Saturday. I’d sort of forgotten, but as I was getting up, it came to me. And, naturally, my boss thought about the fact that I’d be getting four days’ vacation that way, including Sunday, and he couldn’t have been happy about that. But, in the first place, it isn’t my fault if they buried Maman yesterday instead of today” (38)

Less than twenty four hours after he has finished burying his mother in sweltering heat, the only thing on his mind is how his boss will react to his absence from work. This mannerism of Meursault's comes off as absurd, robotic, and distant. From the outsider's perspective he comes off as insane. He can't give an ounce of importance to the death of the person that raised him, but he is legitimately concerned about how his boss will react to his prolonged absence! In the Seinfeld episode “The Alternate Side”,the characters Elaine, Kramer, and Jerry Seinfeld are waiting for an ambulance, but rather than take care of the ailing man, they are discussing the unconscious man's eyebrows. The man is over 60 years old and he suffered a stroke while on a date with Elaine. At first the three friends try to treat him, but they soon give up and have a normal conversation as if nothing were wrong. When Seinfeld asks Elaine whether she ever considered telling the man about his eyebrows, she responds by saying along the lines of "I meant to, but after all it is a touchy subject." It is not just her response that is absurd, but the situation as a whole. In their place, the average pair of friends would either be panicking or at the very least, be maintaining some kind of decorum and respect. 

The meaning of life (or the lack thereof) is explored by Monsieur Pérez and George Costanza who both perform purposeless, pointless tasks in The Stranger and Seinfeld respectively. Monsieur Pérez is a minor character who was Maman's boyfriend. He joins Meursault and a couple others to go and bury Maman. “It was then that I noticed that Pérez had a slight limp. Little by little, the hearse was picking up speed and the old man was losing ground.” (33) The weather is torrid, the man is old, weary, and slightly crippled but he perseveres and joins them to bury Maman. Except he never fully joins them. Pérez works much harder than the others and takes numerous shortcuts to keep pace with the hearse, but every time he catches up, he falls behind again. There is no respite, and no fruit for his labor. Through Pérez, Camus paints life to be a miserable existence.  Similarly in “The Alternate Side”, George Costanza, one of Jerry's best friends, gets a seemingly easy job that guarantees him easy money but he ends up miserable too. He'll earn thousands of dollars from just parking cars, but it proves to be too much for him. He becomes extremely irritated and ends up costing Seinfeld thousands of dollars, disappointing his idol Woody Allen, and delaying the arrival of an ambulance.

Although characters in Seinfeld have absurd moments, it would be inaccurate to state that those characters are all modern day "Meursaults" because they can distinguish between right and wrong and have some sense of a moral compass.

Seinfeld and The Stranger (The Truth)

Albert Camus’s The Stranger and an episode of Seinfeld are as different as it gets for many people. However, they are also similar in many ways. During the Seinfeld episode Jerry and Elaine show how disconnected they are from society. Elaine’s boyfriend suffered a stroke. While Jerry and Elaine were waiting for an ambulance they were talking about Elaine’s boyfriend’s eyebrows. They were completely unaware of the fact that they should care about the man passed out on the couch. Meursault is also disconnected from society. Often he eats alone at Celeste’s restaurant and ponders life. “I smoked a couple of cigarettes, went inside to get a piece of chocolate, and went back to the window to eat it. Soon after that, the sky grew dark and I thought we were in for a summer storm. Gradually, though, it cleared up again. But the passing clouds had left a hint of rain hanging over the street, which made it look darker. I sat there for a long time and watched the sky.”

            In the Seinfeld episode George crashes Jerry’s car. He was not able to perform the simple task of driving a car across the street. In The Stranger, Raymond is not able to write a letter to his girlfriend.  “But Raymond told me he didn’t think he could write the kind of letter it would take and that he’d thought of asking me to write it for him. Since I didn’t say anything, he asked if I’d mind doing it right then and I said no.” In both cases characters have a disconnect from society because they cannot perform simple tasks.

            Jerry also has a disconnect from society. He did not realize that he was part of a community. When Elaine says she would be ostracized from the community Jerry does not realize that there is a community. Meursault realizes that there is a community, however he chooses not to be a part of it. Seinfeld and The Stranger have very little in common, however they both have characters that are disconnected from society.  

