Existentialism and Morality

Les Miserables and The Stranger

Both Les Miserables and The Stranger characters the show antithetical views on the purpose of life. Les Miserables' Jean Valjean acquires a moral compass through religion, as provided to him by the Bishop Myrial. The Stranger's Meursault is an existentialism who has no purpose in living, and floats on through adversity as the book progresses. Meursault's opening line is "My mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know." His nihilism causes his dismissal of the world and he decides that his mother's death has had no impact on his life at all. Conversely, Jean Valjean gains morality when the Bishop give him purpose in his life; redemption. Valjean's purpose in life causes his moral awakening when he become Mayor Madeleine and rescues Cosette. Meursault, on the other hand, murders a man and is then put in line to be executed via guillotine. His nihilism shows itself to the very end, when he states , "I opened myself to the benign indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again."

Mad Men and 

Existentialism

In the television series Mad Men, Don Draper, the main character, begins his moral depredation concomitantly with his realization of existentialism. His nihilism affects his career and marriage because he realizes that no matter how successful he is in his work or how happy he is in his marriage, he knows that his actions are meaningless and thus he resorts to amoral behaviors to cope with that fact. His life loses meaning and immoral behavior follows. His nihilism gives him an excuse to be immoral and to justify it, which is clear when he states, ""There is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent."

The movie The Big Lebowski uses German nihilists as the main antagonists, who fake the kidnapping of a millionaires wife simultaneously as she goes on an unplanned vacation and demand ransom. At the end of the movie it is shown that they don't have a hostage and thus do not deserve ransom, and when the main character's party points out the flaw in the nihilist's logic, they claim that it is not 'fair'. Their need for money shows their hypocrisy, because if they were true nihilists they would not care for true fairness or morality. The only reason they claim to be nihilists is to justify their immoral behavior.