#YOLO

A cultural motto has been running around the last months all over the world thanks to social networks. You only live once also abbreviated as YOLO is used to express carpe diem feelings of accomplishing your dreams, because actually you only live once. It is the modern existentialist motto. Now days young adults are expected to succeed in life and be the best at what they do. Even though YOLO evolved as a childish way of forgiving every stupid action you do, it is pretty clear that adolescents are bored of societal expectations. They are fighting for some existentialist meanings in life, which gives them the opportunity to be free and do whatever they feel like no government, family, school or friends pressuring them.
 
     The death of a parent should be one of the climaxes of a person’s life. We could, prior to reading the whole book believe that the story is going to narrate Mersault’s life before the death of his mother, how this event changed his life and the future without his loved one. Those inferences would be wrong. But then why did Camus start the novel that way, if it was not a marking point for the main character? Being this an existentialist novel, things really do not matter, they simply happen. Most existentialist emphasize that the present is the only truth. There is really no need for the readers to be set in a setting; you will read this novel because it is your free will and the present gives you the opportunity. So Camus therefore exposes you to Mersalut’s life in the present, what has just happened. Some people might take death as a huge event; others just see it as one more day.

“And just then it crossed my mind that one might fire, or not fire—and it would come to absolutely the same thing” (PG. 37)

Mersault’s life is flashing before his eyes, right before a confrontation with some Arabs. When a non existentialist would quote something like “when your life flashes in front of your eyes, make sure it is worth watching”, Camus replaces it with “when life flashes in front of your eyes, it is just another day”. That is finally why Camus starts the novel where he chooses to, because simply it is just another day.

Maman Died

“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know…Maybe it was yesterday.” (PG.3)

The first sentence hits us straight forward with how existentialist this novel will be. Maman just died, period. No affection, no mourn, no guilt. It is just another “thing” that happened that day or was it yesterday? We are not even told. The author Albert Camus exemplifies this existentialist movement throughout the novel in various characters and their reactions toward societal parameters.  

“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. She looked sad.” (PG. 35)

Marie is talking to Mersault (the main character) questioning their relationship. Mersault does have feelings for Marie and he expresses them through his actions in the novel, yet once again she is simply the moment. Why would he love something that maybe will not be there tomorrow, or feel the same way? It is not a common response to a question of that kind, “traditional human behavior”. No is still a valid answer, yet stating that the answer indeed didn’t mean anything is showing that to Mersault not even the question being asked the conjunction of words is relevant.

The narration also exposes the crudeness of humans: “So we took our time getting back, him telling me how glad he was that he’d been able to give the women what she deserved.” (PG.38) and what the women deserved was not love and compassion, it was hatred and vengeance. Raymond one of Mersault’s neighbors is telling him how he got back on his cheating girlfriend. How he hit her so hard and spit on her, he was now satisfied the lesson had been taught. Paid by a night with the police Raymond was satisfied with his actions it was worth it.

Colors

“I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had he had come a long way across this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.” (The Great Gatsby, pg. 180)

Gatsby had chosen his house strictly across the bay from Daisy’s. The green light was the only visible thing, his only memory of her. The light states Daisy’s obsession for money and how Gatsby will become obsessed with it to suit her way of living when she comes back.

The blue lawn is the vast ocean that divides them and the green lantern at the other side can also be seen as the gold pot after the rainbow. How Gatsby may pursuit it and try to reach it but every time he comes close to it he will not find anything.