There isn’t a whole lot to write about regarding charity in The Stranger by Albert Camus. In fact, existentialists themselves do not have much to say about charity. But I do find one character, more specifically one event, in this novel very relevant to the subject of charity. “‘Yes, my son,’ he said, putting his hand on my shoulder, ‘I am on your side. But you have no way of knowing it because your heart is blind. I shall pray for you.’”(120). The it is hard to know the intentions behind the priest’s charity, his desire to help Meaursault find God, because The Stranger is told from Mearusault’s point of view. But the idea of intentions behind charity is key to my original question, because charity done with pure intentions is the only charity worth doing. Are the chaplain’s intentions pure? From Meaursault, we get the feeling that the chaplain is merely trying to force his beliefs upon him rather than genuinely help him. However, I feel the chaplain, knowing that God lives and believing God has the power to save all men, seems overbearing because he wants so badly for Mearsault to understand. But this book isn’t about God. It isn’t about faith. It isn’t about hope. Camus makes that quite obvious. Why does the world need a God if life is meaningless? You are born, you live, then you die. Nothing else. So why would charity be relevant or even needed in a world where nothing matters?
