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How does meursault change the stranger
The evolution of Meursault's character in the stranger
The evolution of Meursault's character in the stranger
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Throughout the short novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus contains symbolic references that are portrayed throughout the novel. Meursault, the protagonist of this story, is portrayed as a cold, emotionless, and strange being. He lacks emotion and sometimes seems to be afraid of it as well. The sun and the heat is a constant symbol throughout the novel. Meursault is constantly attacked by the sun and its heat. It can be brushed off as a lack of tolerance for heat or as a part of Meursault's strangeness. However, the sun is the only thing that seems to hinder Meursault. Perhaps the true antagonist of this novel is the sun and its unbearable heat. Despite the fact that everything else in the world cannot phase Meursault the sun can easily take …show more content…
The day his mother’s funeral is being held, turns out to be a scorching day. Meursault barely pays attention to the funeral, the heat holding his attention. The nature of the sun is to bring heat whether it’s pleasant or not. Meursault says that “The glare from the sky was unbearable.” (16). This shows his inability to deal with the heat at early stages. He is focused on the sun forgetting that around him people were mourning his mother’s death. He ignores the fact that his mother is dead and instead tries to rid the glare of the sun. The glare of the sun represents the glare of society at Meursault’s indifference towards death. This first encounter with the sun gives the readers a glimpse into Meursault’s beliefs. It begins to shape and influence Meursault’s belief on humanity and life. For instance, as the procession comes to an end he talks with the village nurse who states, “She said, ‘If you go slowly, you risk getting a sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.’ She was right. There was no way out.” (17). This shows how the heat doesn’t stop for one’s life. There’s a cycle of events that you can’t escape and the heat helps to make the cycle continue. In the cycle we call life, death awaits at the end and then it is the end of one life. Death is the relief to the cycle of human life and to Meursault these are times …show more content…
There is psychological damage done when the heat is unbearable. On his trip to the beach with Marie and Raymond, the sun is constantly added into his descriptions. The sun makes an appearance into Meursault’s narration when something critical or symbolic towards the meaningless of life is presented. The more scorching moments are presented as the narrative the moments of the meaninglessness of human life is brought into greater relief. For example, when Raymond hands Meursault a gun to use for self defense, he narrates, “The sun glinted off Raymond’s gun as he handed it to me.” (56). The sun makes an appearance in his narration because a gun has the power to end a life. Society stiffens at the thoughts of a gun in a person’s hand. It brings them fear and tension. It makes Meursault think of what he should do compared to what he feels. As Meursault’s philosophy is that life holds no meaning if the sun; a natural force allows death to occur and disregards humanity he ignores the sun’s warnings. Once Meursault receives the gun, the sun’s heat suddenly grows unbearable for Meursault causing pain physically and psychologically. Physically he feels the intense heat hitting him causing dizziness, but mentally he feels the sun cutting into his mind. According to the text it states, “...the Arab drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun. The light shot off the steel and it was like a long flashing blade cutting at my
“Then he explained that was what he needed advice about. He stopped to adjust the lamp’s wick, which was smoking. I just listened. I’d drunk close to a liter of wine and my temples were burning.[…]What bothered him was that he ‘still has sexual feelings for her.’ But he wanted to punish her” (31). Raymond tries the make the setting more comfortable as he adjusts the lamp’s wick, and has Meursault slightly drunk. When someone is drunk, his judgment is impaired. Thus, Meursault easily agreed to whatever is coming next. Raymond re-appeals to Meursault physical desires by claiming he still has sexual feelings for the woman they are discussing. This scene is significant because it illustrates how Raymond understands that Meursault has existentialist traits, thus, cannot be easily wowed by emotional desires but rather by physical ones. As the dialogue progresses, Camus’ conflict builds: “But Raymond told me he didn’t think he could write the kind of letter it would take and that he’d thought of asking me to write for him. Since I didn’t say anything, he asked if I’d mind doing it right then and I said no” (32). “I tried my best to please Raymond because I didn’t have any reason not to please him” (32). Taking advantage of the ambiguous response, Raymond gives Meursault the supplies to write the letter, thus, achieving his objective. “He stopped calling me ‘monsieur.’ It was only when he announced
In Part I, Meursault is spending the night next to his mother's coffin at a sort of pre-funeral vigil. With him are several old people who were friends of his mother at the home in which she had been living at the time of her death. Meursault has the strange feeling that he can see all of their faces really clearly, that he can observe every detail of their clothing and that they will be indelibly impr...
This passage is set before Meursault’s execution with the chaplain entering the scene, and telling Meursault that his “heart is blind”, leading to Meursault to yell and delve into his rant, and moment of consciousness. The passage has a calm in the beginning as if Meursault catches his breath from yelling previously, and he starts to reassure himself that he is not wrong for expressing his views as it went against the public’s religious beliefs, and states that this moment was so important to him that it was if his life was merely leading up to it. Why this particular scene is important to Meursault is that this is an instance where he successfully detaches himself from the world, and begins to deconstruct the world’s ideals as his rant shifts on to focusing on how nothing in life mattered. Meursault describes his gripes with the chaplain’s words as he explains his reasoning as to why the concept of a god is flawed as Meursault saw that everyone was inherently the same, with equal privileges just how often people could express them separated them. The passage continues with Meursault arguing that everyone would be faced with judgment or punishment one day, and explains why his own situation was not significant as it was no different. After that explanation the passage ends with Meursault posing the concept of everything in the world being equal both in wrongdoing and life in general, evident in his example of saying “Sala¬mano's dog was worth just as much as his wife.” Although the passage shows Meursault challenging the ethics and morals that the world around him follows, it does have instances like the end in which we see that the rant is still expression of Meursault's complex emotions, as it is unclear whether it is fear or a...