Absurdism In Media And Literature

Seinfeld and The Stranger, by Albert Camus, are similar in that they share the mutual theme of absurdism. Absurdism challenges the age old question, “what is the meaning of life”, and essentially defies it. It states that there is no inherent meaning to life, and that the act of trying to find meaning is absurd and contradictory in itself, and we as humans, have to realize that and live our lives on accepting that fact. This theme is relevant in Seinfeld, as the show is literally about nothing, and illustrates the endless and pointless nature of life. The main characters in Seinfeld seem to accept that life is void, yet they still go on with their lives, with no forward progression throughout the series. Similarly, in The Stranger, the main character, Meursault, goes through life with no real goals or ambitions, and lets the world come to him. Even when something as significant as his mother’s death occurs, he remains uncaring and detached. Exemplified when he states, “After the funeral, though, the case will be closed and everything will have more official feel to it” (Camus 2), Meursault shows his lack of emotion, and views the loss of his mother with the same impartial manner as with everything else in his life.

The Seinfeld episode, “The Alternate Side”, parallels The Stranger, as both demonstrate how absurdism is employed in the two works. In the episode, one of the main characters, Jerry, gets his car stolen by an unknown theft. Instead of being furiously or angry, Jerry responds by simply accepting that his car is gone and that he now needs a new one. In addition, Jerry’s friend, Kramer, is solely worried about his gloves that were left in the stolen car, disregarding entirely that his friends car was stolen. In another situation in the episode, Kramer explains to his friends that he was fired from his role in a movie after accidently impaling the director, ignoring the fact that he could have seriously injured him, because he was too focused wallowing over his own personal travesties. Meursault reacts to his mother’s death in a similar way, acknowledging that it occurred and still moves on from it. Meursault shows how impartial he is to the situation when he states during his mothers funeral,  “I knew I was going to go to bed and sleep for twelve hours” (Camus 45). He does not feel sadness or grief, as most would in such a traumatic situation, and instead focuses on the smaller, more frivolous things.

In both The Stranger and Seinfeld, a significant, life changing event ensues, yet all of the characters remain stagnant and unaffected. When Meursault’s mother dies, he embraces the fact and continues on living, just as Jerry does when his car is stolen. The characters responses to these situations encompass the essence of absurdism, in that life is pointless, and it is important to accept that and move on with life, for trying to find meaning in a meaningless world is conflicting and absurd in itself.

Lucifer the Stranger

Jackson Pollock's "Lucifer" is similar to The Stranger by Albert Camus because both of these works have hidden meaning. While Pollock's painting and Camus's novel may not be obviously similar, they both make whoever is experiencing the art think about what meaning is beneath the surface. Pollock's abstract style is distinct, and characterized by splatters. While making his paintings, Pollock would move around the canvas and brandish his brushes, doing a sort of dance. The movement and beauty in the creation of Pollock's art is not evident after one look at his painting. After a first glance, "Lucifer" looks like a hastily created mess. However, when examined more carefully, the observer realizes that there are many layers of paint. Some are splattered, some are drizzled, and the colors are different yet complementary.

The Stranger also has meaning beyond what Camus's words convey. For example, when Meursault and Raymond encounter the Arabs on the beach, Meursault observes that "the blazing sand" looks "red" to him now (Camus 106). Camus mentions nothing about Meursault's emotional state, or how he feels about the impending confrontation with the Arabs. However, the reader can infer that Meursault is riled up, since he is literally seeing red. Another example of Camus hiding a deeper meaning behind his words is when Meursault is deciding whether he should stay in the hot sun or climb the stairs up to the women. Eventually, Meursault proclaims that "to stay or to go" amounts to "the same thing" (Camus 112). While this statement may not seem like much, it is making a philosophical comment. Both of the choices lead to personal discomfort for Meursault, the only thing he desires to avoid. By saying that those two choices are the same thing because they will bring him discomfort, he takes a consideration for consequences and the feelings of others out of the picture. Meursault demonstrates what it means to be an existentialist, all without mentioning the word philosophy. 

While Pollock's "Lucifer" and Camus's The Stranger may be from two completely different genres, they are both masterful examples of hiding meaning beneath the surface of a work of art. When examined carefully, both works reveal another dimension of beauty and depth. 

Seinfeld and The Stranger: The Absurd

Albert Camus's The Stranger and the TV show Seinfeld are two very different mediums. One is a literary work written by an Albanian in the 1940s, while the other is a popular sitcom written by a comedian. Yet, despite their different settings and premises, these two stories both share a common theme of the philosophy of absurdism. Absurdism is the belief that human beings live life in a meaningless world, and that humans should accept that they are living in this meaningless world. Absurdly, humans should continue on living, and try to create their own meaning within the meaningless of life. This philosophy is explored several times within The Stranger and the Seinfeld episode titled “The Alternate Side”.

