All humans live in the absurd, a philosophical conflict between humans who seek inherent value in life and human inability to find any. People are either conscious of the absurd, unconscious of the absurd, or overcame the absurd. The main characters the TV series Breaking Bad and Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger overcame the absurd, but not without years of struggle. Breaking Bad revolves around Walter White, a 50-years old high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico who lives a stereotypical American middle-class life with his loving family. In the episode “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1), a doctor diagnoses Walter with terminal lung cancer, which causes him to pursue a new life career. On the other hand, The Stranger revolves around Meursault, a young man in Algeria. The book goes on to describe Meursault’s mundane life until he murders an Arab and the court gives him the death sentence. Meursalt and Walter’s perspectives on life and of death reveal important elements of existentialism such as one’s purpose in life and the concept of absurdity. Living in an absurd world, Walter lived life as a coward while Meursault enjoyed his nihilistic views, but when both faced the inevitableness of death, they became conscious of the absurdity of life and reawakened as new individuals with a different outlook about how to create and find meaning in life.
According to French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Walter is classified as a coward since he does not live life to his fullest potential whereas Meursalt lives life by his own accords. Sartre, in his 1946 lecture Existentialism is Humanism, said, “those who seek to hide from themselves the wholly voluntary nature of their existence and its complete freedom… in a guise of solemnity or with deterministic excuses, I shall call cowards.” For Sartre, total freedom is acting upon one’s own will to freedom, and in doing so creates his own existence. “Man is a being whose existences precedes his essence” and by finding his existence, he is a free being who uses his will to freedom to find the essence. Consequently, in doing so create consequences that affect other’s freedom and the whole of humanity. Cowardice is the act of hiding from one’s own existence and freedom by denying the will to freedom for themselves (Sartre). Walter, from the TV show Breaking Bad, relates to a coward because he does not act under free will nor accept the consequences of his actions. Walter, a Nobel Prize Winning Chemist, hides from his existence by failing to fulfill his own potential. In the TV show, Walter is seen as a high school chemistry teacher while working part-time at a car wash to make ends meet. In addition, Walter is lonely and lives a dull and pathetic life. Even his brother in law criticized him for his ordinary life by saying “Get a little excitement in your life, would ya?” Walter’s life is this way because he chose to stop ‘living’ by not continuing his prestigious chemistry career and conforming to the average middle class. In one of his chemistry class, when explaining the concepts of chemistry, he said that “Chemistry is the study of change. Electrons they change their energy levels. Molecules change their bonds. Elements they combine and change into compounds. Well, that's all of life. It's the constant, its the cycle. It's the cycles, its the solution and dissolution just over and over again. Its growth, then decay, then transformation.” Stuck in the endless reoccurring cycle of life, Walter has to break free of the cycle of life by acting on this will to freedom. Everyone has the freedom to choose, pursue, take ownership of one’s own actions. To exempt one from this human duty is to live in bad faith, and thus loses his existence in the world. A human being has the capability to define existence before essence, but Walter’s inability to act is limiting his potential of living, thus making him a coward (“Pilot”). In contrast, Meursault from the book The Stranger is not a coward. Although he lives a life of indifference, it was his own decision to do so. In addition, Mersault is content with his life and have no future aspirations or past glory to make him discontent about his life. By acting upon his will to freedom to live in indifference, Mersault found joy in his existence and thus found his essence as well. His choice led others to judge his actions, but judgement is inevitable for one’s freedom of choice also effect others (The Stranger).