... his mother and the idea of God which is again supported by his close relationships. Those relationships are with people who don’t believe in a higher being or who show no true morals. Camus accommodates white with many objects and people, yet purposely excludes Meursault and refers to him as dark. All of these techniques show Meursault as a nonreligious man with potential to harm without remorse. This leads up to his interaction with light where he feels uncomfortable just as he does with God. Meursault’s history and personality lead up to the murder of the Arab, the distraction of the light, and in the end, accusing God, “the light”, for his criminal behavior. Human nature needs moral standards or the world would be as corrupt as Meursault’s life.
However, both the force of society and the force of the sun can become overpowering. They beat down on people, smothering and suffocating them, just as the sun beats down upon Meursault throughout the novel. The sun is present whenever the force of society is strong within Meursault. At the funeral, the sun bears down on Meursault as society smothers him with expectations that he will grieve his mother's death in a typical manner. At the beach when he kills the Arab, the sun is ever present and overpowering, making Meursault disoriented and confused.
There was a very notable instance in The Stranger where Meursault chose to stay out and walk back to the spring to cool off, albeit the fight earlier with the “two Arabs in blue dungarees.” (Camus 35) The heat was nearly unbearable for Meursault and had worn him out. When Meursault reached the spring, he encountered the Arab again, particularly the brother of Raymond’s mistress. The Arab approached Meursault and “drew his knife and held it up to [him] in the sun.” (Camus 38) Meursault’s uncomfortableness grew and “[his] whole being tensed and [he] squeezed [...
...ough Maman’s funeral and the impact of Maman’s death on Meursault. In the first chapter, Meursault is disconnected from the world around him; only responding to the social customs set in place and showing awareness in why they should be followed, but he does not understand why that is the case. In the last chapter, the inevitable arrival of Meursault’s own death makes him aware that the life he lived meant nothing because things would be the same at the end despite what choies he made. This acceptance is reached because Meursault was guided through death. Thus, Maman’s funeral links Meursault and Maman together as two individuals who accept their despair-filled truth but demonstrate the willingness to live again because they carry that acceptance with them.
In the novel, we are given a more complete view of Meursault. The story is told from his point-of-view, which allows us to understand the situation as Meursault perceives it. Looking at the situation in this light, we can see Meursault as not evil, but simply indifferent and detached from life. He doesn’t attempt to get wrapped up in emotion or relationships, he just takes things as they come, doing whatever is easiest for him. He becomes friends with Raymond and agrees to marry Marie simply because he doesn’t have a very good reason not to. Seeing the story from Meursault’s viewpoint, we understand that even killing the Arab wasn’t an act of malice or evil intent. As Meursault puts it, “My nature is such that my physical needs often get in the way of my feelings.” With this in context, things begin to make more sense. Meursault’s seemingly cryptic statement that he murdered the Arab “because of the sun” can be taken as truth. Meursault does things that society judges as wrong not because he is evil or wants to appear immoral, but because the sun and heat, symbols for Meursault’s emotional state, cause him to become uncomfortable and act “inappropriately.
...immediately gives an impression of a lack of emotion towards the demise of his mother. This lack of emotion highlights the existentialist ideal that we all die, so it doesn't matter what life we have while we are alive. We simply exist, as did Meursault. It becomes apparent, as the novella unfolds, that Meursault has acquired an animal like indifference towards society. His interactions with his neighbour Raymond are an example of his indifferences. It never dawns upon Meursault that society does not condone his interactions with the pimp, avoided by his community. Meursault simply acts to fill his time. Being a single man, he has a lot of time to fill, and finds the weekends passing particularly slowly.
In the opening of the novel, Meursault receives word that his mother has passed away. While keeping her vigil, he smokes a cigarette. He hesitates at first, because he doesn’t know if he should smoke with his mother right there, but, he says, “I thought about it, it didn’t matter.” He is not sad about her death. Therefore he sees no reason to act as if he is.
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.
As part of his revenge Raymond beats up his girlfriend, only to be followed by her Arab brother. At this time Raymond thinks Meursault to be his good friend and takes him to his friend Masson's beach house, where the two major violent acts that lead to Meursault's ultimate metamorphosis takes place.
Attention to the trial sequence will reveal that the key elements of the conviction had little to do with the actual crime Meursault had committed, but rather the "unspeakable atrocities" he had committed while in mourning of his mother's death, which consisted of smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of coffee, and failing to cry or appear sufficiently distraught. Indeed, the deformed misconception of moral truth which the jury [society] seeks is based on a detached, objective observation of right or wrong, thereby misrepresenting the ideals of justice by failing to recognize that personal freedom and choice are "...the essence of individual existence and the deciding factor of one's morality.2" The execution of Meursault at the close of the novel symbolically brings
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.
Albert Camus wrote The Stranger during the Existentialist movement, which explains why the main character in the novel, Meursault, is characterized as detached and emotionless, two of the aspects of existentialism. In Meursault, Camus creates a character he intends his readers to relate to, because he creates characters placed in realistic situations. He wants the reader to form a changing, ambiguous opinion of Meursault. From what Meursault narrates to the reader in the novel, the reader can understand why he attempts to find order and understanding in a confused and mystifying world.