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Existential themes in the stranger
The stranger as an absurdist novel
Existential themes in the stranger
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The Stranger by Albert Camus focuses largely on the concept of absurdism. Camus uses family and personal relationships, or the lack of it thereof, to show the isolation that the main character, Meursault, undergoes in the novel and it’s effect on him overall. Camus utilizes the protagonists’ character development as a tool to further his plot of the novel. The absence of family and personal relationships tied in with the particular recurring topics of the novel are crucial in both the development of the protagonists’ characters as well as the plot as it affects the portrayal of the main character.
Towards the beginning, Camus introduces the absence of family, thereby beginning the character development of the protagonists in their respective novels. In The Stranger, Camus begins the novel with “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 3). This is the first instance that the reader is being introduced to Meursault, the main character of the novel. The reader learns that Maman, Meursault’s mother, is the only family member that Meursault has in the entire novel. Furthermore, Camus uses Meursault’s response to this tragedy not only to get the reader a first glimpse of the protagonist, but as a way to introduce the topic of absurdism that the novel is building up towards. As the funeral proceedings continue, Meursault feels like smoking, but is first hesitant in doing so because he “didn’t know if [he] could do it with Maman right there” (Camus 8). However, Meursault soon follows this up with “I thought about it; it didn’t matter. I offered the caretaker a cigarette and we smoked” (Camus 8). This at first shows us a sense of hesitancy as he pauses for a moment to think whether what he is doing is acceptable. Howeve...
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... to accept the absurdist tenets and embraces the indifference, opening up to it and thinking that life itself lacks meaning and understanding. The absence of family and personal relationships in The Stranger by Albert Camus drive the protagonists’ character development. Camus begins showing the effect of the absence of family and personal relationships from the very beginning. He uses this as a way to utilize character development, as well as preparing the reader for the developing plot. The absence of family and personal relationships tied in with the isolation that takes place in each scenario are crucial in both the development of the protagonists’ characters as well as the plot, as this affects the portrayal of the main character in the novels.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Matthew Ward. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Print.
The emotionless anti-hero, Monsieur Meursault, embarks on a distinct philosophical journey through The Stranger. Confident in his ideas about the world, Meursault is an unemotional protagonist who survives without expectations or even aspirations. Because of his constant indifference and lack of opinions about the world, it can be denoted that he undergoes a psychological detachment from the world and society. It is through these characteristics that exist in Meursault that Camus expresses the absurd. Starting from the very first sentence of the book, “Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” (Camus 1) The indifferent tone from these short sentences convey a rather apathetic attitude from Meursault’s part. Not only does he not feel any sorrow, he also “felt like having a smoke.” (Camus 4) Communicating perfectly Meursault’s disinterest, “[he] hesitate, [he] didn’t know if [he] could do it with Maman right there. [He] thought it over; it really didn’t matter.” (Camus 4) The death of his mother prompts an absurdist philosophy in which he experiences a psychological awakening and begins to place no real emphasis on emotions, but rather on the physical aspect of life.
Meursault and Daru are both considered outsiders of society because they are not able to understand the other characters in the story. This is because each character represents an aspect of society, like Balducci in the Guest, and everyone in the courtroom in The Stranger represents the law and justice system. Camus uses the actions and words of seemingly unimportant characters to allude to the flaws and problems of society. In both works of Camus, the protagonists view the other characters in the story from an outsider view, allowing for a new perspective in which society and its problems can be assessed by the reader. By making the protagonists detached from society, one can truly see the underlying issues within society. That is why the isolation and alienation of Meursault and Daru are crucial in Camus’ works.
...able option. Camus’s main character, Meursault, embodies this third option; by accepting his circumstances and being indifferent to them, Meursault is able to break free of all possible causes of anxiety and find happiness. Furthermore, Meursault’s rejection of religion as belief, his acceptance of the “benign indifference of the universe”, and his acceptance of his circumstances all leading to happiness personifies Camus’s take on Absurdism, the philosophy that Camus is trying to depict in The Stranger (76). By using foil characters to contrast Meursault in actions or personality, Camus creates several polarizing situations, making Meursault the extreme epitome of Absurdism in every contrasting relationship and thus, shining light on his ideology in the process.
I, Albert Camus, am a famous French author who wrote The Stranger in 1942. I was born in Algeria, and my experiences there have deeply influenced my thoughts, my work, and my philosophies. The Stranger strongly represents my philosophy of the absurd and existentialism. When I was twenty-five, I moved to France and joined the resistance movement during World War II. After the liberation from Nazi Germany, I became a political journalist and a columnist for Combat, a French newspaper.
“The Stranger” is an appropriate title for the novel’s main character because when you think of a stranger you think of avoiding them because of safety concerns. Meursault is a type of person that you’d avoid if you saw him randomly in the streets. He’s always looking up at the sun and is very socially awkward. When Meursault is asked if he’d been traveling for a long time after discovering he had been leaning against a soldier on the bus while asleep he simply says “‘yes’… so [he] wouldn’t have to say anything else” (Camus 4).
