Ellen: Well, for those of you who haven’t read The Stranger, I’ll give a brief summary of the novel so you know what we’re talking about. Meursault is the narrator and protagonist suffering isolation from himself and the rest of the world in which he lives in. The novel begins when Meursault’s “maman” dies, and when attending the funeral, he finds that he isn’t very sorrowful or concerned about conforming to the common formalities of mourning over such a significant loss. Only one day after attending the funeral of his mother, Meursault becomes involved in an affair with a woman from his work named Marie. Meursault and one of his only friends named Raymond travel to a house on the beach, belonging to a friend of Raymond’s. While walking along the beach, Meursault and Raymond come across two Arab men, one of whom is the brother of Raymond’s ex-girlfriend. After an altercation, Meursault ends up shooting the Arab brother four times, and is then imprisoned for the murder. The jury judges Meursault to be guilty of murder and is then given the death sentence. Meursault is astounded at the verdict, after never thinking of himself as a criminal. However, he deals with his death sentence just as he has dealt with his life, that being with unimportance. Meursault thinks possibly that after death his existence could be less illogical and he could be more aligned with the universe.
Beyoncé: So Meursault seems damaged to the point of not going back, and it may just have been his sort of existential idealistic values but it seems like he was unable to feel or express any other emotions other than anger. Meursault’s estrangement with his outside world is an outcome of failures to reside in a world where there are often not absolutes. This ass...
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...consents his inevitable death and execution. He is then seen to commit ordinary suicide by not attempting to save himself in front of the court,
Audience Member: Ultimately, Meursault’s most consistent feelings are a combination of tiredness, boredom, and unimportance to the actions of the outside world. No image is more impacting than Meursault’s suicide through existentialism where his continued indifference would ultimately leads to his death. In the end, it is demonstrated that from Meursault’s ideas, human circumstances have no greater or other meaning then the two basic facts of existence in that we’re alive and then die.
Ellen: Well I think that is a great point to leave off on this impromptu book talk. Thank you so much to Beyoncé and this audience member, you all are going home with a copy of Albert Camus’ The Stranger! We’ll be back after the break.
Chapter 6 of part I of The Stranger concluded with Meursault’s conscious decision to shoot an Arab because of the physical discomfort the Arab’s knife caused him. The significance of the ending of part I is that it was the first demonstration of Meursault’s awareness of the possible consequences of the act that he committed. This awareness continues into the second part of the novel as he is arrested and trialed. The reason for Meursault’s trial is the murder of the Arab. His insensitivity towards Maman’s death and lack of a social conscientious are factors that contributed to support further investigations, but are not reasons to trial him because they have not ‘harmed’ society on a way that he could be arrested for. For example, if Meursault
In Camus’ The Stranger, the use of the minor character Raymond helps illustrate the absurd nature of Meursault. Through imagery, dialogue, and irony, the novel investigates the moral decisions Meursault makes under Raymond’s influence. The constant tactical bribery and other forms of manipulation steer Meursault’s writing of the letter that leads to him killing the Arab and ultimately receiving the death penalty. Camus uses Raymond to highlight the cultural and societal values. In addition, through Raymond’s help, Meursault ends up in jail where he finally realizes the theme that life is
Part I of The Stranger begins with Meursault's attendance at his mother's funeral. It ends with Meursault on the beach at Algiers killing a man. Part II is concerned with Meursault's trial for that same murder, his ultimate sentencing to death and the mental anguish that he experiences as a result of this sentence. Several curious parallels emerge here, especially with regard to Meursault's perception of the world.
Efforts to engage Meursault in secular structures of meaning are equally futile. When Meursault's boss offers Meursault a position in Paris, he expects Meursault to embrace the opportunity for career advancement. Meursault, though, lacks all ambition and turns down the boss' offer without considering it. As a student, Meursault recalls, "I had lots of ambitions…But when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered." When Marie asks Meursault whether he wants to marry her, she expects him to take the institution of marriage seriously. Yet Meursault is indifferent towards it, thinks "it didn't mean anything" to love a person, and agrees to marry Marie simply because she wants to marry him. Though he grows fond of her, he doesn't cultivate any attachment to her more meaningful than superficial attraction. Throughout his trial, Meursault is equally bemused by the meaninglessness of the justice system and finds its attempts to impose rational, meaningful structure on his actions ridiculous. He considers the guilty verdict he eventually receives entirely arbitrary, and describes its "certainty" as "arrogant."
