The Stranger Nonconformism Essay

Society constrained to a specific social standard reproaches individuals who do not conform to such ethics. Albert Camus’s The Stranger exemplifies Meursault as a passive nonconformist who refuses to meld into society’s norm and thus condemned for failing to meet society’s social expectations. Through the use of irony and hyperbole, Camus reveals how the outcast, Meursault, Is put to death because of his nonconformist beliefs.
Meursault’s nonconformist character consistently doesn’t see the need to express his emotions. The absurdist beliefs of Camus are reflected through Meursault’s passive approach to life. Camus uses a first person perspective which would normally allow the reader to see inside the narrators head. However in this case

we see how inverted Meursault is by his lack of emotion. During Meursault’s first encounter with Raymond, Raymond is telling Meursault about his problem with his “mistress”. The horrific account full of unlawful actions has no effect on Meursault, “… he wanted to know what I thought about this story. I told him that I hadn’t thought about it but it was very interesting.” Later, Meursault and Marie are listening outside Raymond’s door as he beats his “mistress”. Meursault’s response to the event is nonchalant, “Marie said it was terrible and I didn’t say anything…Marie and I finished getting lunch ready. But she wasn’t hungry, I ate nearly all of it. She left at one and I slept for a bit.” He goes through the events of the day detached, stating each occurrence but never delving deeper into a statement. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” Even when referring to his mother’s death, he goes into more detail about his uncertainty of the date than he does about the effect the news has on him. Also during his mother’s funeral, “[He] hadn’t cried once and [he’d] left straight after the funeral without paying [his] respects at her grave”. This reveals that Meursault doesn’t necessarily not feel emotions, he just sees it as unnecessary to express them, which comes from the absurdist’s idea that everything is meaningless.

However society does expect definite emotions to be connected to specific events. Emotions such as a physical representation of grief at his mother’s funeral, and a passionate desire for one’s significant other. His relationship with Marie further represents Meursault’s refusal to conform to society’s demands to express emotion. He thinks nothing of having an affair with her right after his mother’s funeral. When they are together he is solely focused on her body and physical elements as, “[he] helped her onto a buoy…as [he] did so, [he] brushed against her breasts” and, “she had her leg pressed against mine, and I was fondling her breasts.” He “really fancied her because she was wearing a pretty red and white striped dress and leather sandals. You could see the shape of her firm breasts and her suntanned face was like a flower.” All of his observations of Marie are physical, noticing her outer beauty not her inner characteristics or personality. Despite society’s expectation that people be loved for who they are not what they look like, Meursault’s attraction to Marie is purely physical which is proved when she visits him in jail and he, “wanted to squeeze

her shoulders through her dress.” When Marie brings up marriage, Meursault doesn’t hesitate to say he would marry her “if she wanted to” . In regards to if he loves her, “that it didn’t mean anything but the [he] probably didn’t.” Society views love and marriage as a bond and mutual affection between two people. Meursault fails to appropriately represent this tradition by refusing to express emotion or care about Marie’s feelings. Meursault’s passive attitude to life, nonchalant response to Raymond’s vile actions, and his detached relationship with Marie exemplify how he refuses to express emotion thus failing to conform to society’s expectations.
This idea is further developed by Meursault’s simple acceptance of every circumstance despite its discomforts or consequences. “At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.” While in jail, Meursault comprehends that because he believes that everything is meaningless, he can adapt to any situation he is in. Even with the threat of death in his near future, he simply accepts it without argument. “The judge told me in a peculiar way that I would be decapitated in a public square in the name of the French people…But the judge asked me if I had anything to add. I thought it over. I said, “No.” He then justifies his passive lack of objection by saying, “Everybody knows that life isn’t worth living. And when it came down to it, I wasn’t unaware of the fact that it doesn’t matter very much whether you die… given that you’ve got to die, it obviously doesn’t matter exactly how or when…Therefore, I had to accept the rejection of my appeal.” When Marie wants to marry him, Meursault simply complies, “ She just wanted to know if I would have accepted the same proposal from another woman, with whom I was involved in the same way. I said, "Sure." Then she said she wondered if she loved me… I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t have anything to add, so she took my arm with a smile and said she wanted to marry me.” His lack of contemplation over the serious commitment of marriage, exemplifies Meursault’s acceptance of any situation, despite its costly bindings. Meursault’s response of indifference when Raymond asks him to write a letter to entice his “mistress” to come back to him so he can harm her is loathsome. “… He’d thought I might draft it for him. When I didn’t say anything, he asked me if I’d mind doing it right away and I said no…I wrote the letter. I did it rather haphazardly, but I did my best to please Raymond because I had no reason not to please him.” Society’s standard morals would expect one to be appalled at another’s suggestion to write such a letter. However Meursault passively refuses to conform to society’s standard by aloofly accepting every circumstance he encounters.