In the experimental novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, he explores the concept of existentialism and the idea that humans are born into nothing and descend into nothingness after death. The novel takes place in the French colony of Algiers where the French-Algerians working-class colonists live in an urban setting where simple life pleasures are of the upmost importance in the lives of working class people like the protagonist of the novel Meursault. What is fascinating about this novel is that it opens up with a scene of perpetual misfortune for him through the death of his mother although he seems to express otherwise. The reader perceives this nonchalance as a lack of care. Maman’s death and its impact on Meursault appear in both the very beginning and very end of the two-part novel, suggesting a cyclical pattern in the structure. This cyclical pattern suggests not a change in the moral beliefs of Meursault but rather his registering society’s systems and beliefs and craft meaning in his own life despite the fact that he meets his demise in the end. Camus uses Maman’s funeral to characterise both Meursault and the society and customs created by the society Meursault lives in in order to contrast the two while at the same time reveal how while society changes, Meursault does not. Rather, Maman’s funeral becomes of unprecedented importance in Meursault’s life and allows him to find that nothing means anything in his meaningless world at the time of his death. He finds peace in that.
Camus was born in a small town in eastern Algiers on November 7, 1913. His father (Lucien August Camus) died in 1914 after being shot in the Battle of Marne in W.W.I. Camus was raised by his mother (Catherine Helene Sintes Camus) until he was seventeen, in a working-class section of town. "Sintes," his mother's maiden name was also Raymond Sintes' last name in the novel The Stranger. She was illiterate and became partially deaf after she was widowed. Her husband's body was never returned to her, but a fragment of the shell that killed him along with a picture of him was displayed in the apartment where they lived (Todd 4-6).
Meursault and Daru are both “strangers” because they are not able to understand the other characters, which are each indirectly associated with an aspect of society. Camus uses the actions and words of seemingly unimportant characters to allude to the shortcomings of society. In both texts the protagonists view the other characters in the story from an outsider view, allowing for a new perspective in which society and its problems can be assessed. By making the protagonists detached from society, the underlying issues within society can be explored from an objective viewpoint.
In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.
An absurdist tends to discover meaning despite living in a meaningless world and are unable to fully accept and understand that every life ultimately ends. Depending on a person’s ethics and morals, some indications can be made on how someone’s life may transpire with each differing and playing a role. These people often partake in unethical and immoral actions, aware of it or not, in order to achieve some type of meaning in their absurdist life. In the novel The Fall, by Albert Camus is about an Absurdist man who used to be a judge penitent in Paris before he moves to Amsterdam. While living in Paris, Clamence lives a life full of lies as he views himself superior, as he tends to help the least fortunate. In reality, his motives are flawed
Right away as you begin The Stranger, already you notice the unique writing style Camus decides to use throughout the book. He states, “I like milk in my coffee, so I said yes, and he came back a few minutes later with a tray.
opinion on existential nihilism. Existential nihilism is the philosophy that life has no intrinsic meaning, and rejects all religious and moral conformity. The main character meursault, displays all of these traits throughout the book. Camus gives the reader an alternative outlook on the life and how there is no right or wrong way of living because in the end, whether that be sooner or later everyone is going to have the same end fate. Camus demonstrated his belief of existential nihilism through the external and internal
The word "absurd" or "absurdity" is very peculiar in that there is no clear definition for the term. Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary gave its definition of "absurd" as "having no rational or orderly relationship to human life: meaningless, also: lacking order or value." Many existential philosophers have defined it in their own manner. Soren Kierkegarrd, a pre-World War II German philosopher, defined absurd as "that quality of Christian faith which runs counter to all reasonable human expectation" (Woelfel 40). Jean-Paul Sartre a post-WW II French philosopher, felt that absurd was "the sheer contingency or ‘thereness’ or gratuitousness of the world" (Woelfel 41). Both of these definitions are hard to interpret and for the most part are not how Camus viewed the word absurd. Camus gives his interpretation of absurd in his book The Myth of Sisyphus, which is the point at which man realizes that all the struggles that we put forth in a repeated daily cycle are in all actuality completely meaningless (Woelfel 44).
In Albert Camus’s novel, The Stranger, the author employs symbolism and foreshadowing through the weather- especially the sun- in order to represent Mersault’s compulsive and detached attitude. Camus’ novel tells a story of a man named Mersault who believes that the world is absurd and who searches some meaning in life.
Albert Camus wrote The Stranger during the Existentialist movement, which explains why the main character in the novel, Meursault, is characterized as detached and emotionless, two of the aspects of existentialism. In Meursault, Camus creates a character he intends his readers to relate to, because he creates characters placed in realistic situations. He wants the reader to form a changing, ambiguous opinion of Meursault. From what Meursault narrates to the reader in the novel, the reader can understand why he attempts to find order and understanding in a confused and mystifying world.