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Themes of existentialism in the stranger
The stranger in albert camus
Existentialist essays
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In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses Meursault and his experiences to convey the philosophy that man is full of anxiety and despair with no meaning in his life except for simple existence. The concept of existentialism is reflected through Meursault’s experiences with his mother’s death, his relationship with Marie, his murder of the Arab, and his own trial and execution. For example, Meursault's relationship with his mother seemed to be very strange. He really did not have an emotional connection with her, or anyone in general. It seems that he really did not care that she was dead because he said, “ Maman used to spend her time following me with her eyes, not saying a thing” (Camus 5). This could be interpreted by saying they just did not connect
One of the main points stressed in the stranger is that people have no meaning to life. It is stressed that all lives will come to an end guaranteed and that all of their actions are meaningless. This expresses that he believes that all life is equally meaningless. Late in the story after a dispute with the chaplain is when Meursault realizes this. He notices that just as he had no effect to the world the world had no effect on him. He was going to die anyways just like everyone else. He was born and will die with no importance to the world and so will everyone else.
The Stranger by Albert Camus was published in 1942. The setting of the novel is Algiers where Camus spent his youth in poverty. In many ways the main character, Meursault, is a typical Algerian youth. Like them, and like Camus himself, Meursault was in love with the sun and the sea. His life is devoted to appreciating physical sensations. He seems so devoid of emotion. Something in Meursault's character has appealed primarily to readers since the book's publication. Is he an absurd anti-hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? Critics and readers alike have disputed a variety of approaches to Meursault. I believe he is the embryo of Camus' metaphysical rebel as articulated in the philosophical essay, The Rebel. He is the man who says by his actions, "I will go this far, but no farther."
In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator, Meursault, has difficulty behaving in a manner deemed “normal” by society. Even though he struggles to feel and communicate different emotions, Meursault has many loyal friends and a keen boss. Meursault sees the world in black and white, refusing to focus on matters outside of his control. When his mother dies, Meursault is expected to show a change in his typical lifestyle. Not only do others expect this change, Meursault expects it in himself. With hearing of his mother’s death, shooting the Arab, and facing his own execution, Meursault expects a fundamental transformation in himself and, because he doesn’t experience it, he seeks to find meaning in death.
As put by Jean-Paul Sartre in his essay Existentialism is a Humanism, “The other is indispensable to my existence, and equally so to any knowledge I can have of myself,” meaning that one’s existence is utterly dependent on the existence of others. We see the idea that the perceptions of others shape one’s self very clearly in The Stranger. Meursault requires “that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of [his] execution and that they greet [him] with cries of hate,” signifying that others’ physical expression of hatred (and thus separation) are necessary for Meursault to become truly alienated. Just as he is nothing before he defines himself, he is nothing without being defined by others. Thus, the existential crisis he experiences supports the ideology of existentialism throughout the novel.
The book that I read was called The Stranger written by Albert Camus. The book is globally famous and was translated to many different languages and texts. The original was called L’Étranger which was written in French in 1942. The plot of this story involved a man in his late twenties or early thirties. The man's name is Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Meursault is notified that his mother had passed away in the nursing home that he occupied her to. Meursault’s income could not afford to take care of his mother any longer; therefore, he put her in a nursing home. Meursault took off of work and went to the nursing home where she passed away to pay his respects and attend the funeral ceremonies. When he arrived at the nursing home, the funeral director brought Meursault to his mother’s coffin. The director asked if he wanted to see her and he quickly replied to keep the coffin shut. Meursault sat in the room and nearly went through an entire pack of cigarettes while blankly watching his mother’s coffin. At the actual funeral, Meursault shows no signs of normal emotion which would normally be induced at such an event.
