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Character sketch of meursault in the stranger
The stranger albert camus critique
The stranger in albert camus
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Indifference in Albert Camus' The Stranger
In Albert Camus novel, The Stranger (The Outsider), the main character Meursault displays a unique indifference to his surroundings and the world around him. It takes him a degree of time to come to terms with his indifference, but when he does he feels truly free from society's constricting bonds. He leads an apathetic lifestyle that is characterized by his constant lack of a definitive personality. Meursault wanders through life as if in a drunken stupor, living the life of a pleasure seeker. When he accepts his death he is relieved of the pressure of dealing with guilt and with relationships towards other people.
Meursault's guilt plays a large role in the novel as far as his everyday dealings with his attitude about life in general. Meursault feels guilty about not feeling guilty. He knows when he enters a situation such as when his mother died he should have felt guilt and remorse, but didn't and therefore his emotional state turned to an apologetic atmosphere. The concept of Meursault feeling apologetic instead of feeling guilty is illustrated when he is asking for time off from his job to go to his mother's funeral. "Sorry, sir, but it's not my fault, you know." p.1 He was sorry for leaving work and thus he apologized, but then he later reasoned to himself that he knows under the circumstances he had no need to be sorry for asking for a couple days off. Meursault later wishes he reconciled with his mother about sending her to a home. He was sorry for doing it, but director of the home assured him that he had done everything he could have for her in light of his situation. With Meursault working in a town a few hours away by bus he was unable to visit his mother as often a...
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...ifference to the world he feels free because he no longer has to answer to anyone or be annoyed with doing anything that takes him away from his true love of self-pleasure. Meursault lives by and for the moment without regard for the ramifications or consequences of his actions. When his moment of purification by pain occurs he is exhilarated by the energy he feels with the crowd that has gathered to see him lose his life. Before he is beheaded he comes to terms about his life, he deems that now that it's about to be over he can fulfill his need of achieving ultimate pleasure. I if I were placed in the same circumstance, I would have already come to terms with my own mortality knowing that I was facing death for the crime I had committed. Because I don't know if I believe in God, I don't know if would look forward to an afterlife or dread going into nothingness.
Albert Camus is a skillful writer noted for showing aspects of culture and society through the depiction of his characters. In The Stranger, Camus illustrates the existentialism culture and how that comes into play in the life of the protagonist Meursault. The Stranger, as suggested by the title, is a novel revolving around the protagonist, Meursault, who is a stranger to the French-Algerian society as he challenges its values. Camus vividly portrays Meursault’s journey through the use of imagery, irony, and symbolism. In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the minor character, Raymond Sintes, to illustrate the contrasting nature of Meursault and how his friendship with Raymond leads to his downfall.
This passage is set before Meursault’s execution with the chaplain entering the scene, and telling Meursault that his “heart is blind”, leading to Meursault to yell and delve into his rant, and moment of consciousness. The passage has a calm in the beginning as if Meursault catches his breath from yelling previously, and he starts to reassure himself that he is not wrong for expressing his views as it went against the public’s religious beliefs, and states that this moment was so important to him that it was if his life was merely leading up to it. Why this particular scene is important to Meursault is that this is an instance where he successfully detaches himself from the world, and begins to deconstruct the world’s ideals as his rant shifts on to focusing on how nothing in life mattered. Meursault describes his gripes with the chaplain’s words as he explains his reasoning as to why the concept of a god is flawed as Meursault saw that everyone was inherently the same, with equal privileges just how often people could express them separated them. The passage continues with Meursault arguing that everyone would be faced with judgment or punishment one day, and explains why his own situation was not significant as it was no different. After that explanation the passage ends with Meursault posing the concept of everything in the world being equal both in wrongdoing and life in general, evident in his example of saying “Sala¬mano's dog was worth just as much as his wife.” Although the passage shows Meursault challenging the ethics and morals that the world around him follows, it does have instances like the end in which we see that the rant is still expression of Meursault's complex emotions, as it is unclear whether it is fear or a...
