The Stranger post #1

I believe that Mersault never truly evolves out of the first stage, or that would give his existence essence.  I believe that his decisions can bring him out of his one dimensional life, such as when he shot the Arab, but even then Mersault didn't really ever reach out into the essence part of existence.  Even in his jail cell, he goes over the same things over and over again until he get used to it.  He never ever reaches out of the existence stage of life and into the essence phase.