Albert Camus’ The Stranger featured a misunderstood man who saw through his gilded society who was condemned to death for not crying at his mother’s funeral. Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying found a man sentenced to death because of his race.The ignorance of society killed both of these men, but their strength in defying the oppressive system makes them immortal. The strength of defiance is not an escape attempt or freedom, but the ability to remain human even while condemned to death. The human spirit triumphs when faced with injustice by taking dignity from the strength provided by a community or finding strength internally to create dignity even in death. The injustices Meursault and Jefferson fight vary in detail but ultimately stem from their deviation from the socially accepted norm. In The Stranger, Meursault does not …show more content…
“Soon one of the women started crying… I wished I didn’t have to listen to her anymore,” (Camus 10). The statement seems uncaring at first. In theory, Meursault should hardly notice the woman from his haze of grief over losing his mother, but Meursault is simply ready for the process to be done with. His mother was old; old people die. The sorrow did not envelope Meursault like some think it should have. His thoughts were focused on his physical self, who wanted the lady to stop crying. Outside of the setting of a vigil, it would be entirely reasonable to wish for a lady to stop crying and causing a commotion. Yet, later in the novel, Meursault finds himself being damned for this thought and similar moments in his mother’s funeral proceedings. For remaining stoic, he appeared uncaring and became “morally guilty of killing his mother” as the prosecutor decided (Camus 101). There was no sound reasoning in this assertion. Common sense, had anyone attempted to use it, would have entirely shut down the prosecutor’s argument. There is no way to be “morally guilty” of anything. The only
Throughout all of Meursault’s actions at the funeral, most receive scrutiny especially his denial to see Maman before she was buried. Camus states, “When the caretaker asked if Meursault wanted to see his mother, Meursault responds with “I don’t know” (Camus 6). For whatever reason, Meursault was not consciously able to react appropriately at the moment. An expansion on Alonzo’s work in which supports Meursault would be the philosophy of Socrates and the Socratic paradox. Socrates states, “If one acts in a manner not conducive to one 's good then that person must have been mistaken (i.e., that person lacks the knowledge of how to obtain what was serviceable in that instance.”(Socrates 882). Even though Meursault did not understand his reasoning at the time, he didn’t know how to react in order to please the others. It’d be benign to assume he did not give a shit about Maman. Denying the request without reason and ultimately defying society, Meursault inevitably receives judgement from this point forward as an immoral
Through the use of first person narrative however, Camus makes it quite clear that Meursault is indeed human – deeply so in fact. As Meursault is forced to wait in the harsh, glaring light of the morgue for the others who might wish to view the body of his mother, he displays a conscience disregard for the “la politesse” that accompanies such a formal situation; he gives in to his desire to light up a cigarette in front of his late maman. He hesitates first but quickly shrugs off potential...
Until Chapter Five, he seems to not really care what happens to him, instead the reader sees him noticing marginal details rather than sharing his emotions, or even paying detailed to attention to many important facts at his trial. But at the start of Chapter Five, after Meursault has been sentenced to death, that changes. Meursault says “All I care about right now is escaping the machinery of justice, seeing if there’s any way out of the inevitable,” (Camus 108). Until now, Meursault has hardly cared about anything at all, he usually will do what other people ask of him, even agreeing to marry Marie if she wants to, even though he says he does not love her multiple times. But when forced into desperation, the reader finally sees Meursault begin to act more typically, and less like the always logical person he has been. Now that his back is against the wall, Meursault shows genuine passion about something. Meursault wants to keep living, even though he knows death is inevitable even if he does get out. It is at this moment that Meursault sees the desperate situation of human condition, but he still must find his purpose and take joy in his struggle to truly become an absurd
Meursault in the beginning of the book does not have a care for anyone he interacts with. Right in the beginning of the book his mother passes away and, although most people would mourn for their mother, Meursault did not. He was not even going to go to his mother's funeral, but the people in his workplace and that knew him and found out about the news strongly encouraged him to go. When he made it to the place of his mother’s funeral he spent time where his mother’s body was being kept, but he never once requested to see her one last time. All he did was sit around and drink and smoke near her coffin. The day of his mother’s funeral Meursault was more concerned with the environment around him rather than the fact that his mother was dead, and mourn with the other people who had came to her funeral. Instead, all he had to say about the mournful day was, “...Sunday was over...and, really, nothing had changed.” (24). Another instance in the first part of the book where Meursault shows his carelessness for people, is when Marie asks...
Just as an animal sticks to instincts, Meursault has a hard time feeling emotions such as remorse or compassion. Even the first page shows us this. Just as an animal leaves its family when it is old enough, never to return, when Meursault hears of his mother's death he is unattached, even uncaring. He had similar feelings when he sent her to live in the old people's home. Meursault has quite a passion for women; he starts dating Marie the very day after he finds out of the death. But like most animals, marriage is basically nonexistent for him; though he acknowledges it, it holds little meaning. When he is isolated in jail, he dreams of women; not Marie, whom he has been seeing for some time, but women in general. Like an animal he feels the urge to mate without any desire for monogamy. An animal has to focus on the present in order to survive, and as far as we know doesn't spend much time cogitating about its past. Meursault always lives in the present, hence his lack of remorse. This beast-like quality is one that get...
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 conflict with the law enforcement, Meursault feels no remorse for his past murder of the Arab. Although, he does realize that he has done something terribly wrong according to society. Unable to feel any emotion, he personally lists it as a burden for others. He believes what he did was not that serious and did not think about it twice when he committed the crime . He does not care for society's approval and has never cared for it.
