In a compare/contrast essay addressing The
Stranger and Slaughterhouse-Five one comparable point
common to both is the theme of free will. Both novels address free will and its
importance to life but they address it from contrasting perspectives. In The
Stranger, Meursault is preoccupied with following and assessing his condition
of freeness, a totality of freeness that is unsettling to observers and may be mistaken
by other characters and readers for indifference. In
Slaughterhouse-Five, the insistence is that free will doesn't exist
in the same that time as a progression doesn't exist; all time is locked into the
present with the past, present and future existing as a simultaneous eternity: "always
have existed, always will exist." In discussing the theme of free will in both books,
you have a point of comparison and a point of
contrast.
Another point that is comparable is that both
books were outgrowths of the authors' experiences in World War II. As in the above
discussion of theme, this common feature also has an element of contrast in that
The Stranger was written and published in 1942 during the time of
World War II following France's surrender to Germany, whereas
Slaughterhouse-Five was written and published in 1969 as a
recollection of past experience.
A related point is the
authors' philosophical perspectives. Camus (The Stranger) believed
in an absurd and meaningless universe--an existential universe--in which the individual
is nonetheless required to uphold the traditions of human values despite the perceived
meaninglessness and absurdity. Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five)
similarly believed that even in a seemingly random and meaningless indifferent
universe--a seemingly existential universe--the individual is required to uphold the
human values of kindness and decency in behavior toward and treatment of one
another.
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