The Stranger begins with the death of Meursault's mother. “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything.” (Camus 16). These first words set the tone for the novel and show Meursault’s indifference to the world around him. For most people, this would be a highly traumatic event, but instead Meursault continues his life as if nothing ever happened. Meursault can be so nonchalant about his mother’s death because it has no significance to him, and nothing has changed in his life. In fact, Meursault finds the weather much more interesting than his mother’s funeral. For an absurdist, this would make perfect sense, because the loss of one life would not affect the universe as a whole, nor bring any meaning to one’s life. After forming a bond with Raymond, a man in a former abusive relationship, Meursault is put in a precarious situation in where Arabs attack him. These Arabs are the brothers of Raymond’s former mistress and hold quite a grudge against Raymond. In self-defense, Meursault is forced to fight back and shoot the man. However, even after realizing that the Arab is dead, Meursault shoots him four more times. “Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace.” Meursault’s reasons for shooting into a dead body are unclear, and seem to border on the absurd. There was no reason or rational explanation for Meursault to keep firing at the Arab, and this action emphasizes the meaningless of life.

In “The Alternate Side”, Jerry has his car stolen. Instead of becoming furious, Jerry has a rational conversation with the thief by calling him on the car phone. Jerry realizes that there is nothing he can do to make the thief return the car, and that there is no use in being angry with him. This situation in which Jerry is completely helpless showcases the futility and meaninglessness of life, and how there is no point in becoming angry over something that he cannot control. This is similar to Meursault’s nonchalant reaction towards his mother’s death, as in both cases, they are both powerless to change the situation, so they don’t let the situation change them. In both “The Alternate Side” and in The Stranger, absurdism is a major theme that brings these two stories together. For Meursault, the death of his mother hardly affects him, and he shot the Arab man repeatedly after he was already dead for no tangible reason. For Jerry, he does not even file a police report or get mad at the thief, instead having a civil conversation and telling him to keep the car safe.

The Stranger and Seinfeld-Similarities Between an Absurdist and a Comedy

 In The Stranger, Mersault does not befriend many people. Mersault is usually indifferent towards of the people he meets. An example of this is when Mersault meets Raymond. Raymond asks Mersault if Mersault would like to be friends with Raymond, but Mersault seemed pretty indifferent about it all. “I didn’t mind being his pal, and he seemed set on it”(Camus 69). It is clear that Mersault is agreeing to be friends with Raymond only because Raymond is dead set on it. Mersault would not be friends with Raymond if Mersault had to put in any effort. Although it may appear that Mersault only feels this way on a singular occasion; he does it again. “ I didn’t say anything, and he asked me again if I wanted to be pals. I said it was fine with me” (Camus 62-63). Mersault does not especially like meeting new people, as is clear when he avoids conversation on the train and when he thinks being someone’s friend is “fine.” However, Mersault is not alone in this feeling. Mersault shares this feeling towards people with Jerry and Elaine from Seinfeld. In the episode, titled “The Alternate Side,” Jerry tells his friend Elaine that he hates everybody. In addition to this, Elaine said that her boyfriend is “okay.” Elaine is indifferent about her boyfriend, and Jerry simply does not like people. This is incredibly similar to how Mersault is indifferent about becoming friends with Raymond, but for the most part despises meeting new people.

    Another connection between The Stranger and Seinfeld is in both stories a person accepts an offer to help an acquaintance, but the situation ends up turning into a mess. In The Stranger, Mersault accepts Raymond’s request to help write a letter to Raymond’s mistress. “ Since I didn’t say anything, he asked if I’d mind doing it right then and I said no” (Camus 68). Mersault ends up writing a well written letter to the mistress, but when the mistress returns there is an enormous conflict. Raymond hits his mistress, and then in return is hit by the police. Similar to this, in Seinfeld George decides to help park cars, but he ends up causing a commotion. He blocks the roads, and as a result the paramedics to not reach Owen in time. This causes Owen to suffer long term injuries. In both Seinfeld and The Stranger, the characters are only hoping to help, but they both end up causing long term injuries whether physical or mental.

    The final similarity that The Stranger and Seinfeld share is that in both cases a man in a relationship does not care much about the woman in the relationship, and essentially uses her for sex. In The Stranger, Mersault’s girlfriend (Marie) loves Mersault dearly, but Mersault does not have the same affection for Marie. “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” Once again, the reader is shown how Mersault is indifferent even when it comes to those closest to him. Marie is incredibly hurt by this, but decides not to show it. In Seinfeld, Owen admits that he was using Elaine for sex. Elaine acts like she does not care, but it is unclear how she truly feels about it. In both stories, the man does not value his relationship with his girlfriend, but decides to instead use her for sex. In addition to this, the woman in either of the two stories attempts to not show her discomfort, but may be emotionally and mentally hurting.  

Violent Euphoria

Violent Euphoria

The Relationship Between Albert Camus's The Stranger and Edvard Munch's The Scream

A sense of madness overtakes Meursault the moment before he becomes a murderer. With his hand on the trigger of his gun, Meursault's awareness of his surroundings heighten to the point that even the tiniest drop of sweat becomes a waterfall, and a single ray of sunlight becomes an inferno. And in that second that the bullet is fired, "It [seems] as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire” (Camus 69). Meursault's world is dyed blood-red as he "[knocks] four quick times on the door of unhappiness" (Camus 69).

