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Existential themes in the stranger
What does meursault realize at the end of the stranger
A critique on the stranger by albert camus
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One of the main points stressed in the stranger is that people have no meaning to life. It is stressed that all lives will come to an end guaranteed and that all of their actions are meaningless. This expresses that he believes that all life is equally meaningless. Late in the story after a dispute with the chaplain is when Meursault realizes this. He notices that just as he had no effect to the world the world had no effect on him. He was going to die anyways just like everyone else. He was born and will die with no importance to the world and so will everyone else. Strangely enough, only after comprehending that realization was he able to obtain his happiness. He comes to the thought that it doesn’t matter how you die because you’re going
going to die yet he sees the bright side of it; which is that unlike most deaths, were you
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.
Life has been defined as the property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism. Further, that very definition from the Webster's dictionary says nothing when it comes to the everyday experiences one faces throughout a lifetime. The experiences one faces makes, breaks, and shapes us into how we act and live. T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" portrays a world in which humans lack connections to each other and to G-d. Similarly, the main character, Meursault, from the short novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, represents a man who does not feel any condition to anyone or anything. Meursault seems not to have a sense of emotion for the occurring actions in his life, and as a result, Camus pictures him as a senseless man. Many people in society go through life-breaking crisis that takes them several weeks even months to get over, meanwhile Meursault goes through some of the most immense problems during his life, yet he shows little emotion to ward his reality.
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.
He instilled hope into himself and those around him every chance he had. He understood the challenges he and his fellow prisoners faced, but he would not let it defeat him or anyone else. When his friends begin to give in to the situation, he won’t let them. He exclaims, “To die, it’s easy.
When Meursault is described to us in the early stages of "The Outsider" we see
Everyone will die. Meursault’s awareness of death contributes to his nonchalant attitude toward every death he witness or must endure in The Stranger. Death fails to upset Meursault. In The Stranger, Albert Camus emphasizes mortality in order to expose the ignorance humanity has towards the inevitable or unknown end.
While the isolation of the two characters from society led them to commit their foul acts, the differences between the two characters are truly what pushed the stories along and let to the eventual outcomes of both novels. Throughout The Stranger Meursault's complete lack of emotional understanding on a human level, combined with his inability to focus on anything other than the physical tangible present, led to inevitable demise. By looking through Meursault's eyes we see that he focuses almost entirely on what is, and not what could be. This is why he vividly describes such scenes as the walk to his mother’s funeral, yet skims over the actual burial of his dead mother. This is also shown in his description of Marie, always focusing on her
Meursault (the narrator) in The Stranger only sees and only wants to see the absolute truth in society. The readers first encounter with him...
His beliefs began to form during his experience of World War II and after the terrors of the war; many other people believed that the human existence had no meaning. The Stranger could be classified as an existentialist novel because the protagonist of the story, Meursault, also seems to have existentialist beliefs. Meursault is a character that is very out of touch with the world. His attitude and morals were not accepted by the people of the society in the story, which leads to his death sentence. When people deal with a death, they grieve by crying or showing some type of sad emotion.
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.
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
The Stranger is told through Meursault’s point of view as tells the stories of his past. Because it is told through his perspective, his biased perspective and outlook on life are the only insights the reader gets and, therefore, he is portrayed as selfish. In my opinion, by portraying Meursault as a emotionless ‘robot’, the author is trying to convey the reader to believe that Meursault is selfish; but, in reality, he does not even seem to care about himself – which would contradict the definition of selfishness. Meursault’s detachment from ‘normal’ human emotions and bluntness is carried throughout the novel as the permanent tone and a representation of Meursault’s philosophy on life. Meursault’s philosophy is that nothing really matters, he feels indifferent about everything that happens in his life and reacts very nonchalantly to things that a typical human will feel obligated to feel and act a certain way.
of life and accepts death as a part of it. At the same time, he
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.