Stranger Journal 9 (conclusion)

At the end of The Stranger Mersault seems to come to terms with his death sentence. At first he seemed very nervous and scared about dying as he discussed the procedure and how it affected his mother and father. In the final pages of the book Mersault has an epiphany; in this epiphany he unleashes all of his ideas on to the chaplain and seems to full embrace existentialism as he talks about no one caring if he was dead. I believe that Camus wanted the reader to come to the same conclusion based on the fact that Mersault was the main character of the book and that he is narrating the book. It seems that Mersault is happy with himself at the end of the book because during the entire story he seemed detached from reality but still connected to the characters of the story. In the end though he seems happy because he finally embraced existentialism fully.