The Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief as Applied to L'Étranger, by Albert Camus.

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The “The Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief” is, in my experience, the psychological anecdote most familiar to the layman. In it, the framework is laid for how the average human typically responds to a life altering tragedy. The model presents us with a rocky and emotional road from denial to acceptance – the sort of journey one would certainly be expected to embark upon should a sudden and tragic death befall their beloved mother.

Such a tragedy is exactly what happens to the protagonist in the very first sentence of the existential opus titled “L'Étranger,” by Algerian author, Albert Camus.

Meursault (as his name would be), however, is for some reason incomprehensible to his fellow Franco-Algerians, seemingly untouched by this catastrophe of catastrophes and carries on with his life without shedding so much as a tear. He is ostensibly an emotionless exception to the Five Stages and appears to have skipped, untroubled, directly from the occurrence of tragedy to final acceptance.

This is frighteningly unsettling to his peers for a number of reasons, namely that it represents an apparent hole in his ability to “feel,” a quality they believe to be so central to their lives that its lack might make him somehow less human than they.

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...

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...py death, these are questions for a dawn beyond that of the guillotine.”

Meursault, though curious and at times perplexing, is shown in these last moments for what he truly is: Human. Nothing more, nothing less.

He experiences, just like the rest of us, profound and deeply cutting loss.

He fights, just like the rest of us, to maintain tranquility even in denial.

He surrenders, just like the rest of us, to melancholy and depression.

He does, just like the rest of us, plead and bargain when all hope is gone.

He lashes out, just like the rest of us, even at those who wish to help.

He finds, in the end, just as we all hope to find, peace and contentment.

Whether intentional or not, Camus's “etranger” follows to perfection, the classic “Five Stages of Grief” as he journeys from the tragic loss of his mother to his decisive and bloody end on the guillotine.

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