"I felt as if i understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiance,' why she had played at beginning again... So close to death even Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again." page 122. Would you say that from what Mearsault says about Maman, is she also an existential character?
-Mclovin
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I would have to say she isn't. When Mersault put Maman in the home she did not want to go. She cared about other people and seemd to be a nice person who people liked. For example many of the people at the home enjoyed her company and came to see her after her death. I would just say she was afraid to die.
I think the question you posted is a very interesting interpretation of Maman, but I don't think that she is actually an existentialist. Her wanting to have a beginning at the end of her life doesn't really have much to do with existentialism, aside from the freedom reference. Also, her reliance on Perez seems like it would go against the independent stance of existentialists.
I would say that Maman is not an existential character because it seemed like she enjoyed life, from what Muersault describes her in the text, enough not to complain about it all the time or have a negative attitude toward everything or everyone in general. During Maman's vigil the cartaker says that she had a lot of friends in the house and everyone seemed upset that she died. In the quote it states that she was ready to live life all over again and that she felt free so obviosuly her life couldn't have been that bad if she wanted to live it all over again. Maman couldn't have been existential because others enjoyed her company and she didn't seem like the kind of person that would be negatitive toward life.
I feel that earlier in life Maman was probably not an existential person because she says that she wants to live her life over and now she feels free. This is telling me that she blended in with society and now that she is free to do whatever she wants she just wishes that she had more time. So before her death she felt free to do whatever she wanted to because she was free of worry because her life was almost up, which would be an extremely existential outlook on life. Even though existentialists think that life is obsurd they treat others with the same capacity to reach what they want to reach. This would explain why Maman had friends in her old age at the home.
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