Understanding Is Futile: Camus’ The Stranger The fact that the English language has words that can have multiple totally different meanings and definitions is what makes literature fun and beautiful. The Stranger by Albert Camus is an example of that. The title of the novel, The Stranger, itself is a play on words, or even a double or even triple entendre. Camus utilizes the multiple meanings of the word Stranger to create a sense of ambiguity and larger profound meaning. Camus leaves both the meaning of the title and the question of who is the Stranger rather vague because he wanted to. He wanted the reader to question what is the right meaning or who is it? Or even if there is any or anyone. We don’t even know what the true meaning …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel, we are already hit with a tough subject, death: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (Camus, 3) We immediately question Meursault’s sanity for his indifference or is he just in shock? Later we find out he’s not at all phased by his mother’s death and had just accepted his mother’s death as a simple stage of life, disturbing, but yes very practical. Meursault is a very logical and practical man we find out, he even explains for the reason why he never did visit his mother, he talks about “the trouble of getting to the bus, buying tickets, and spending two hours traveling.” (5) After finding out Meursault is not a psychopath, we just begin to suspect he is just socially awkward and bad with words. Camus plays this all out to make us feel wrong for just assuming, even later in court Meursault admits that he did care for his mother “like everyone else did”. Which just clears the entire assumption that Meursault hated his mother the entire novel, he did love his mother like everyone else, maybe he isn’t as much as a cold blooded person we thought he was. Maybe Camus wanted us to think society is the stranger for thinking Meursault was the …show more content…
These are all normal actions but the context of them makes it seem like Meursault is a cold heartless man, it could be his way of coping with loss but we really don’t even know why he acts like this. Later Meursault spends the rest of the day watching people go by from his balcony, a rather long time, “The ones who had gone to the movies in town came back a little later...I felt my eyes getting tired from watching the street filled with so many people and lights.” (23-24) He is almost portrayed as an alien (outsider) observing human life in his UFO (balcony). We think it’s weird he’s just sitting there for hours watching people, but are we really the ones to crucify Meursault for simply just wanting to watch people from his balcony? This behavior is rather odd, but he isn’t doing anything particularly wrong, it can probably be compared to watching television or Netflix for hours a day. There’s no real straight forward reason why Meursault does what he does or acts how he acts but there’s really no reason to try to figure it out because the possibilities are endless, the human condition is an
“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
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of a sequence of events in one man's life that cause him to question the nature of the universe and his position in it. The book is written in two parts and each part seems to reflect in large degree the actions occurring in the other. There are curious parallels throughout the two parts that seem to indicate the emotional state of Meursault, the protagonist, and his view of the world.
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).
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...
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).
decisions. Such decisions can be based upon actions and people often do heinous acts due to strong emotions; however, Meursault does not show the normal response that is often required for his crime of murder, such as guilt. Guilt has several definitions, but the most common being the “[r]remorseful awareness of having done something wrong.”(American Heritage Dictionary) Meursault, who is shown to fail at employing empathy for most events in life, often does not try to conceal his true thoughts on subjects. This is seen when Meursault, along with his lawyer, prepare for his trial. Meursault states, “[My lawyer] asked if I had felt any sadness that day... He thought for a minute. He asked me if he could say that that day I had held back my natural feelings. I said, ‘No, because it’s not true.’” (Camus 52) His statement upsets his lawyer since Meursault’s answer does not fit into the social norm of grief. In accordance to the Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature, “In the last hours he spends with his mother, he sleeps, rather than doing what might be expected of ...
...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.
French author and playwright Albert Camus once said, “He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.” In the The Stranger and The Guest this philosophy is expanded on by demonstrating how those who do not conform to society are isolated, and portrayed as a threat to society because of their unique beliefs.
How could a person not care about a single event in his or her life? How could a person fail to respond to different situations? How could one man be so apathetic towards all aspects of his life? How could a man not care about the death of his mother? Would anyone believe the story of the man who simply did not care about life? Albert Camus’s existentialist character, Mersault, demonstrates complete apathy towards almost every aspect of life. On page 115 of Albert Camus’s The Stranger, there is a passage in which the theme of the theme of the novel could clearly be observed. The theme of the novel is that existence is the only meaning of life. This theme is supported by the use of diction in the passage, which includes irony, structure, and tone.
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.
We meet strangers everywhere we go. They come from all walks of life. We can choose to ignore them or to talk to them. I have judged people based on the way they walk, talk, dress or the way they approached me. These judgments tend to stick with me even if I find out who they really are. I don 't think it is right to get judgmental when I first approach a person. I feel so bad when I find out who they really are isn 't who I thought they were. It just seems to happen so naturally. I guess it is just human nature. I can relate this to my senior high school days. Most of the judgments I made about people never helped me because it got me into bad company. In a short story ‘Strangers’, a stranger hurt and lied to Toni Morrison about who she was. She was really hurt by the stranger because she had misjudged her about who she was. She did not expect a woman, who looked so humble, would do such a thing. I can relate to her story because I also misjudged someone and ended up getting hurt.
The moment Meursault found out, he said, “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the home says: Your mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Deep sympathy. Which leaves matter doubtful, it could have been yesterday” (Camus 1). A reaction like this is unlikely to occur in anybody that is put in this situation. Existentialists immediately start to analyze existence instead of embracing it. Another quote is, “What unites the existentialists, besides the problems of meaning and existence with which they all wrestled, is a series of themes and concerns that informed their discussion of these issues” (Panza & Gale 28). By describing the mind of an existentialist, it supports the argument that Meursault portrayed the characteristics of an existentialist because that is how he would think about life as a whole. Also, while Meursault was talking with the chaplain, he said in reply to the chaplain, “I however didn’t want to be helped, and I hadn’t had time to work up interest for something that didn’t interest me” (Camus 72). That is a very weird response to have after you are informed about the wonders of God; but that is how Meursault did due to his existentialism like thoughts. Throughout The Stranger Meursault lost his own meaning in life while trying to examine every little aspect of it. Characteristics like that are often associated with those of an
Camus' choice of Meursault, an unusual person, who does not 'play the game', enables him to demonstrate this argument. Meursault's first words are 'Mother died today.' He is very quiet and detached and likes to observe events around him like a spectator, regardless of their importance to him. At his mother's funeral, he does not cry, he smokes and drinks coffee, and this turns out to be the reason for his execution. It may appear that the fact that Meursault is killed because of the way he acts at his mother's funeral is a sign of hubris, much like Creon's in Antigone, who does not respect Polynices' death properly.
Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and a few answers. He created an outsider to society and showed us how he lived, Meursault.
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.