Meursault’s vs. Modern Society

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Recommended: Social norms theory

Order is predetermined in only one special way in modern society: following the standards and not breaking social rules. Anyone who doesn’t follow these rules, determined by society itself, is judged. Almost every time, these rules crash against your ideals or whatever you belief in making it a place in which you either change or be judged. The case of Meursault, in The Stranger by Albert Camus, is a perfect example of this, that trough the whole history has been happening. What are the values of modern society? Modern society is based on reliance upon each other. Lying for the benefit of ourselves because our actions depend on the reaction that the people that surround us may have, but hiding all these under a façade built upon supposed morality and truth. Meursault is detached from all the rules society has and follows his ideals. He believes in actual truth, simplicity, and individuality, which seem to be the values that should build a society. This makes us think of how absurd society is and, as Meursault discovers at the end of the novel, how meaningless life is when your individuality is punished. He lives in a world of lies where he chooses to not conform with that and follows what he believes in; for that reason, more than anything else; he is condemned to death by society itself, leaving us with no hope for the recovery of society.
Meursault is an interesting character that has to be carefully analyzed. To everyone’s eyes, he seem to be a strange man that doesn’t care for anything and that’s crazy for acting the way he does. Nevertheless, Meursault is an outsider but in a different way. Meursault believes in simplicity; he doesn’t care for money or for people acceptance. He cares for simple things as nature, pleasure, an...

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...onfronted to a reality that crashes with his ideals and, worst than all, doesn’t accept them because they do not follow a predetermined order that makes society work. This order is established by rules that represses our individualism and makes us be only one of a whole without a true authenticity. Society killed Meursault’s life. The fact that he was different led him to a constant judgment, not only in a court but also in life. It was the fact that it is not possible for an authentic person to exist in a society as the modern society, what finally caused Meursault’s death. It is absurd to think that society is built upon moral values when we don’t even accept someone like Meursault, which portraits this values but in a different way. Then, what is society heading to? The Stranger represents what our society is, and makes understand that there is not hope for it.

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