Who Is Meursault Absurd The Meaning Of Life?

In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault, the main character of the novel, acts as a stranger to the people of his hometown through his actions like not crying at his mother’s funeral. Later in the Novel, Meursault puts himself into a bad situation by being friends with Raymond, who had a group of Arabs that have a grudge on Raymond for beating one of their members sister. The group of Arabs attack Raymond’s group and Meursault ends up killing one of the Arabs in self defense. Meursault is then punished by the justice system and sentenced to death. Even though Meursault had the choice of saving his life by telling the judge that he killed the Arab because the Arab attacked him, but Meursault decides to choose death. Some people believe that Meursault realizes the absurdity and meaningless of life after his sentence. I believe that Meursault knew all along that life is absurd and meaningless before his sentence.

At the beginning of the novel, Marie, Meursault’s significant other, asks him to marry her, and Meursault responds by saying, “ it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to”(41). This quote reveals that MEursault already knows that there is no meaning to life, so why should he make one. He knows that he will die eventually and says yes to marrying Marie because there is no reason for him to not marry her. When Marie tells Meursault that marriage is a serious thing, Meursault responds by saying no, it’s not important to him. He realizes that absurdity of doing anything that will make him happy because he knows the end will always be