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Albert camus the stranger ethics
Critical analysis essay on The Stranger
Critical analysis essay on The Stranger
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World Without Purpose in Camus' The Stranger (The Outsider)
In The Stranger, Albert Camus misleadingly portrays his existentialistic views of life, death, and the world. Camus portrays the world as absurd or without purpose Meaursalt, who, as a reflection of Camus, is foreign and indifferent to his own life and death. Meaursalt eventually senses guilt for his crime, not because of the remorse of taking someone else’s life, but because it means he would lose the little things that he considers important in his life. Meaursalt is a puzzling character, who leaves readers to be uncertain about Camus’ views of life.
Meaursalt is a simple and ordinary man living in French Morocco. Neither intellectual nor emotional, when his mother died, he did not feel or show any sorrow. He is a character rather distracted by his surrounding, such as people walking by and nature. He would feel much irritation whenever the sun would shine red and bright. On a thoughtless walk on the beach, he ends up killing an Arab (who had a hostile relationship with his friend) for no apparent reason, but because his [Arab] blade light reflected by the sun. In addition, for no good reason he shoots four more times, the body lying on the ground. He is tried in court, during which he feels he is his own spectator. Meaursalt gets convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Before execution, he feels guilt for the first time because he would miss the simple things in life. However, he is never scared to die, because for him death comes eventually. Just before the execution, a chaplain tries to make him believe in God, but Meaursalt angrily defends his atheistic views.
Meaursalt is an uncommon character that prefers simpl...
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...t sure whether to say it is objective or subjective. The novel itself is a puzzle to me and I’m not in any pursuit to figure it out. I’m not refusing to, but I find no point in doing so. The same way Meaursalt treats life as meaningless, I treat it the same way, but that life is meaningful. We don’t need to go searching too hard that in the process we give up on life, as I see Meaursalt as. I think you could have a meaningful life without knowing the meaning. I can’t accept Meaursalt’s values, because I do believe in a God and an afterlife. That is the difference between him and me. I would not recommend this book to anybody who is in the process of soul searching. It is a confusing yet an unique story to be regarded only as Camus’ point of view of life.
Works Cited:
Camus, Albert. The Stranger, trans. Mathew Ward. New York: Random House, Inc., 1988.
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The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of a sequence of events in one man's life that cause him to question the nature of the universe and his position in it. The book is written in two parts and each part seems to reflect in large degree the actions occurring in the other. There are curious parallels throughout the two parts that seem to indicate the emotional state of Meursault, the protagonist, and his view of the world.
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Albert Camus is a widely renowned author and existentialist philosopher from the 1950s. He believed in a concept called “The Absurd” which he described as the notion that our universe is completely irrational, yet people continue to try and give order and meaning to it. For most normal human beings, this is an extremely difficult concept to accept, including the main character from the novel “The Stranger”, Meursault. Meursault does not express and ignores his emotions, even though it is evident in the book that he does experience them. However, once Meursault falls into a blind rage with the chaplain, the universe begins to make more sense to him. In order to come to an acceptance of the indifference of the universe, one must have an emotional breakthrough, which Camus shows through differences in sentence structure and elemental imagery between parts one and two.
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In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Meursault, the protagonist, could be seen as immoral if he were judged on the basis of his actions alone. However, through Camus’s use of a first person narrative, we begin to understand Meursault as not an immoral man, but simply an indifferent one. Meursault is a symbol of the universe, and so in understanding him we understand that the universe is also not evil, but instead a place of gentle indifference.
Many people attempt to find purpose of their own life through God, blind to the absurdness of life and the universe. In the beginning of the novel, Meursault does not display any emotions when his mother dies because death has no underlying meaning to him. After killing the Arab man and spending months in prison, he realizes that life has no purpose and is meaningless, which contrasts with the beliefs of society and the teachings of religion. But it’s not until after Meursault’s encounter with the chaplain that he embraces his death as a bond that connects him with society. Meursault is emptied of hope and calmly awaits his execution, no longer viewing himself as a stranger to society.
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In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.
In Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault is a character who has definite values and opinions concerning the society in which he lives. His self-inflicted alienation from society and all its habits and customs is clear throughout the book. The novel itself is an exercise in absurdity that challenges the reader to face the nagging questions concerning the meaning of human existence. Meursault is an existentialist character who views his life in an unemotional and noncommittal manner, which enhances his obvious opinion that in the end life is utterly meaningless.
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Meursault was always indifferent. Meursault accepted death. Why? Meursault saw the purpose of life meaningless. That is “Absurdity”! Absurdity, how does that word sound? Pretty bad, eh? Absurdity when used like “that’s absurd!” gives the feeling of negative judgment and a sense of finality. The idea of the Absurd seems to attach itself with meaningless, pointless and other such words that express a destination but without the means to get there and vice versa means but no destination. So from there I inferred that Camus does not believe in God nor any high law or universal law that are associated with a divinity, which is a path in life (either the means or the destination). So what is Absurd? The Absurd is living, a quest to find the meaning of anything within a reality with no purpose. Reality has no purpose because there is no high law, a universal law nor a God. Therefore this reality must be randomness. I believe that Camus wants us to see this and begin questioning our existence. So he wants he wants us to see the Absurdity and to cope with the Absurdity.