Modern Alienation as an Infinite Journey in the Postmodern World: A Postmodern Critique of Breakfast of Champions and the Stranger

This paper discusses The Stranger and Breakfast of Champions, which are based on alienation, to show that modern alienation has not vanished yet but has evolved through new ways in the postmodern world. The paper also aims to apply five theoretical approaches that will connect it to postmodern society: Marx’s theory of alienation, Kierkegaard’s theory of alienation, Freud’s theory of the ego, Sartre’s concept of the free man, and Dostoyevsky’s revolutionary concept. It explores the reasons and results of human alienation through the lives of Meursault, Dwayne, and Kurt, who are left alone to finish off as worthless, estranged and meaningless human beings in the postmodern world. Characters including Meursault (from The Stranger), Dwayne Hoover, and Kilgore Trout (from Breakfast of Champions) are the main characters presented here as the critical victims of alienation of separate times. More actual incidents from both texts will portray how human alienation starts in the texts, changes them into alienated souls and puts them into tragic consequences.