In past literary discussions our class has studied for our novels we came over the topic of Nature of Reality. After this studied I was able to understand how Meursault’s perception of reality was different from every other characters’ in the book. This had caused Meursault to act like he does in the story. Meursault is quite unresponsive to everything that happens in his life because he finds no reason for them. Since Meursault believed he shouldn’t care about anything, for example relationships, society, or events in his life.
Meursault believes that it is futile to try to explain everything in reality and have a rational reason for everything “I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to”, Camus uses the futility of Meursault’s legal appeals to show that all humans approach death at an equal rate, and that you can’t escape it. Meursault tends to not conform to social norms, and he is in a way separated from society. Meursault’s and society’s apathy towards Maman, his mother’s, funeral, displays the way Camus disregards the value of human life. From this you can see his belief that life has no meaning come from this belief. Meursault chooses to be isolated from common human interaction and relationships. In my essay I will studied the character’s view on detachment and alienation from relationships and acceptance of societal views. Looking into the views of his life and how it leads to him murdering a person can give me a better sight on Meursault’s Absurdist qualities.
In The Stranger, relationships are key parts of the story. Meursault’s interactions with society, relationships, and events in life are shown through, detachment, alienation, and acceptance. The author, Albert Camus, wrote The Stranger during the Existe...
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...ignificant being his contrast to members of conventional society. Towards the beginning of the novels he is an almost completely indifferent character. This is definitely different from the image of a person that society puts forth. Meursault cares only for the physical world. He does not dwell on other things, such as knowledge or intelligence. He is also indifferent to many things that conventional society is emotional about. He cannot find anything in his life worth making an effort for whether it is relationship with Marie and Raymond. He doesn’t see the point of the concept of love and the fact of marrying Marie. He also doesn’t understand why the death of his mother doesn’t affect him at all. Through the examples provided before we can see that through his absurdist values he make his decision to not care what happens in life and act differently from society.
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.
He, however, seemed question his presence because the death of his mom or even from the absence of his father—the fairly dynamic that every child should have (both parents present). In chapter two Meursault found himself alone in his apartment as Marie had left for work earlier that morning. In this section he explains that, “After lunch I was a little bored and I wandered around the apartment” (21). In this quote, Meursault demonstrates just how meaningless is life is. To have nothing more to do with his time than walk around his apartment shows that Meursault is questioning his place in this world. He is a man with virtually only two friends—Raymond and Marie—and a neighbor that he associates with on occasion about his dog. As he wanders the apartment he explains that he lives, “in just one room now” (21), one that he literally put his dining table in so that he could eat in his room. This quote symbolizes his loneliness as a person. Not only is the apartment too big for him, the world is too, and his is basically alone in both. For some reason—maybe a tragedy or trauma that he faced in earlier years—Meursault has closed himself off from the world and does not express love for anyone or anything. In fact, Meursault made a statement about the death of his mother saying that, “at one time or another, all normal people have wished their loved ones were dead" (65). At this point in the story, I think that Meursault may not have had the best family dynamic. He does not speak of anyone else but Maman, and mentions a father that he does not know. So, he may not feel like he belongs or does not know how to. He also explains that, “it was one of Maman’s ideas, and she often repeated it, that after a while you could get used to anything” (77). This quote could explain the fact that Meursault is closed off—he has gotten so used to not having anyone around that truly cares for him (his
The reality in which Meursault inhabits describes a realistic world in all its accounts, from themes as natural as death to petty jealousy and the judicial system which corresponds perfectly with the first sentence of t...
Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested of him because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. Meursault never did anything notable or distinctive in his life: a fact which makes the events of the book all the more intriguing.
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...
Often one wonders what it would be like to completely close off all connections to society and live in exile. What it would be like if your thoughts were the only thing to keep you company. For most; the idea of being all alone with just your thoughts is enough to drive one crazy. However not for Meursault. Meursault is already so detached from society that his experience of exile is less of a punishment, and more so enriching. His time in captivity cuts him off from his “home” or better yet, his comfort zone of being an introvert and gives him a chance to create a different appearance in front society, apart from a stranger.
Meursault doesn’t conform to society such as understanding what we would call normal human emotions such as the emotions of love or death. The reason Meursault may seem disconnected from the felling of love is shown when his girlfriend ask about marriage. Meursault answers without caring by saying “it doesn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to” (Camus, 156). Meursault also show the disconnection of normal human emotions after his mother’s death. “… Maman’s death, but that was one of those things that was bound to happen sooner or later” (Camus, 123).
...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.
But in the novel, the main character, Meursault, does not show any emotion to his mother’s death. Meursault was not moral, but he was not immoral either. It is because he lacks any emotional feelings. He is detached from the world and he is seen by society as an outcast because of the way he acts. Meursault’s personality can be described as dull and boring.
...iod when Camus writes this novel. Camus obviously knew the time period and explored different ideas and philosophies about pointless of life in people which comes out in his character, Meursault. In prison Meursualt also realizes that he’s trapped, and there’s no way out as he remembers what the nurse once said to him. His growth in self reflection results in unimportance of emotional values of life and help focus what’s directly ahead of him. This significant change results him in understanding himself and his voice, and figuring out his capabilities and philosophies. Time spent in prison helps Meursault finally understands himself, the meaninglessness of life, and the unimportance of time which shows the shift in the character after sent to prison.
Every character that revolves around Meursault seems to be in direct contrast to him. Meursault is an amoral person who does not seem to care passionately about anything. He acts in accordance with physical desires. In other words, Meursault is a sensualist person. At this particular time in his life, his path crosses with his neighbor, Raymond, who feels as though his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to take revenge with minor aid form Meursault. Meursault helps him only because he thinks he has nothing to lose if he does. As things lead into one another, the first major violent act of the book is committed.
At the very beginning to the novel Meursault decides to take a proactive existential approach to life: deny suicide and create his own meaning. Only halfway through the novel Meursault starts to utilize his complete freedom, thus he creates a passion and begins to realize the only pleasures in life he can create are the ones he omits. Camus often talks about freedom being the moment of consciousness but contentness; one becomes free when they accept the absurd and find a passion. Meursault’s friend and neighbour, Raymond, is known as a pimp around the city, and invites Meursault to a friend’s cottage and Raymond as well suggests he bring Marie with him. While at the beach house, Raymond and Meursault see the Arabs which were following Raymond
It is true that Meursault was different from the rest of society. However, he changes throughout the trial and eventually becomes an existentialist hero. This is because he finds meaning in life. It is ironic, though, that he learns to appreciate life after his is effectively over. His apathetic approach to life is made clear from the first page: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” This foreshadows his approach to everything else in the book. His indifference to Maman’s death contrast’s significantly to Salamano’s distress at losing his dog. Many of the characters in this book also function to highlight his qualities through contrast.
Meursault is distant from set plans, ambitions, desires, love, and emotions in general. He has a difficult time with emotions such as regret and compassion. The reader sees the nature of his personality in the first few lines of the novel: "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." When he hears of the death of his mother through a telegram, he is unattached, and can be considered uncaring.