On Teaching Camus' The Stranger

How do you explain Existentialism to 17-year-olds?  I'll tell you how I did it, and you can tell me if I'm an idiot.  First, you write two quotes on the board:

 "We are not what we are."

"Existence preceeds essence."


You let them think you're crazy for a few minutes, then you ask if anyone's ever been really bored on a long car ride and starting asking themselves, "What is this thing I call 'me'?"  A couple of them say yes, and you ask them to explain.  Basically, once you take away all the stuff we usually use to describe ourselves, such as what movies we like, who our friends are, places we've visited, where we go to school or work, our opinions and beliefs, it's really hard to imagine what's at the core of all that.  We use words like "mind" and "soul", but we don't really know what those are, either.  So, then you write this on the board.

(in-itself) -------------------> (for-itself)

You explain that Jean-Paul Sartre calls that thing that is the real "me" the "in-itself."  The in-itself is pure individual existence.  All that other stuff, you know the Facebook-profile stuff, is the "for-itself."  The for-itself is a creation of the in-itself.  It's this ongoing project we call our identity.  It's what the in-itself throws out into the world in order to interact with it.  Most of the time, when we think about ourselves, this is what we think about, because of our situation.  Our situation is that we are individuals in constant interaction with the world around us.


This would be a good time to ask for questions or comments...proceed.

But when I really take time to reflect, I realize that I could decide, at any moment, to completely change the "for-itself."  Right now, I could walk out of this classroom, drive to California, and become a beach bum.  I'm totally free to do that.  There would be consequences, I would be hurting my family, but I could do it.  If I died right now, my obituary would say that I was a teacher.  "Teacher" would largely define the essence of who I was.  But if right now I drove to California and lived out my days as a beach bum, then "beach bum" would be in my obituary and largely define my essence.

Another break for questions and comments...proceed.

So you're completely free to change who you are, or to do anything you want, given that there are always consequences to your actions.  You're absolutely free and absolutely responsible.  Write on the board:

Freedom & Responsibility

Of course, none of it "means" anything.  You're born, you live your life choosing to do this or that, not to do this or that, you experience things, you die.  That's it.  Sartre and Camus were atheists, so according to them, there's no God to predetermine anything, give purpose to, justify, forgive, or reward anything.  How do you like that idea?

Most students say it sounds "depressing."

The word Sartre used was "nausea."  To confront the reality of your existence is a nauseating thing, but we must do it in order to live "authentically."  To live authentically is to choose to commit to our own "project", to the creation of the "self" that creates "meaning" for itself in an honest way.

Now you have have a room full of 17-year-old brains that, though they've only recently acquired the capacity for abstract thought, are ready to read The Stranger and have their own existential crises!  What fun!