The Importance Of Transformations In The Stranger By Albert Camus And The Cathedral

Epiphanies and sudden realizations have such a profound and immediate change on one’s character, it’s difficult to understand their cause. Many authors write countless words and pages to be able to make these moments relatable to others. They dedicate entire novels to a single paradigm shift that occurs with their protagonist, in hopes that another person will be able to share and adopt the same insight. In The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Cathedral by Raymond Carver, the dedication to experience this will others is apparent. Both authors create a catalyst of change for the protagonist, one that conveys the overbearing reality to which they are voluntarily ignorant.

Referenced throughout The Stranger, the sun represents a overbearing symbol for the realization of reality for Meursault. The book’s setting even begins with the underlying importance of the sun. Taking place in the capital of Algeria, the environment unrelentingly sunny. The summers are said to be eternal, beginning early in the morning and ending late into the night. Camus wrote the novel in this environment to greatly intensify the sun’s presence. However, Meursault’s first impression of the sun is of discontent, he seems as if he’s trying to run away from it’s light. He first mentions it when he arrives at his mother’s funeral, “The sky was already filled with light. The sun was beginning to bear down on the earth and it was getting hotter by the minute.” (Camus 15) The sun begins to increase its intensity as Meursault comes face to face with the death of his mother, almost as if the reality of death is becoming ever more unignorable.

Meursault continues to ignore this light as it intensifies and that turns him childish. His thoughts and his actions revolve ...

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...rom himself. He has no interest of seeing the reality of the world, so he blocks it out with impressions made from others. The blind man however teaches Robert to see the reality around him. He serves as a mentor as Robert metaphorically draws his epiphany; “But I had my eyes closed. I thought I'd keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.'Well?' he said. 'Are you looking?' My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything. 'It's really something,' I said."(1081) This quotes explains the shift from a self-imposed confinement to an enlightened realism that occurs within Robert. The drawing of the cathedral serves as a catalyst for in changing opening robert’s eyes to the reality around him. He was no longer blinded by close-mindedness and prejudice, his eyes were finally open.