“The chaplain
knew the game well too, I could tell right away: his gaze never faltered. And
his voice didn’t falter, either, when he said, “Have you no hope at all? And do
you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing
remains?” “Yes”, I said” (Camus 117).
The chaplain has come to visit
Mersault, because Mersault has refused to talk to the chaplain. The chaplain confronts
Mersault and tries to figure out why Mersault does not believe in God. Their
conversation represents the absurdist philosophy and religion inability to coincide
with each other. An absurdist can never believe in a higher power because that
would mean they were trying to find meaning in the meaningless and to satisfy
their need for answers. Mersault cannot all of a sudden believe in god, because
Mersault has been sentenced to death. Mersault has to face the consequences of
his actions. Mersault is still allowed to be anxious about the vagueness of
when he will be sentenced, but the actual sentence is pointless, because the
end result is always the same. During the conversation, Mersault is upfront
with the chaplain, and he makes it clear that he is an atheist, and he does not
need any form of a higher power to help him accept his sentence, because
Mersault already has.
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