Alienation In The Meursault Investigation

Camus and Daoud use similar words to describe alienation. One example was when both Meursault and Hauraun were imprisoned and lost their sense of romantic love. Both of them missed their partner’s presence as well as physically touching them. They wanted companionship but could not have it because they were imprisoned and isolated from the world. In The Meursault Investigation, Harun describes the following about his alienation to love:
I would have had a
better life, at peace with my language on a little patch of
land somewhere in this country, but that wasn’t my des-
tiny. As for Meriem, she was very much alive. Can you
picture us? Me holding her hand, Musa holding my other
hand, Mama perched on my back, and your hero, loiter-
ing on

all the beaches where we might have celebrated our wedding (Daoud, 116).
In The Stranger, Meursault describes the following about his alienation to love:
The first
months were hard.

But in fact the effort I had to make
helped pass the time. For example, I was tormented by
my desire for a woman. It was only natural; I was young.
I never thought specifically of Marie. But I thought so
much about a woman, about woman, about all the ones
I had known, about all the circumstances in which I had
enjoyed them, that my cell would be filled with their
faces and crowded with my desires (Camus, 77).
Another example that both Meursault and Harun share regarding to the idea of alienation is when they both lost their sense of hope. The idea of losing hope is a form of alienation in the sense that they both are losing sight and connection to what it means to exist and be human through life examples such as religion and death. In the Meursault Investigation, Hauraun says the following about his feeling of hopelessness:
If I believe in God? Don’t make me laugh! After all
the hours we’ve spent together… I don’t know why every
time someone has a question about the existence of God he
turns to man and waits for the answer. Ask him the ques-
tion, put it directly to him! Sometimes I have the feeling
I’m really inside that minaret, and I hear them out there,
determined to break down the door I’ve locked so

well,
howling to wake the dead for my death (Daoud, 142).
In The Stranger, Meursault describes the following about his feeling of hopeless:
What did other people’s deaths
or a mother’s love matter to me; what did his God or the
lives people choose or the fate they think they elect
matter to me when we’re all elected by the same fate,
me and billions of privileged people like him who also
called themselves my brothers? Couldn’t he see, couldn’t
he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only
privileged people. The others would all be condemned
one day. And he would be condemned too. What would it matter
if he were accused of murder and then executed
because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral (Camus, 121)?