The Stranger, by Albert Camus, is the story of Meursault, a man who cares not for the future, nor the past. He lives without meaning, without rationality, without emotions. On one fateful day at the beach, Meursault shoots and kills an Arab, leading to a chain of events that causes his death. Throughout the judicial process, Albert Camus criticizes the society he lives in and the values it holds. The Stranger is the definitive work on Camus' own thoughts, and the basis of title as the Professor of the Absurd. The story of Meursault exemplifies Camus' Absurdist philosophy, which was a result of Camus’ poor childhood that forced him to struggle for the best in his life against adverse conditions, his adulthood that showed him the irrationality of society, and the Second World War that showed him the gruesome horror of death. His philosophy is reflected in his criticism of Meursault's indifferences towards death, the irrationality of the Arab's killing, and the consequences that the Law enacts upon Meursault in return.
The early life of Camus seeded the roots of his Absurdist philosophy by forcing him to live his life to the fullest, even under adverse circumstances. He was born in Algiers, Algeria in the year 1913, raised by his mother after his father's death in World War I. He found wonder in his surroundings, but also injustice - and still, he struggled to make the best of his life. "I lived in destitution but also in a kind of sensual delight" (Encyclopedia of World Biography, "Childhood"), he said, showing how even when he grew up poor and in the working-class section of town, he found his own happiness. In primary school, Camus was a hard-working student, and with the help of his teacher, managed to gain admission to the Al...
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...ault's reflection on his mother's death, the killing of the Arab, and his impending punishment show Camus' innate belief in absurdity. It is a treatise against nihilism, a message to find meaning in the meaningless void that is life, and to accept that contradiction as a fundamental part of one's belief.
Works Cited
"Albert Camus - Philosopher - Biography." The European Graduate School - Graduate & Postgraduate Studies Program - Saas Fee, Switzerland. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
"Albert Camus Biography - life, childhood, name, death, history, mother, young, book, old, information, born, time, year." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Matthew Ward. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Print.
Rubé, Pierre, and Kenneth Douglas. "Who Was Albert Camus?" Yale French Studies 25 (1960): 3-9. JSTOR. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
In Part One of The Stranger, Albert Camus avoids religious confrontations with Meursault in order to subconsciously place blame on Christ for his criminal actions. Camus restricts Meursault’s relationships to further distance him from his mother. Meursault then alienates himself from the typical spiritual ceremonies and actions to demonstrate his distrust of religion. Simultaneously, Camus uses diction of clear and bright elements to characterize people in the novel, excluding Meursault. Camus associates dark colors with Meursault to depict a sadistic persona. To conclude, Camus places Meursault in recurring situations which result in him being distracted by “the light”. Camus uses these literary techniques in The Stranger to demonstrate man’s condemnation of God.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger offers one man’s incite into the justice of society. Monsieur Meursault, the main protagonist in the novel, believes that morals and the concept of right and wrong possess no importance. This idea influences him to act distinctively in situations that require emotion and just decision, including feeling sadness over his mother’s death, the abuse of a woman, and his killing of an innocent man. In these situations Meursault apathetically devoids himself of all emotion and abstains from dealing with the reality in front of him. When confronted by the court over his murder, he reiterates his habitual motto on life that nothing matters anyways, so why care? His uncaring response inflames the people working within the
In the words of Joseph Roux, “Solitude vivifies; isolation kills” (BrainyQuote 1). Albert Camus’ explores existentialism in his novel The Stranger. He fabricates an insulated, neurotic pariah named Meursault. Meursault exemplifies many deplorable, condescending characteristics that society finds aberrant, which eventually leads to his demise. Alienated, isolated, and truly a “stranger”, Meursault, in Albert Camus’ The Stranger, confirms his inevitable quarantine from society through his scrupulous actions, thoughts, and words.
Camus a fait ses études à l’Université d’Alger. Il a commencé à jouer au football et il était le gardien de but de son école. C’est en ce moment-là qu’Albert Camus a découvert son affection pour la philosophie. En 1930, il est diagnostiqué d’avoir contracté la tuberculose. Apres cette mauvaise nouvelle, il a arrêté de pratiquer le football et a tourné son intérêt vers l’éducation. En 1934, il s’est marié à une starlette algérienne, Simone Hie. Mais, son mariage n’a pas vécu longtemps parce qu’elle lui a trompé souvent parce qu’elle le trompait souvent. Apres avoir reçu sa licence de en philosophie et après avoir présenté sa thèse sur le Néo-Platonisme et Pensée Chrétienne, Camus rejoint le Parti Communiste où il a protesté contre l’inégalité existante entre les Européens et les pieds noirs. Ensuite, il a rejoint Le Parti du Peuple Algérien et s’est fait exclure du parti communiste.
Albert Camus was born in Mondovi, Algeria. He was the second son to Lucien and Catherine Camus. Camus suffered from Tuberculosis and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. There his uncle, Gustave, was able to educate him and add drive of curiosity to his nephew. As his writing career be gain to grow Camus moved to France in 1938. Where he in 1942 at the age of 29 Camus he wrote his famous book, The Stranger. Connections between the protagonist, Meursault, and Camus can be seen because of small similar details between both of the main characters and authors lives.
