The Stranger

1499 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes in mother courage

Albert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate.

Camus demonstrates the disregarded reason behind the origins of relationships between people to characterize people as selfish. The relationship between Salamano and his dog displays how Salamano as self-centered. When Meursault mentions, “He hadn’t been happy with his wife, but he’d pretty much gotten used to her. When she died he had been very lonely. So he asked a shop buddy for a dog and he’d gotten this one very young” (Camus, 44). This evidence proves the wife’s lack of importance towards Salamano, but along with time, he adapted to her, just like he did with the dog. After her death, he became lonely which supports the reason for him getting the dog. Not to love the dog, but instead to put an end to his loneliness. Another source of selfishness is shown through the relationship between Marie and Meursault. Meursault’s lack of communication and the excess amount of physical contact desired and received is displayed by Meursault in the reference, “I kissed her. We didn’t say anything more from that point on. I held her to me ” (35). The textual support confirms that Meursault’s purpose with Marie, for her physical appearance and not her personality. The relationship between Meursault and Raymond displays another representation of a person being egoistic in the novel. When Meursault states that “According to Ray...

... middle of paper ...

... reflection towards life and morals of integrity. He agrees and accepts the fact that no matter how we live our lives, we are all destined to die one day. Our actions can only speed up death or slow death down, but nothing can ever stop death from reaching you. Meursault, “the stranger” for his uniqueness, also believes that one receives privilege to die and that occurs when one becomes free. In Meursault’s perspective, dying represents a positive action rather than a negative one.

The characters in The Stranger contain a self-definition which can reflect to the traits of common people. In everyday life, there are always people who are selfish, those who include change and variety in their lives, those that stay consistent to their morals, and those who are certain of reality; however, a profuse amount of civilization likes to conceal those characteristics.

Show More
Related

  • Existentialism And Symbolism In The Stranger By Albert Camus

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Camus is a skillful writer noted for showing aspects of culture and society through the depiction of his characters. In The Stranger, Camus illustrates the existentialism culture and how that comes into play in the life of the protagonist Meursault. The Stranger, as suggested by the title, is a novel revolving around the protagonist, Meursault, who is a stranger to the French-Algerian society as he challenges its values. Camus vividly portrays Meursault’s journey through the use of imagery, irony, and symbolism. In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the minor character, Raymond Sintes, to illustrate the contrasting nature of Meursault and how his friendship with Raymond leads to his downfall.

    Read More

  • Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Parallels Within

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Injustice Analysis

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Camus has his own toolbox of literary devices when it comes to accentuating the theme of The Stranger, one of them being his unique sense and use of secondary characters. Whether major or minor, every character in the book serves a purpose, and corroborates the theme in some form of fashion. Camus describes his secondary characters as foiling Meursault in one aspect or another, and thus, shining light on Meursault’s characteristics. Whether through close connections like familial relationships (Maman) and friendships (Salamano, Raymond, and Marie), or through bonds as distant as people he briefly converses with (Chaplain), or even so much as complete strangers (Perez and unidentified lady at the restaurant), characters that Meursault encounters foil and therefore, emphasize many aspects of his nature. Furthermore, because Meursault aptly embodies Camus’s ideology of Absurdism, emphasizing Meursault through secondary characteristics simply highlights Camus’ doctrine and theme of the book.

    Read More

  • The Meaning Of Life Death And The Universe

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...he world, which causes him to encounter a form of enlightenment that makes him come to realization of the true world. The realization of the world sprouts the idea that the universe is indifferent and life has no true meaning. Because Meursault realizes that the universe is indifferent to people and that he makes no importance to the world, he is reborn to a life that makes sense to him. The nonexistent emotions from the first part and the outburst of emotions from the second part cause a juxtaposition of Meursault as a character in the two sections. Camus uses elemental diction and sentence structure to portray this change in character and his acceptance of the universe around him. He accepts his death, finding that his life is truly meaningless, and believes that his life is a model for the philosophical ideas that he has come in terms with.

    Read More

  • Meursault Social Issues

    421 Words  | 1 Pages

    “The Stranger” is an appropriate title for the novel’s main character because when you think of a stranger you think of avoiding them because of safety concerns. Meursault is a type of person that you’d avoid if you saw him randomly in the streets. He’s always looking up at the sun and is very socially awkward. When Meursault is asked if he’d been traveling for a long time after discovering he had been leaning against a soldier on the bus while asleep he simply says “‘yes’… so [he] wouldn’t have to say anything else” (Camus 4).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Camus's The Stranger

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    Camus’s The Stranger takes the reader on an emotionally stunted journey through a number of normally emotional moments in life including funerals, relationships, violence trials, and facing one’s one mortality. None of these things elicit strong emotion from Camus’s protagonist, Meursault, until he explodes in anger at the presumptuous chaplain in the moments before dawn on the day of his execution. In that moment, Meursault embraces the benign indifference of the universe and on the heels of his anger, feels the first real happiness of the story.

    Read More

  • The Stranger: Changes in Meursault

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Unemotional Meursault in The Stranger by Albert Camus

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Meursault In The Stranger By Albert Camus

    1541 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Stranger by Albert Camus was written in 1942. The main character Meursault is indifferent and absurd, and chooses to live day by day. In this novel, Meursault commits a murder by killing an Arab and did not have any further investigation on the crime. However, Kamel Daoud an Algerian writer decided to write a response to Camus’ book called The Meursault Investigation. This novel is about the victim’s brother that was killed in The Stranger by Meursault. Haroun tells his own version of the story from an Arab’s point of view by giving an homage to his brother Moussa. Dead Man’s Share is a detective novel, but also a political novel announcing the excesses of an authoritarian regime. The author also demonstrates his commitment and his affection

    Read More

  • The Stranger, by Albert Camus

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    In many works of literature, a character conquers great obstacles to achieve a worthy goal. Sometimes the obstacles are personal impediments, at other times it consists of the attitude and beliefs of others. In the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, shows the character Meursault who is an emotionless character that let’s other people show their opinions and emotions into him, giving him a type of feeling even if Meursault doesn’t care. Meursault is a victim of emotional indifference between his friends and social indifference. This essay will be about the character’s struggle that contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

    Read More

  • Motif of Violence in The Stranger by Albert Camus

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Absurdism in The Stranger by Albert Camus

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... to accept the absurdist tenets and embraces the indifference, opening up to it and thinking that life itself lacks meaning and understanding. The absence of family and personal relationships in The Stranger by Albert Camus drive the protagonists’ character development. Camus begins showing the effect of the absence of family and personal relationships from the very beginning. He uses this as a way to utilize character development, as well as preparing the reader for the developing plot. The absence of family and personal relationships tied in with the isolation that takes place in each scenario are crucial in both the development of the protagonists’ characters as well as the plot, as this affects the portrayal of the main character in the novels.

    Read More

  • Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): World Without Purpose

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Absurdity: An Essay On The Stranger

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Stranger

Open Document