However, Meursault, unlike Walter, live under nihilistic views and a meaningless life filled with indifference. A nihilist does not believe that there is such a thing as meaning or value. Albert Camus believe that human existence is a futile merry-go-round with no end but death (“Introduction”). Camus said that “Rising, street-car, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, street-car, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm—this path is easily followed most of the time” (Myth of Sisyphus 448 ). From this statement, Camus is trying to express the idea that humans are all trapped in the machine of fate in a meaningless world. He urges humans to create meaning out of the futile world, except some people like Meursault refuses to do so and is stuck in the world of meaninglessness (“This”). Meursault lives in indifference and not care about the world around him. He is more focused on the simple pleasures that life gives, such as a trip to the sea, a date with Marie, alcohol, and other aesthetic joys of leisure. In addition, what set Meursault apart from the majority is that he is resistant to change. When his boss offered him a new and exciting job opportunity in Paris, Meursault said no. Thus, it promoted his boss to ask him if he was “interested in a change of life” which prompted Meursault to say, “living in his futile life, said, “ people never change their lives, that in any case, one life was as good as another… I couldn't see any reason to change my life (The Stranger 41). This statement once again proved Meursault’s nihilistic approach to life and reinforced the argument that Meursault lives with meaning in life because to him, there is no point to it. Walter, on the other hand, does not have nihilistic views. Although he is limiting his potential of living, Walter values his family. Despite his own pathetic life, Walter still deeply cares about his pregnant wife and son. For example, having a stable job as a high school teacher that is moderately paying, Walter decided to take another part-time job at a local car wash to provide the best income for his family. While the job requires a lot of physical effort, Walter sacrifices justified him to not be a nihilist because he cares about his family a lot (“Pilot”).
Despite the differences between Meursault and Walter, both became conscious of the absurdity of life and reawakened as new individuals with different outlooks about how to create and find meaning in life after being confronted with the inevitableness of death. According to philosopher Camus, “The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world” (Myth of Sisyphus 460). He believes that human existence is absurd and everyone lives in the absurd, except some are not aware of it (“Introduction”). For example in the myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus was condemned by the Greek Gods to roll a boulder uphill and then watch it roll back down again for eternity. His sin was that he loved life too much and didn't fear the gods enough, which cost him to be punished in the underworld. Sisyphus’ tragedy is that he is conscious of his torture, the sickening feeling every time the boulder returned to the ground. However, the consciousness, is also Sisyphus’ victory by overcoming the absurd (“This”). As Camus said, “when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. he is stronger than his rock. All of Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him” (Myth of Sisyphus 492). Camus believed that one might not be able to change the circumstances they’re in or the inherent meaninglessness of the universe, but by reflecting upon it one can choose how to interpret it and create their own consciousness (“This”). Similarly, Walter and Meursault overcame the absurd when they both realized they were going to die and both came to new reasonings about how to live and devised new thinkings about how to create and find meaning in life. Walter was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. After he quit his job at the car wash, the episode shows him sitting by his empty pool and light matches. As Walter lights one match, he watches the fire burn and fades out over and over again. The matches' light-span represents human life and the shortness/fragility of it. During the match scene, Walter also became conscious of the absurdity of life, and sought to find meaning in his life again by approaching life as a man, not a coward. Walter became involved in the meth business which opened new doors of opportunity for him and allowed him to find meaning about himself, his passion for chemistry, and the world around him as his potential of life was no longer limited (“Pilot”). In addition, Meursault was sentenced to death for murder. At first, he was afraid of death, but through contemplation and unhelpful preachings from a jail-priest, Meursault came to accept the inevitableness of death and the absurdity of life. He realized that “We were all condemned to die”and this conclusion allowed Meursault to truly appreciate life and open himself “to the gentle indifference of the world,” allowing him to feel happiness (The Stranger 117-123). And at the end of their fate, both Walter and Meursault can conclude that “all is well” (Myth of Sisyphus 492).
When Walter and Meursault were faced with reality of inevitable death, they became conscious of the absurdity of life. They were reawakened as new individuals with a different perspectives on creating meaning in life as well as overcoming Walter’s previous life as a coward and Meursault nihilistic views. Like all existentialists who encouraged people to be themselves, Camus encouraged people to create meaning for themselves through rejecting the idea that life has an inherent value. Just like Walter and Meursault began to live their lives to the fullest extent when they finally realized death is inevitable and humans should live life meaningfully under their will to freedom, it is important for all humans to accept the futility of mankind. By creating meaning and following one’s passion, the best of humanity will be achieved.