In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator, Meursault, has difficulty behaving in a manner deemed “normal” by society. Even though he struggles to feel and communicate different emotions, Meursault has many loyal friends and a keen boss. Meursault sees the world in black and white, refusing to focus on matters outside of his control. When his mother dies, Meursault is expected to show a change in his typical lifestyle. Not only do others expect this change, Meursault expects it in himself. With hearing of his mother’s death, shooting the Arab, and facing his own execution, Meursault expects a fundamental transformation in himself and, because he doesn’t experience it, he seeks to find meaning in death.
Meursault is very much like someone autistic. Autism is a developmental disorder which affects a person’s communication skills, social restrictions and behavior. Like people with autism, Meursault doesn’t know when to show emotions nor think they are important. You can see this pattern in Meursault when he is informed about his mother’s passing. It does not seem to affect him at all and shows this by saying “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 3).
In The Stranger, Meursault’s murder of the Arab is caused not only by the weather, but also by coincidence, the same way in which Meursault lives his life. The defining events in The Stranger are set in motion by Meursault's murder of the Arab on a bright and sunny day. While going to get a drink of water, the foreign Arab uses a knife to shine the sunlight in Meursault's face. This forces Meursault to fire and kill the Arab with a revolver. Throughout this scene the sun and light play crucial roles, but it is not the first time the sun appears during The Stranger. Throughout the play, the sun is a symbol for the feelings and emotions, which Meursault cannot deal with. The sun becomes a distraction from Meursault's everyday life and he cannot handle it. The sun first presents a problem to Meursault at his mother's funeral procession. Even before the procession embarks, Meursault remarks of the sun, calling it "inhuman and oppressive." Meursault has shown no emotion towards his mother's death and instead he directs his bottled-up anxiety at the sun. Later, at the beach with Raymond, the sun provokes Meursault to commit the crime.
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.
Meursault in the book tries to overcome his emotional indifference within himself. One example shows Meursault emotional indifference against Marie. In this quote, “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” The quote explains how Meursault doesn’t really think about the consequences of other people’s emotions. When he said in the quote it didn’t mean anything to him, it shows he believes human life and emotions are meaningless. He also says I didn’t think so, showing he struggles to comprehend and make his own interpretations on human emotions from Marie and other people. Another example shown is Meursault against his mother’s funeral. In this quote ‘Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.’ This quote also shows Meursault idea of human life is meaningless. This shows that Meursault believes it doesn’t really matter if his mother died, he’s probably implying that his mother was dying soon...
The Stranger written by Albert Camus is an absurdist novel revolving around the protagonist, Meursault. A major motif in the novel is violence. There are various places where violence takes place and they lead to the major violent act, which relates directly to the theme of the book. The major violent act of killing an Arab committed by Meursault leads to the complete metamorphosis of his character and he realizes the absurdity of life.
Living in the means of his choices he takes control of his life and succumbs to repercussion of his actions on his own terms. Meursault is later sentenced to a death penalty since the community and legal system fear him and cannot comprehend Meursault’s actions, though neither can he. A Chaplain enters his cell and wants to say a prayer for him, but Meursault denies his offer for he believes in no God : “ As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself [...] so like a brother, really [...] I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” (Camus,110).Meursault is a monolith for the idea of
An existentialist represents their choices throughs their actions, opposed to with their words (Corbett). Therefore, someone who expresses the ideals of existentialism may be a threat to society because of their differences in morality compared to others. In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Meursault was always looking to find meaning in his life because of everything that was happening to him at the time; and that is a key characteristic of someone embracing the ideals of existentialism. Sadly, through Meursault’s search for his inner meaning, he ended up taking the life of another man with very little realization of what he had done. Throughout The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Camus portrays
In ‘The Outsider’, the society continually brings back Meursault’s past actions against his will, such as his behaviour at his mother’s funeral. Under the rule of the French Colonialists, the French Algerian court is a microcosm of the society with the Roman Catholic belief, in value as in determination. Because of this, Meursault, who alienates himself from the Roman Catholic expectation in society, was condemned for murdering the Arab. He was announced to have “no place in society whose most fundamental rules [he] ignored” , which was mostly based on his emotions and behaviour in the funeral rather than the actual murder.
Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and a few answers. He created an outsider to society and showed us how he lived, Meursault.