Life is often interpreted as having meaning or purpose. For people like Meursault, the anti-hero protagonist of Albert Camus' The Stranger, the world is completely without either. Camus' story explores the world through the eyes of Meursault, who is quite literally a stranger to society in his indifference to meaning, values, and morals. In this novel, the protagonist lives on with this indifference and is prosecuted and sentenced to die for it. Through Meursault and his ventures in The Stranger, Camus expresses to the reader the idea that the world is fundamentally absurd, but people will react to absurdity by attaching meaning to it in vain, despite the fact that the world, like Meursault, is indifferent to everything.
Camus uses Meursault’s feelings toward society and the world to illustrate that life has no meaning or purpose. Towards the end of the novel Meursault is beginning to realize he has similarities with the world he feels, “ As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself- so like a brother really” (Camus 122). Meursault is put into “blind rage” after the Chaplain meets with him and insists on his acceptance of God. Meursault finally accepts the absurdist beliefs. He realizes that the world’s indifference to human matters is similar to his own indifference to...
In society, when a loved one dies the death is typically a very emotional distressing event that individuals encounter. Death is particularly more heartbreaking when the loved one is a parent. On the other hand, in The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault, the main protagonist, has indifferent emotions to his mother’s recent death; therefore, the death does not phase him as being a mournful loss. As well as his indifferent emotions in relationships and to the tragic loss of his mother, Meursault also has no reasoning or logic behind his actions. Both of these differences cause an even greater alienation from society. Overall, society judges Meursault due to his alienation and demonstrates the emotional values and expectations of society. Despite societal efforts to
In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as post-modernists viewed the world. Rather than living as one gear in the ‘machine’ of society, Meursault defies this unwritten law in the lackluster relationships between he and other females, as well as his seemingly blissful eye to society itself. In The Stranger, males, not females, truly bring out the side of Meursault that has the capacity for compassion and a general, mutual feeling relationship. For example, Marie and Meursault’s relationship only demonstrate Meursault’s lack of an emotional appetite for her. Also, with the death of Maman, Meursault remains virtually unchanged in his thoughts and desires.
In Albert Camus' The Stranger (The Outsider), the protagonist Meursault is clearly disillusioned of life in general. Two examples of this disillusionment occurred in the instances of his mother's death and an offer to be transferred to another work environment. This incomplacency is paramount in discerning this meticulous, selfish Camusian character.
An aspect of existentialism is that life has no inherent meaning, it has to be constructed through the justification of one’s actions. The realization of temporary existence treads on through human evolution. Humans try to gain contact with experiences to be alive and aware. Meursault went through his days absentmindedly, even through the most impactful events such as his mother’s death. The novel continued to have the same pace going about Meursault’s unemotional reactions,
Albert Camus’s novel The Outsider is a fictional narrative that presents strong philosophical themes such as the irrationality of the universe and meaningless of human life. Throughout the novel it is clear that the narrator and protagonist – a young man named Meursault – is the only character that is able to understand and appreciate these ideas or philosophical truths. It is for this reason that he is an outsider. Accordingly, other social groups, including women, are represented as shallow as they constantly attempt to identify or create rational structure and meaning in their lives – Camus’s notion of absurdity. Women are a social group that show attributes of attachment, hope and ambition all of which in the novel are a futile attempt to impose rationality when none exists. Thus, Camus implies that women are shallow — lacking the deeper understanding of the universe.
In The Stranger, Albert Camus characterizes Meursault as a man who focuses on smaller aspects of his life rather than the big picture in order to create an inverted moral standard which makes Meursault an outsider in his own life. Meursault finds lying far more terrible than murder, yet he doesn’t judge people based on their previous actions. He helps a man commit an act of violence against a woman, and though he is an accomplice, he feels no guilt. However, Meursault pushes his emotions away, displacing them into a focus on smaller, more physical aspects of his life, such as noises and the weather.
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 is the protagonist and narrator in Albert Camus' The Outsider, and at first notice, he is seen to be someone who is rather 'colourless', emitting a very boring and uninteresting aura. It is during his time spent in prison (convicted of a murder which wasn't cold-blooded, but rather one that was due to a chain of events) that he becomes an existentialist hero.