Quote Analysis Assignment
10/21/15
Danny Wilmot
Mrs. P
A man by the name of Thornton Wilder said, “We live in what is, but we find 1,000 ways not to face it,” and to me this quote is saying we live in a world full of tragedies and emotion, but always find a way to stay away from them. In, The Stranger, Meursault suffers from his mother’s death and struggles with finding happiness. This attitude sets up a theme in the story. How he avoids emotions to serious events causes Meursault to think about how a person's life isn’t really important in society. Meursault refuses to think about anything such as fate or God and only believes what he can see. He can only use logic. Whether it is his mother's death, Marie's need to prove her love, or even his killing of the Arab, nothing actually affects his emotions. This quote applies to Meursault because he is a bothered man who can never face his feelings. Meursault begins this story with a prime example of this quote. On page one, Meursault says, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (Page 1) He seems un-affected by the
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Later, Meursault goes to the beach and ends up walking to the spring to cool off, when he arrives, he spots the Arab. The Arab draws his knife, “The light shot off the steal was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead.” (Page 59) and Meursault shoots him. “I fire four more times into the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace.” (Page 59) Meursault has no recognizance of the crime he has caused at this point and shows no feeling towards it. “It was like knocking four times at the door of unhappiness.” - Meursault states on page 59; which says that he knows he should feel bad about what he had done but in reality he just can’t, he is just used to finding ways around his
...r has not done makes no essential difference at the end. The nurse at the funeral tells him, "if you walk too slowly, you'll get heat exhaustion, but if you walk too fast, then the cool air in church will give you a chill.” As he kills the Arab, he thinks, "Whether I fire or don't fire is irrelevant; the ending will be the same.” And at the trial, Meursault tells the prosecutor, "I have lived my life thus and did x, but if I had done y or z instead, it wouldn't have mattered.” And, ultimately, Meursault turns out to be correct; he discovers that when death approaches, all men are equal, no matter what their ages or previous lives. Meursault views death as an escape: you can't escape from it, but you can escape into it, and he prepares himself to do so, bit by bit. Each parellel incident is just one more winding round of the rope that will bind him completely.
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,
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.
Plot: Within in the story, conflict is created by the characters dreams. Meursault dream in the begging of the story is that he has none. Which ultimately causes the conflict in the story. Since Meursault is emotionless and doesn’t know the difference between good and bad this creates conflict. In the story, Meursault quotes “Then I fired four times at the motionless body.” Since Meursault has no dreams, because he is emotionless, he doesn’t know the right between good and bad and we see this here. Meursault kills the Arab on the beach, which causes conflict because he is later sent to prison because of this. Camus purpose of giving Meursault no dreams, is to move the plot forward because if Meursault had dreams he would focus on them and
Meursault in the book tries to overcome his emotional indifference within himself. One example shows Meursault emotional indifference against Marie. In this quote, “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” The quote explains how Meursault doesn’t really think about the consequences of other people’s emotions. When he said in the quote it didn’t mean anything to him, it shows he believes human life and emotions are meaningless. He also says I didn’t think so, showing he struggles to comprehend and make his own interpretations on human emotions from Marie and other people. Another example shown is Meursault against his mother’s funeral. In this quote ‘Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.’ This quote also shows Meursault idea of human life is meaningless. This shows that Meursault believes it doesn’t really matter if his mother died, he’s probably implying that his mother was dying soon...
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
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.
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.
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.
Throughout the novel, coincidence also plays a part in Meursault’s murder of the Arab. His encounter with the Arab shows how the presence of other people in his life makes absolutely no impression on him. His entire life is shaped by happenstance. Taking the Arab’s life was something he did as a natural reaction; he pulled the trigger thinking it was justified. For Meursault it was as simple as asking the Arab to stop, but instead, Meursault kills him, without remorse. Albert Camus portrays Meursault, as aloof, detached, and unemotional. He does not think much about events or their consequences, nor does he express much feeling in relationships or during emotional times. His satisfaction comes above everything else in his life and controls everything he does. Anything that occurs without being a direct plan of Meursault’s is sheer coincidence. He is never concerned with what is going on in other areas of his life or others. He displays impassiveness throughout the part 1, in his reactions to the people and events.
A stranger is also someone who looks and acts strangely which is fitting to Meursault. Meursault never shows emotion and finds it annoying when people do. At his mother’s funeral he gets annoyed of a lady he didn’t
Meursault (the narrator) in The Stranger only sees and only wants to see the absolute truth in society. The readers first encounter with him...
“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.
In Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault is a character who has definite values and opinions concerning the society in which he lives. His self-inflicted alienation from society and all its habits and customs is clear throughout the book. The novel itself is an exercise in absurdity that challenges the reader to face the nagging questions concerning the meaning of human existence. Meursault is an existentialist character who views his life in an unemotional and noncommittal manner, which enhances his obvious opinion that in the end life is utterly meaningless.
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.