For someones existence to be essence it would require that an action define someone. This existential idea says that every human alive starts out by just simply being something that exists, nothing else but that, but that can be change by our actions, and that our actions make us who we are.
Mersault is an example of someone that just simply is a human that "exists" He simply follows everything that surrounds his life, and doesn't take any big steps. He works his regular job, and when his mom dies, he just simply does what one does when mourning. He doesn't express a huge amount of emotion or feeling, and most of the time it seems as if he isn't able to feel.
There is one instance in which he finally begin to feel, and becomes a person. That moment is when he shoots the Arab. He finally makes a decision, and that decision is to shoot that person, and not just once, but four times, which exemplifies the idea that it was his choice. With this choice, he gave his existence essence.
It is sad to think that the only way we get a sense for essence within his existence is when he shoots someone. The choices he made during his life were always to make others happy; he was a people pleaser, until this incident. It frustrates me that he wasn't able to find his purpose and therefore make his existence essence earlier in the novel with something positive. I am glad he finally was able to make a choice for himself, but obviously the wrong way to do so.
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