Dialogue is simple throughout part one of The Stranger. Camus does not provide direct explanations for Meursaults actions and response to events. Instead the reader can find an unusual emphasis on the setting and physical aspects of events and characters in part one. Meursault has complete control and conscious awareness of his indifference towards social situations. It is Meursaults underlying radical attitude towards authority and social norms that provide for his dissent behavior. In order to prove that Meursault is free to act as he does, his inability to grieve over the death of his mother should not be accepted. Meursault attempts to justify his indifference by offering a detailed description of the setting from the “crackling of grass” to “the sun” in particular. Distractions may be consuming but to accept them as justification for the inability to grieve at the funeral of his mother is difficult. Meursault is instead creating a façade in which he uses a convinced indifference to both hinder and object to the reality of societies established standards for social behavior and...
...according to him, a man who is morally guilty of killing his mother severs himself from society in the same way as a man who raises a murderous hand against the father who begat him.” This quote is telling how society input their feelings and ideas onto Meursault. The persecutor compares Meursault emotionless and lack on remorse for his killing the same as a person killing their own father. Society believes Meursault as an emotionless killer or a stranger to society’s morality, Meursault then can’t explain why he couldn’t feel any emotion, drives, or thoughts of remorse for his murder. Lastly, when the chaplain visits Meursault against his wishes, this scene showed how society expects everyone to ask for forgiveness from god when near death. Meursault then thinks it is absurd and refused to believe in him because he says it’s ridiculous and there’s no time at all.
He describes how the prosecutor illustrates him, “He said the truth was that I didn’t have a soul and that nothing human, not one of the moral principles that govern men’s hearts was within my reach” (The Stranger, 101). The prosecutor labels Meursault soulless, without ethics and consciousness. The prosecutor neglects the possibility for a different understanding towards the terms ‘soul’ and ‘moral principles’ by defining it under the majority’s value system. Camus expresses his dissatisfaction towards this neglect in his story, “Despite my willingness to understand, I just couldn’t accept such arrogant certainty” (The Stranger, 109). Camus points out that many are not willing to understand subjectivity because if the majority does not agree with it, it is wrong. Meursault may have a different set of principles he follows, but the fact that he is not the same makes him an outcast. However, even though Camus points out such alienation exists, his character Meursault never does anything about it. Meursault continues to sit in court passively observing the trial and even finds it difficult to stay awake; he embraces his subjectivity despite what the objective opinion
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 states that “In our society any man who doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral is liable to be condemned to death” (Camus, 18). In the book The Outsider, Meursault defies local convention by not showing the sadness that is expected of him at his mother’s funeral. Ultimately, his life is dependant on this very decision of whether or not to show emotion. In the society that Meursault lives in, one is expected to conform to their standards and social norms. Anyone who deviates from these norms is considered an outcast and destined to die at the hands of society. Meursault was expected to show outwards signs of grief whether it was real or not. Even if the grief is artificial, most people will play to the audience and show signs of grief to minimize the risk of losing their life. Meursault’s was conflicted between following society’s rules and being true to himself. The nurse at his mother's funeral warned him that “if yougo slowly, you risk getting sun-stroke. But if you go too fast, you perspire and then in the church you catch a chill. She was right. There was no way out” (Camus, 22). The nurse’s admonition is consistent with his internal struggle. To Meursault, walking too fast is similar to conforming to society and walking too slow means following his own path. There is no middle ground to the situation, no happy median and no suitable compromise. Meursault faces the challenge of whether or not to conform on three main levels; physical, emotional and spiritual. He has the constant battle between following his physical self; his id, and doing what is right. Meursault also has to decide whether or not to be true to his emotions and decide if lying during his trial is a suitable course of action. Finally h...
However, upon deciding to kill a man, he quickly learns that his previous unconcern will not diminish the consequences for his deed. Put to death, Meursault remains stagnant on his opinion of justice, refusing to ever consider that justice possesses any worth. Upon receiving a visit from a chaplain hours before his execution, he merely uttered “I had been right, I was still right, I was always right” (Camus 121) Meursault did not understand why the chaplain wanted to force him to turn to God and gain a moral sense about life. Thus he simply reiterated the motto that he lived by: an apathetic, self-absorbed idea that nothing in life means anything. Meursault’s continual refusal to accept the moral standards of the world prohibited him from every truly finding a true sense of
While reading The Stranger I noticed that traits that Albert Camus character depicts in the book are closely related to the theories of Sigmund Freud on moral human behavior. Albert Camus portrays his character of Meursault as a numb, emotionless person that seems to mindlessly play out his role in society, acting in a manner that he sees as the way he’s supposed to act, always living in the moment with his instincts driving him, and if the right circumstance presents itself the primal deep seeded animal will come out. I believe that most of the character’s traits fall under Freud’s notion of the Id and Ego mental apparatus, and don’t believe that his idea of the super-ego is represented in this book.
...things, the purpose of women remains purely materialistic: to serve and satisfy others and Meursault’s superficial relationships represent this. While Marie truly loved and longed to be with Meursault after their meeting, Meursault did not share the same romantic aura. While he did want a woman’s presence, Meursault did not love Marie past that, just a woman. Not only that, but Maman, while she is a cornerstone in Meursault’s life due to her passing and role during the trial as well, she herself lacks purpose, other than dying. Each one of these points lead us to Camus’ portrayal of women as ultimately unnecessary in the book and only aid in assisting as the catalysts which push the male roles and the main character Meursault, further along throughout the story.