Comparing Saviors In Cool Hand Luke And The Stranger

854 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cool hand luke movie analysis

A Tale of Two Saviors Saviors are individuals that have been seeked upon throughout society, as a symbol of hope and change. Though they are looked at in a positive light by those who follow them, outsiders may see them as rebellious or malevolent, which in turn also gives them the title of antiheroes. Just two examples of these saviors would be Lucas Jackson from the movie Cool Hand Luke and Meursault from the book The Stranger. Luke's saviorism differs from Meursault's in that Luke is blatantly successful in providing a feeling of hope and change to the people who look to him, whereas in the conclusion of Meursault’s story, one will not be too sure. In the movie Cool Hand Luke, Lucas Jackson is first found, drunk and cutting the heads off …show more content…

This situation might make the audience question his actions as to why he would put himself in a position go to jail for a crime that he has no gain. The answer would be simply because that is what he wanted to do. Throughout the movie Luke continues to do what he wants to despite the consequences that come with his actions. Because of this he is looked at as strong and confident in his actions, and he becomes a savior figure for the other prisoners. The other prisoners first witnesses his grit when he and Drag get into it, and even though drag kept taking him down with his blows, Luke just kept getting back up until he was not able to. Not only does this foreshadow the rest of the movie, but it is also a display of why he is a savior. He rarely gives into the pressures that everyone around him provides throughout the movie. The way that Luke presents himself sends a message to the other prisoners, and he helps them realise how much more there is than just the prison they have come to recognize as their new lives. What Luke brings the other prisoners is excitement, such as when they were sanding the tar or when they all bet on him eating fifty boiled eggs, he reveals to the others the freedom beyond …show more content…

In the book he is perceived as a mystery, or someone unfamiliar to those who do not know him, but those close to him adore and respect him, because they took the time to get to know him. Those who are strangers to Meursault have a difficult time understanding him so either try to force their morals or customs on him, such as his lawyer, or they just try to find a label that best fits him, like they did during the court case, or how his lawyer labels him an antichrist. Those within that particular society do this because they fear what they do not know, so they feel they must somehow familiarize themselves with him in order to be content with themselves, but because he brings this frustrating situation to those in the society, they tend to label him negatively. On the contrary those who actually get to know meursault, see the pureness and honesty in him, and they respect that he refuses to be other than himself, and speak nothing but his truth. For example, when Marie asks Meursault if he loves her, he tells her that it did not mean anything but he did not think so. Despite his telling her this she still continues to surround herself with him. This is a display of the light that Meursault provides to the people around him. The only issue with Meursault's character is that he cannot successfully reach everyone in his society with his light, because they are too busy trying to

Show More
Related

  • The Little Business Man Morley Callaghan Summary

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    Losing a loved one again was not in any of his plans but instead save them. Nothing could stand in the way of the bond that both Luke and Dan had developed. Luke respected his Uncle Henry just as his father and would obey any order given, so he did so. Order was given by his uncle to grab cigarettes for Uncle Henry but the main reason his uncle sent Luke was to distract him from what he was intending to do, kill Dan. A rush of suspicion filled Luke’s mind on his way to the store so he decided to turn around and make sure everything was alright.

    Read More

  • Cool Hand Luke: Failure to Communicate

    2794 Words  | 6 Pages

    Cool Hand Luke was based on the experiences of Lucas Jackson, a war hero who returned to the United States. Lucas is sentenced to prison after he is caught drunkenly cutting the heads off of parking meters for no apparent reason. For this offense, Lucas is given a sentence of two years at a notorious Florida prison camp run by a hard-core warden. Initially, Lucas is not well liked by either the guards or inmates due to the fact that he sees himself as an independent and ignores the pecking order in the prison. The reputation of Lucas begins to change when he shows resilience in a boxing match with Dragline, the alpha male inmate. His reputation is cemented when he bluffs at poker with a losing hand, earning him the name “Cool Hand Luke”. From this point forward Luke is revered by the other inmates and looked at as a leader and role model.

    Read More

  • Moral Ambiguity in "The Stranger"

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meursault resists being typecast into an archetypal moral category in many of his deeds and actions. Many of his actions in Part One of the novel help contribute to the fuzzy picture of the character. For example, at his mother's funeral, Meursault does not cry or weep in the typical mourning fashion, but rather sleeps during the vigil and entices one of the other mourners present to smoke a cigarette with him. This would be typically considered "evil" behavior, in the context of the story. He could easily been seen as disrespectful and seditious toward his mother and the established procedures of mourning, which seem to be fairly definite at that era in France. However, this "evil" mold can easily be shaken if one considers that Meursault may be more shaken than anyone else present at the funeral. Considering the other events in the novel, it seems as though he does not have a large capacity for emotion. Based on this, it is not unreasonable to assume that the events leading up to and including his mother's death may have overtaxed his limited scope of emotion, and he was therefore nearly incapable of mourning in the "normal" or expected way for his mother, but rather had to resort to his own, more c...

    Read More

  • Essay On Holocaust Hero

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    What is a hero? A hero can be classified as a number of things. A hero can be a person who in the opinions of others has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. Ervin Staub, a holocaust survivor from Hungary and as scholar on altruistic behavior, has written, "Goodness like evil often begins in small steps. Heroes evolve; they aren't born. Very often the rescuers make only a small commitment at the start, to hide someone for a day or two. But once they had taken that step, they begin to see themselves differently, as someone who helps. What starts as mere willingness becomes intense involvement." The business man, Oskar Schindler, demonstrated a powerful example

    Read More

  • Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Parallels Within

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested of him because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. Meursault never did anything notable or distinctive in his life: a fact which makes the events of the book all the more intriguing.