Edvard Munch seeks to capture this moment of twisted rhapsody through his famed painting The Scream. There are four different versions of this composition, which depict an androgynous figure on a bridge with an anguished expression being approached by two shady figures from behind, all against a vivid red-orange sky that serves as a backdrop. Munch also hand-painted a poem onto the frame of the 1985 pastel version of The Scream, describing his inspiration for the painting:

“I was walking along the road with two Friends / the Sun was setting – The Sky turned a bloody red / And I felt a whiff of Melancholy – I stood / Still, deathly tired – over the blue-black / Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire / My Friends walked on – I remained behind / – shivering with Anxiety – I felt the great Scream in Nature – EM.”

Although there had been a sense of peace throughout the whole day, the insanity of the sun and the universe overtakes Meursault's sense of reason at the exact moment when he pulls the trigger, and, in a matter of seconds, Meursault breaks the harmony of reality. It is as if an infinite, blood-red shriek pierces through the air, stabbing into every existing being, and the world is frozen in a neverending, violent euphoria. Somewhere faraway, a man is screaming on a bridge, never to escape the instant that the illusion of peace is shattered.

So, what does 'The Scream' mean?

The Scream Wikipedia Page

The Perpetual Social Vortex

Since I was about six years of age, being social and interacting with other people somehow went astray from “the golden rule.” Some kids developed poor attitudes, others engaged in bullying for a variety of reasons, but for the most part the other pressures in life that begin to develop following kindergarden, like achieving hard marks in school, began to weigh on my colleagues and myself. Some people naturally had better tools as far as managing stress was concerned, but others coped with it in negative ways. It’s a fact of life. Often times, the poor attitudes, stress, and bad vibes that people impose on themselves and others, affect us individually. The advice that my father consistently and constantly gave me came from his father and it was “don’t get sucked into the vortex.” The meaning of this statement was pretty straightforward: don’t let peoples bad vibes and actions pull you into their bullshit, by staying out of the way. This quote relates directly to the Stranger and the season three episode of Seinfeld, as the negative actions of other characters (George and Raymond,) pull the main characters ( Meursault and Jerry,) into situations that they would otherwise have not been a part of.

In this episode of Seinfeld, there is a gentleman in the neighborhood who assumed an occupation in which he moved the other residents cars in order to keep them from receiving tickets. This gentleman decides to go on vacation and one of Jerry’s friends agrees to fill in for him in his absence. Long story short, his friend ends up crashing all of the cars as a result of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them. He also manages to delay an ambulance from reaching a man suffering from a stroke, and costs Jerry insurance money because he trusted him to drive his car. Jerry trusted his unorganized and inexperienced friend to park his car along along with 50 others, and as a result he lost money. He was sucked into the vortex that George had created by volunteering for such an arduous task, and as a result, Jerry ended up footing a few grand for damages to his car. In the Stranger, the main character Meursault befriends a man named Raymond. Raymond had an abusive relationship with a women who subsequently had violent Arab relatives. After forming a bond with Raymond, to the point that they vacation with one another on the beach, he is put in a precarious situation with said Arabs, that ends with him shooting one of them in self defense. The way that he describes himself committing the act is through another medium, when he states “the trigger gave.” Raymond’s past was as transparent to Meursault as it was checkered. By getting so deeply involved with Raymond, Meursault ended up taking another man's life, an action that he would not have committed had he stayed away from a risky friendship. He put himself in harms way by associating with a person whose life was in disarray and riddled with violence and unhealthy relationships. Prior to the murder, Meursault thought to himself, “The sun glinted off of Raymond’s gun as he handed it to me.” This quote is symbolic of the change that Meursault's association with Raymond changed his life. Raymond handed him the gun that was used to kill, just as the friendship that the two of them forged put Meursault in the situation in which committing murder was a necessity. Similarly. in Seinfeld, Jerry choosing to involve himself with George’s occupation of parking cars, ended with him owing thousands of dollars. In the Stranger, by developing a friendship with Raymond, Meursault committed murder. Both men allowed the actions of others to dictate their futures and consequences, and they were sucked into the vortex of the individuals they chose to associate with.

Human beings by nature are social creatures. In a perfect world, social interactions would not be dictated by stress and outside influences, but it’s a fact of life that they are. Often times, the decisions and social choices that we as people make determine our own futures. In the case of Meursault in A Stranger and Jerry in Seinfeld, both mens futures were affected by the actions of the people they chose to associate with. They were both sucked into their own respective vortexes.