Ways to Approach Life

One comparison that has been made in class that I have found to be very interesting is the way Jake Barnes from The Sun Also Rises chooses to view life versus the way Meursault from The Stranger does. Jake has his afición for bullfighting. He lives and breaths to head to Pamplona every year to watch bullfights. He even has his own circle of friends who share this afición with him. These bullfights help give his life meaning where it is lacking. In Paris, Jake always fades to the background of every situation. He is always treated as a secondary object to people’s lives. But, while he’s in Pamplona, Jake feels comfortably at home; he is able to show off his vast knowledge of bullfighting. (Seemingly showing off to Brett at the same time).

Then we have Meursault, who has a vastly different way of viewing life than Jake’s. Meursault doesn’t choose a passion to focus on and look forward to every year, in fact, he doesn’t really have anything. He believes that life itself is meaningless and there’s no need to focus on things that have no real value. This is why he doesn’t see the point in marrying Marie, even though he enjoys spending time with her and expresses his want for her; he just doesn’t seem the meaning of it all. He keeps himself preoccupied with the present instead of planning ahead for the future.

It’s interesting how two men who are mainly set in the background of most social situations can both look at life in vastly different ways. Meursault would most likely see Jake’s way of life as menial and useless. In Meursault’s view, Jake’s afición is a faux-meaning; he wants his life to having meaning but fails to realize that there is none. So (this is probably obvious), if Jake and Meursault lived in the same time and place in life, I do believe they wouldn’t be friends judging from their different characters, but that’s just speculation.