The Stranger Blog Response #3

In today’s world reason seems to be the cause for almost everything, It sounds logical enough. Think about all the decisions you’ve ever made. They most likely had some sort of reasoning behind them, which is totally understandable. Society has shaped you to think this way. Why then do existentialists affirm that “Reason alone is an inadequate guide to living”? Mersault certainly does not rely on reason to tell him how to live his life. Through the whole novel we can see how Mersault lives in the moment and acts out of impulse rather than consider how his actions will impact the future. Afterwards we see how this doesn’t quite work out too well for Mersault. The important thing to understand Is Mersault is the extreme of existentialism, he is the exact thing existentialism shouldn’t be. In my opinion the most important aspect in life is balance. People should not be subject to an endless stream of dull decision making, while on the other hand living without any foresight can lead to a situation like Mersault´s