    Read More

  • Motif of Violence in The Stranger by Albert Camus

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every character that revolves around Meursault seems to be in direct contrast to him. Meursault is an amoral person who does not seem to care passionately about anything. He acts in accordance with physical desires. In other words, Meursault is a sensualist person. At this particular time in his life, his path crosses with his neighbor, Raymond, who feels as though his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to take revenge with minor aid form Meursault. Meursault helps him only because he thinks he has nothing to lose if he does. As things lead into one another, the first major violent act of the book is committed.

    Read More

  • Meursault Isolation Quotes

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main character Meursault is literally a stranger, a stranger to the reader. He is a stranger in many ways. Meursault does not act as we would say a normal person would. Being as he did not shed a tear at his own mothers funeral. Meursault also shot and killed an Arab at the beach and showed no regrets. Throughout the novel Meursault kept himself isolated himself mentally,

    Read More

  • Albert Camus Exile Analysis

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meursault is a man who chooses to observe people, rather than interact with them. He often people watches from his balcony in the evening, than actually going down to communicate with them. While he was in exile, he was forced to converse and discuss his feeling to strangers like his lawyer, and the chaplain of the prison. Due to being a severe introvert, the idea of discussing his problem to another person was foreign for him. The experience of opening himself up to others for help was alienating, and contradicted his personality of being a stranger to everyone. Camus writes, “He didn’t understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me. I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else.” (Camus, 66) Meursault wanted to help his lawyer understand his point of view, but his nature is so closed off that he’s unable to put his feeling into words for others

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Luke Timothy Johnson's Prophetic Jesus

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    Luke Timothy Johnson uses Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church in order to make a strong point that when studying both Luke and Acts as a unit, rather than reading the canonical order in the Bible, gives us one of our best prophetic looks at the Church for all ages. By presenting this point Johnson hopes to light a fire in our churches of today by using the prophetic works of Luke, so that we as Christians will attend to the ways that Christ intended the church to be. In Johnson’s introduction he states that it is not wrong to study Luke and Acts separately as there are many ways to study the scripture, nevertheless it is wrong to look at Luke and see the prophetic ways of Jesus, and then looking at Acts as non-prophetic. Through seeing Luke’s

    Read More

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus - Man or Monster?

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is true that Meursault was different from the rest of society. However, he changes throughout the trial and eventually becomes an existentialist hero. This is because he finds meaning in life. It is ironic, though, that he learns to appreciate life after his is effectively over. His apathetic approach to life is made clear from the first page: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” This foreshadows his approach to everything else in the book. His indifference to Maman’s death contrast’s significantly to Salamano’s distress at losing his dog. Many of the characters in this book also function to highlight his qualities through contrast.

    Read More

  • Meursault Social Issues

    421 Words  | 1 Pages

    Meursault is very much like someone autistic. Autism is a developmental disorder which affects a person’s communication skills, social restrictions and behavior. Like people with autism, Meursault doesn’t know when to show emotions nor think they are important. You can see this pattern in Meursault when he is informed about his mother’s passing. It does not seem to affect him at all and shows this by saying “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 3).

    Read More

  • Comparing Existentialist Values in The Metamorphosis and The Stranger (The Outsider)

    1674 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...immediately gives an impression of a lack of emotion towards the demise of his mother. This lack of emotion highlights the existentialist ideal that we all die, so it doesn't matter what life we have while we are alive. We simply exist, as did Meursault. It becomes apparent, as the novella unfolds, that Meursault has acquired an animal like indifference towards society. His interactions with his neighbour Raymond are an example of his indifferences. It never dawns upon Meursault that society does not condone his interactions with the pimp, avoided by his community. Meursault simply acts to fill his time. Being a single man, he has a lot of time to fill, and finds the weekends passing particularly slowly.

    Read More

  • Meursault as Sisyphus in Albert Camus',The Stranger

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the first half of the novel, we see many examples of Meursault’s freedom and how he exercises it. He does what he wants, when he wants to with no regard to how he affects the people around him. Meursault lives his life with no restrictions. He is his own boss. Relaxed and free.

    Read More

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meursault is a different character than what is expected of a protagonist.

    Read More

  • The Character of Meursault in The Stranger (The Outsider)

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Camus writes in a simple, direct, and uncomplicated style. The choice of language serves well to convey the thoughts of Meursault. The story is told in the first person and traces the development of the narrator's attitude toward himself and the rest of the world. Through this sort of simple grammatical structure, Camus gives the reader the opportunity to become part of the awareness of Meursault. In Part I, what Meursault decides to mention are just concrete facts. He describes objects and people, but makes no attempt to analyze them. Since he makes no effort to analyze things around him, that job is given to the reader. The reader therefore creates his own meaning for Meursault's actions. When he is forced to confront his past and reflect on his experiences, he attempts to understand the reasons for existence. At first, Meursault makes references to his inability to understand what's happening around him, but often what he tells us seems the result of his own indifference or detachment. He is frequently inattentive to his surroundings. His mind wanders in the middle of conversations. Rarely does he make judgments or express opinions about what he or other characters are doing. Meursault walks through life largely unaware of the effect of his actions on others.

    Read More

More about Comparing Saviors In Cool Hand Luke And The Stranger

Open Document