Albert Camus was a French-Algerian novelist, essayist, dramatist, and journalist and a Nobel laureate. He was born in Algeria to a French father and Spanish mother. After his father was killed in WWI, he was raised in poverty by his grandmother and mother. He was forced to end his studies and limit his life in theatre as a playwright, director, and actor due to tuberculosis. He then turned his interest to politics and, after briefly being a member of the Communist party, he began a career in journalism in 1930. His articles reflected the suffering of the Arabs in Algeria. This led him to his dismissal of his newspaper job. Later, he worked in Paris for a newspaper and soon he became involved in Resistance movements against the Germans. He started writing an underground newspaper. Camus wrote many novels and his writings, illustrated his view of the absurdity of human existence: Humans are not absurd, and the world is not absurd, but for humans to be in the world is absurd. In his opinion, humans cannot feel at home in the world because they yearn for order, clarity, meaning, and eternal life, while the world is chaotic, obscure, and indifferent and offers only suffering and death. Thus human beings are alienated from the world. Integrity and dignity require them to face and accept the human condition as it is and to find purely human solutions to their plight. He used a simple and clear but elegant form of writing to convey his ideas about morality, justice and love. In 1957, Camus received the Nobel price for literature. He was deeply troubled by the Algerian War of Independence and he immersed himself in the theatre and working on an autobiographical novel. He died in an automobile accident just before being named director of the national theater.
In 1923, Albert was accepted into a lycée secondary school, which is a government run and maintained school. After finishing his secondary schooling in 1932, Camus was accepted into the University of Algiers where he played football. During his time at the University, in 1930 he got tuberculosis. This caused him to quit playing football and become a part time student. Five years later he earned his bachelor’s degr...
...iod when Camus writes this novel. Camus obviously knew the time period and explored different ideas and philosophies about pointless of life in people which comes out in his character, Meursault. In prison Meursualt also realizes that he’s trapped, and there’s no way out as he remembers what the nurse once said to him. His growth in self reflection results in unimportance of emotional values of life and help focus what’s directly ahead of him. This significant change results him in understanding himself and his voice, and figuring out his capabilities and philosophies. Time spent in prison helps Meursault finally understands himself, the meaninglessness of life, and the unimportance of time which shows the shift in the character after sent to prison.
An absurdist tends to discover meaning despite living in a meaningless world and are unable to fully accept and understand that every life ultimately ends. Depending on a person’s ethics and morals, some indications can be made on how someone’s life may transpire with each differing and playing a role. These people often partake in unethical and immoral actions, aware of it or not, in order to achieve some type of meaning in their absurdist life. In the novel The Fall, by Albert Camus is about an Absurdist man who used to be a judge penitent in Paris before he moves to Amsterdam. While living in Paris, Clamence lives a life full of lies as he views himself superior, as he tends to help the least fortunate. In reality, his motives are flawed
Throughout Camus’ essay he explains the philosophical idea of the Absurd and also talks about the Greek myth of Sisyphus, which can be related to a main part in his philosophy. In the preface, Camus explains that one major part of this essay is the subject of absurdness of suicide and how one can define meaning to life by this action. As the essay goes on, the meaning of life is a question that Camus struggles to understand, but soon finds his answer through the concept of the absurd. Camus gives us a series of different examples that can be translated into our own lives, thus helping us understand the meaning of the absurd.
	Camus was born into poverty on November 2, 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria (a former French colony in Africa). His mother, Catherine Sintes, was a cleaning woman, and his father, Lucien Camus, was a farmhand. Only a few months old, Albert lost his father in the horrors of World War I in 1914. After the loss of his father, him, his brother and his mother moved in to his grandmother's three-bedroom apartment with his two uncles. The only way Albert "escaped" from this harsh reality was on the beaches of Algiers. At the age of fourteen, Camus was diagnosed with the first stages of tuberculosis. This disease plagued him for the rest of his life. At age seventeen, Albert moved in with his uncle by marriage, Gustave Acault, who provided Albert with a better environment as well as an actual father figure. After enduring the hardships of his childhood, Camus began writing at age seventeen.
The trial and conviction of Meursault represents the main ideals of absurdism, that truth does not exist, and life is precious. The jury’s attempt to place a proper verdict on Meursault is compared to mankind’s futile attempt to find order in an irrational universe. Because there is no real truth in the trial, the verdict was unfair and illogical. Camus uses his beliefs of truth not existing and life being precious to point out the absurdity of the judicial system, and suggest the abolishment of the death penalty.
opinion on existential nihilism. Existential nihilism is the philosophy that life has no intrinsic meaning, and rejects all religious and moral conformity. The main character meursault, displays all of these traits throughout the book. Camus gives the reader an alternative outlook on the life and how there is no right or wrong way of living because in the end, whether that be sooner or later everyone is going to have the same end fate. Camus demonstrated his belief of existential nihilism through the external and internal
Aronson, Ronald, "Albert Camus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .
Camus’s motif of the sun illustrates Meursault’s emotions as he approaches the Arab, the sun’s rays separating Meursault from reality. “I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward” (59). Yet after he utters this statement he takes another few steps forward. This sets the stage for the climax of Meursault’s murder of the Arab. More than anything the sun is depicted as a distraction to Meursault. It causes him to do things he would not normally do and clouds his judgment, causing him to commit a serious crime which will cause his own death. The sun is in a way a representation of the constraints society places upon Meursault. The effect the sun has on Meursault that results in death is a parallel to the effect of society on Meursault, which also results in death.