The Stranger

1499 Words3 Pages

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...

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... 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.

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