However, upon deciding to kill a man, he quickly learns that his previous unconcern will not diminish the consequences for his deed. Put to death, Meursault remains stagnant on his opinion of justice, refusing to ever consider that justice possesses any worth. Upon receiving a visit from a chaplain hours before his execution, he merely uttered “I had been right, I was still right, I was always right” (Camus 121) Meursault did not understand why the chaplain wanted to force him to turn to God and gain a moral sense about life. Thus he simply reiterated the motto that he lived by: an apathetic, self-absorbed idea that nothing in life means anything. Meursault’s continual refusal to accept the moral standards of the world prohibited him from every truly finding a true sense of
While coming to terms with the absurd was a gradual process for Meursault, his final days and his heated conversation with the chaplain, and his desire for a hateful crowd of spectators show that he was able to accept the absurdity, and revel in it, finding satisfaction in spite of those around him and justifying his murder. His ego had reached an all-time high as he neared his execution, and his satisfaction left him prepared for the nothingness awaiting him. This process was a natural psychological response to his mortality, for his peace of mind. Therefore, Meursault is not the Stranger, an alien to society, but a troubled man seeking meaning and satisfaction in a life and a world that was overwhelming unsatisfactory and absurd.
Because some cheerleading squads don’t compete, society thinks of it merely as a physical activity. Even though cheerleaders’ main purpose is to support other athletic activities, cheer squads whom compete, follow all physical criteria to be considered a sport. Cheerleaders put forth an incredible amount of determination. They practice tirelessly to show off their skills, with little or no recognition for their efforts. Cheerleading is a sport because it requires physical fitness, skill, dedication, and stamina. Cheerleading should be considered a sport globally.
...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.
As the engue marked a pledge the ekdosis marked a transformation of the bride as she shifted from a child to an adult, a virgin to a wife. Actions that symbolized this transfer included cutting of the bride’s hair, removing the girdle she wore since puberty, and taking a ritual bath in water from a sacred spring.
The New York Times states that cheerleading is the fastest growing girls’ sport, yet more than half of Americans do not believe it is a sport. A sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (dictionary.com). Cheerleading at a competitive level is physically demanding and requires team work to be the best. The misconception of cheerleaders being weak, nonathletic crowd entertainers makes people believe cheerleaders are not athletes and that cheerleading is just a hobby but cheerleaders that compete at a competitive level are in fact athletes because it meets the standards of what a sport is, which includes rules and regulations, and overcoming air resistance.
At first glance, Meursault could be seen as an evil man. He shows no grief at his mother’s funeral, worrying more about the heat. His first reaction to his mother’s death is not sadness, it is a matter-of-fact, unemotional acceptance of the situation. “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” Later on in the story, Meursault kills an Arab on the beach, and his only concern is that he has ruined the calm, pleasant day he was having. When he is in jail, the magistrate comes in an attempt to save Meursault’s soul, but instead of cooperating, Meursault simply confounds the magistrate by refusing to believe in God. Even at his trial, Meursault doesn’t show any remorse for having killed the Arab. Based on this evidence alone, how can we not see Meursault as evil?
Human sacrifice killings is a horrific but devastatingly true reality for some that come too close to the jaws of the Matamoros cult. People usually think of a utopia as an amusement park or just an amazing dream. The dictionary version is often defined as “any visionary system of political or social perfection” (“Utopia”). A dystopia is quite the opposite though. Think of your worst nightmare and that is exactly what a dystopia is. The professional definition is “a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding” (“Dystopia”). As it goes in 1984, the whole book is based on a dystopian society. Citizens have horrible lives which leave them dehumanized by the central government. They are also being under
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.
Love can torment those who have it, especially if the relationship is stopped in an abrupt manner. The narrator of “The Raven” is constantly having a conversation with a Raven that is intrinsically controlling his mind. The narrator’s
From the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with the fact that Meursault’s mother has just died. Meursault, who has just been told this, proceeds to tell his irritated employer and then asks for a leave in order to arrive to his mother’s final resting place. Upon arrival, however, all Meursault does is fall asleep. He lacks the empathy to even cry tears and is seemingly unfazed by the situation as a whole. When a person himself is unable to feel the pain that arrives with losing his or her kin, let alone his or her closest family member, one must wonder if the person is truly sane or even contains the notion
Attention to the trial sequence will reveal that the key elements of the conviction had little to do with the actual crime Meursault had committed, but rather the "unspeakable atrocities" he had committed while in mourning of his mother's death, which consisted of smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of coffee, and failing to cry or appear sufficiently distraught. Indeed, the deformed misconception of moral truth which the jury [society] seeks is based on a detached, objective observation of right or wrong, thereby misrepresenting the ideals of justice by failing to recognize that personal freedom and choice are "...the essence of individual existence and the deciding factor of one's morality.2" The execution of Meursault at the close of the novel symbolically brings
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.