Camus’s The Stranger takes the reader on an emotionally stunted journey through a number of normally emotional moments in life including funerals, relationships, violence trials, and facing one’s one mortality. None of these things elicit strong emotion from Camus’s protagonist, Meursault, until he explodes in anger at the presumptuous chaplain in the moments before dawn on the day of his execution. In that moment, Meursault embraces the benign indifference of the universe and on the heels of his anger, feels the first real happiness of the story.
The Stranger reflects the anxiety and concerns of the time period through the tension between the old hopes of religion and the cold reason of stark reality. In the midst of the build up and eruption of conflict with the Second World War, with novel being published in 1942, the unraveling of the control of religion and the marked devaluation of human life brought a number of the old hopes and old crutches of faith into question. The novel opens with “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday.” This blunt lack of importance placed on death is used against Meursault in his trial by the prosecutor. The prosecutor so lashes out at the protagonist on his lack of acceptance of the standards of emotional response and moral expectations on this social norm that Meursault’s defense attorney demands, “Is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?” Camus’s implication is that the man is on trial for all these rejections of the norms. The prosecutor is the society and the group mind of the people struggling with these tensions. Later in the opening paragraphs, Meursault notes “mother had never given thought to religion in her life.” He then chooses to have a drink next to the coffi...
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...zled by the heat. Then, he shoots him four more times in cold blood. This is likely a statement on the fervor of violence in the society whose norms Camus rejects through this story.
On the surface, one might not find much overtly attractive about Camus’s cold philosophy expressed by Meursault in the cell he spiritually shares with all people awaiting inevitable deaths as the universe watches on with indifference, but there is a freedom that comes with letting go of hope that tries to cover up fear. If society tries to prosecute each person with the moral guilt of those that have been buried, it is liberating to reject those presumptions of guilt. There is a happiness that can be found in that freedom and an appealing strength in being able to face the howls of execration from the spectators of every individual’s march toward death in a benign, indifferent universe.
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of a sequence of events in one man's life that cause him to question the nature of the universe and his position in it. The book is written in two parts and each part seems to reflect in large degree the actions occurring in the other. There are curious parallels throughout the two parts that seem to indicate the emotional state of Meursault, the protagonist, and his view of the world.
The second act of violence takes place at the beach between two Arabs on one side and Raymond and Masson on the other. This leads to Raymond's getting hurt. Before this Camus foreshadows violence when Raymond gives Meursault a gun in case things get worse. After taking care of Raymond, Meursault goes back to the beach. He says to himself, "To go or to stay, amount to the same thing.
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.
The climax of the novel The Stranger is reached when the jury declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by gulliotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the three main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and conviction of Meursault to express the absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger offers one man’s incite into the justice of society. Monsieur Meursault, the main protagonist in the novel, believes that morals and the concept of right and wrong possess no importance. This idea influences him to act distinctively in situations that require emotion and just decision, including feeling sadness over his mother’s death, the abuse of a woman, and his killing of an innocent man. In these situations Meursault apathetically devoids himself of all emotion and abstains from dealing with the reality in front of him. When confronted by the court over his murder, he reiterates his habitual motto on life that nothing matters anyways, so why care? His uncaring response inflames the people working within the
In Camus’ The Stranger, the use of the minor character Raymond helps illustrate the absurd nature of Meursault. Through imagery, dialogue, and irony, the novel investigates the moral decisions Meursault makes under Raymond’s influence. The constant tactical bribery and other forms of manipulation steer Meursault’s writing of the letter that leads to him killing the Arab and ultimately receiving the death penalty. Camus uses Raymond to highlight the cultural and societal values. In addition, through Raymond’s help, Meursault ends up in jail where he finally realizes the theme that life is
... his mother and the idea of God which is again supported by his close relationships. Those relationships are with people who don’t believe in a higher being or who show no true morals. Camus accommodates white with many objects and people, yet purposely excludes Meursault and refers to him as dark. All of these techniques show Meursault as a nonreligious man with potential to harm without remorse. This leads up to his interaction with light where he feels uncomfortable just as he does with God. Meursault’s history and personality lead up to the murder of the Arab, the distraction of the light, and in the end, accusing God, “the light”, for his criminal behavior. Human nature needs moral standards or the world would be as corrupt as Meursault’s life.
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.
...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.
After only a few days of trial, the jury in The Stranger declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by guillotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the two main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and persecution of Meursault to express his belief that the justice system is flawed because of his absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious. In order to reform the justice system, Albert Camus believes that capital punishment needs to be abolished.
Camus conveys the view that human existence is without order, and his work criticizes a culture that seeks to find meaning in a meaningless world. Camus reveals two contrasting views of human life: societies and Meursault's. People always attempt to find the reasoning behind questions that merely cannot be answered. In the microcosmic courtroom of Meursault's trial, for example, the jurors and the lawyers continually focus on why Meursault killed the Arab, and why he is so indifferent about his mother's death. "Why?" the judge asks , "You must tell me-why?" (68) Knowing that he can give no right answer, Meursault makes up a crazy explanation to throw off the questioners: "it was because of the sun" (103). If society represents the quest for what is "normal" and "correct", then Meursault stands for the absurd. Meursault is differ...
Camus’s motif of the sun illustrates Meursault’s emotions as he approaches the Arab, the sun’s rays separating Meursault from reality. “I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward” (59). Yet after he utters this statement he takes another few steps forward. This sets the stage for the climax of Meursault’s murder of the Arab. More than anything the sun is depicted as a distraction to Meursault. It causes him to do things he would not normally do and clouds his judgment, causing him to commit a serious crime which will cause his own death. The sun is in a way a representation of the constraints society places upon Meursault. The effect the sun has on Meursault that results in death is a parallel to the effect of society on Meursault, which also results in death.
“But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins.” Meursault is not unlike Sisyphus. In the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, we watch this character change from a carefree man who loves being alive and free to a man who is imprisoned for a meaningless murder he commits but who eventually finds happiness in his fate.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger is the story of apathetic Meursault’s journey to self-discovery while on death row. Throughout the novel, Camus utilizes personification of the sun to display his narrator’s gradual evolution towards deciding to experience emotion. As he is pressured by those around him to display grief over the death of his mother, love for his girlfriend, and remorse for the gruesome murder, the sun becomes an aggressive force that has a physical effect on him. Gradually, as those around him begin to disappear, the sun becomes a soft force, driving anxiety and discomfort rather than searing pain. Camus personifies the sun through a man vs nature conflict to represent Meursault’s internal conflict regarding the societal pressure
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.