Supervised Writing #5
Why is the book titled "The Stranger"? Who is the Stranger suppose to be?
Some might ask why the novel was titled "The Stranger". Others may ask who 'The Stranger' was in the first place. To answer both questions, one must know the important aspects of the novel and observe how the characters act. First of all, "The Stranger" is a fictional novel written by Albert Camus and was first published in 1942. The story is based around Meursault who learns that his mother has passed away. From the start, the emotional news is sudden, and readers expect Meursault to be heartbroken and tearful but instead he is found in an emotionless state, almost as if he doesn't care. This displays emotional detachment from the world around him and there are multiple examples throughout the novel where significant moments do not have an emotional impact on Meursault. He does not display emotion to the fact that his mother is dead, or that Marie loves him. Though Meursault is unconnected to society he is still an honest person. He always speaks his mind and does not care how others see him. When his mother dies, he does not hide his true feeling. He does not shed fake tears over her death. He expresses what he really feels. With these actions Meursault challenges society’s accepted moral standards, which is that one should grieve over a loss. Because Meursault does not grieve, society then regards him as a "Stranger" to society due to his indifference. So in short, Meursault is "The Stranger" and the novel is titled after him because Meursault is a stranger to common ideas and to the people.
When Meursault's mother dies his reaction is surprisingly dull. He reacts in a way that seems like he doesn't care. His unpredictable reaction...
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...el for people. Not his recently passed away mother nor Marie.
All in all, the many points that were made, displays more than enough evidence of why the novel is called "The Stranger" and who "The Stranger" was exactly. Again, the book is titled "The Stranger" because through out the story, it is based around a man who seems very different from other people. Especially since he believes the idea of the meaninglessness of human existence. His motives, his ideology, and his way of life are different from others, and because of this, it makes him a Stranger. This character, Meursault, is alienated and divided from the rest of society. He is detached from the world which makes him emotionless throughout the story, like during his mother's death to Marie asking him if he loves her. In the end, Meursault always will seem like "The Stranger" to both the readers and society.
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.
His father’s death did not affect him much at the outset. When people said that his father had suffered a lot, he simply dismissed it. For him, he always seemed dead. Does it seem a cold response? Try to remember Meursault in Albert Camus’s The Stranger (Wikipedia Contributors, The Stranger). His response to his mother’s death aroused a cry from people, and he was convicted on that account. Because he did not weep at his mother’s death, and smoked a cigarette instead, he was made into a monster that did not suit to the society. He did not speak much because he simply did not have anything to say. The human society did not approve of such behaviour. It wanted everyone to follow certain rules in order to be considered fit for living in the society. His response, however, represents the response of most of us who would not wish to show it to others because we want to be considered human enough. Therefore, we try to live by the social norms. Is it not the real response that all of us have but does not show it in the fear of social morality? Camus’s The Outsider brings us to this crude reality of our
Meursault shows very little love or sorrow at the fact of his mother's death. A normal man would feel pain and regret for not being by her side while Meursault does not even care much about the date she passed away. Immediately on the first page in the novel, we confront the situation where Meursault's mother dies, and he does not care about it. "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" (3). Meursault does not bother to call back and find information about his mother. Meursault shows no emotion or care for his mother because he sends her away for someone else to take care of her. During the last years of an elder person's life, they are invited to stay with the family in order to become closer with one another. Meursault could care less as he shows no sign of pain, and goes off to do something else. He resembles a figure where an issue as important as death does come as a priority. "We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw" (Lines 1-4).
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
Meursault resists being typecast into an archetypal moral category in many of his deeds and actions. Many of his actions in Part One of the novel help contribute to the fuzzy picture of the character. For example, at his mother's funeral, Meursault does not cry or weep in the typical mourning fashion, but rather sleeps during the vigil and entices one of the other mourners present to smoke a cigarette with him. This would be typically considered "evil" behavior, in the context of the story. He could easily been seen as disrespectful and seditious toward his mother and the established procedures of mourning, which seem to be fairly definite at that era in France. However, this "evil" mold can easily be shaken if one considers that Meursault may be more shaken than anyone else present at the funeral. Considering the other events in the novel, it seems as though he does not have a large capacity for emotion. Based on this, it is not unreasonable to assume that the events leading up to and including his mother's death may have overtaxed his limited scope of emotion, and he was therefore nearly incapable of mourning in the "normal" or expected way for his mother, but rather had to resort to his own, more c...
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.
As his writing career began to grow, Camus moved to France in 1938. Where 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. When Camus was one year old his father died in the Battle of Marne during World War I; a reflection of this is seen in the novel as Meursault's father is not mentioned.... ...
In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as post-modernists viewed the world. Rather than living as one gear in the ‘machine’ of society, Meursault defies this unwritten law in the lackluster relationships between he and other females, as well as his seemingly blissful eye to society itself. In The Stranger, males, not females, truly bring out the side of Meursault that has the capacity for compassion and a general, mutual feeling relationship. For example, Marie and Meursault’s relationship only demonstrate Meursault’s lack of an emotional appetite for her. Also, with the death of Maman, Meursault remains virtually unchanged in his thoughts and desires.
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.
A more adequate perception may explain the choice of the title. Meursault can be seen as a "strange" man who lives in the "strangeness". These adjectives sticking to his skin gives us a picture close to the title of this book. The strangeness of Meursault is characterized by his lifestyle and his perception of life in general. Meursault through his account only realized the day of his trial that he is a stranger to the people around him. For that reason, that day he had more ways to close loopholes surrounding his world. The only thing he can see is the judgment issued by the people present in the trial room. We witness the events happening in his life, that he is focused on himself. He can be also called selfish for not having any feelings for anyone. By the end of the novel, for example when he was in prison for this so called murder of the Arab, although it was most likely because of his indifference towards his mother’s death, it helped him open his eyes to the value of nature, of life. However he did not fear death, he meditated and was prepared to die because he is at peace with
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.
Camus' philosophy of absurdism is important to his fiction; his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" details the specifics. Understanding “MoS” helps put into context “The Stranger”. Camus starts from a perspective of nihilism: the universe is without any intrinsic meaning, and in return all of our actions are equally without intrinsic value. For Meursault, this means that things happen, his mother dies, he accepts marriage, he kills someone, nothing fazes Meursault, and he just is. Here's where Camus' Absurdist philosophy comes in: the universe may be meaningless, but it is foolish to leave it at that. Meursault's story takes us through the necessary steps for accepting the absurd; he shows us that in order to properly embrace the meaninglessness of the universe, you must first recognize that meaninglessness. We crave meaning, but Camus knows there is none to be found; meaning must be made. What this means for the novel is that Meursault is to be pitied, but not indefinitely, as his imprisonment forces him, and us, to re-address views.
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.