The Dish on Lament

The Stranger and "Lament" share a common subject: the death of a parent. The authors of both works paint a bleak outlook on the future, as well as of one's passing on. The words are blatant, without a hint of sugarcoating. They explore both existentialism and absurdism to a certain degree. The subject of existentialism is broached through "Lament" when the narrator insists that life must go on, lived for the individual, and the dead must be forgotten. In The Stranger, the narrator, Meursault, speaks as if in a trance, casting a thin veil across the chapters. He passes through the events regarding his mother's death as if he hardly realizes the reason for his actions. This relates back to absurdism in that he comes to the realization that his mother's death does not concern him. Similarity, in "Lament," the narrator describes how the children will be better off witn their father's repurposed clothes, almost as if the death of a father figure will not impact them later. In both works, the idea that the dead are no longer relevant permeates.