The Stranger By Albert Camus - 1628 Words

Albert Camus’s novel â€Å"The Stranger† revolves around a young man estranged from society. This man, Monsieur Meursault, lives the majority of his life fulfilling his own physical needs and social obligations, but has little emotional connection to the world around him. Throughout the book Meursault attends his mother’s funeral, begins a serious relationship with his former co-worker Marie, kills a man without motive, goes through trial, and is sentenced for execution. His lack of emotional response to these major life events causes a general mistrust from the people around him. In part one, before he commits murder, the impression he makes on others does not affect him much, but this is not true for the second half of the book. Though he was†¦show more content†¦When one of his mother’s closest friends stops sobbing, Meursault is glad â€Å"finally shut up† instead of having any sympathy for a mourning woman. This shows how insensitive M eursault can be in a time in which most people would be too sad to get upset over such natural behavior. In this way, the mourning friends are used as a comparison between Meursault and the majority of society in this sense, and as portrayed here, Meursault appears to be the lesser of the two. Though Meursault asserts that he loved his mother in her life and tried to take the best care of her that he could provide when she lived with him, once she dies he immediately accepts that she is gone. This is technically a rational way to react, as mourning does bring back loved ones and therefore is pointless, but few people can actually manage to forget about their loved one so quickly. It can be assumed that Meursault feels the same way about the death of his mother as he does the possible death of his girlfriend Marie, that he would not be â€Å"interested in her dead,† meaning that if she were gone, he would be able to move on since she no longer plays a role in his life. He may still have had strong feelings for his mother just as he does for Marie, but he bases the feelings he has off of how much of a role these people play in his life. This idea is consistent with the existential view that the only thing that matters is the here and now of life and not the past orShow MoreRelatedThe Stranger By Albert Camus1391 Words   |  6 PagesThe Stranger â€Å"The Stranger,† written by the Algerian writer Albert Camus, is a novel about Meursault, a character who’s different and even threatening views on life take him to pay the highest price a person can pay: his life. This was Camus’ first novel written in the early 1940’s, in France, and it reflects the authors belief that there is no meaning in life and it is absurd for humans to try to find it places like religion. The main themes of the novel are irrationality of the universe and theRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus1495 Words   |  6 Pages Albert Camus said, â€Å"Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.† In other terms, Camus is indicating that absurdity affects us all even if it’s hidden all the way on the bottom, but it’s the joy that comes from absurdity that makes us take risks and live freely without any thought or focus. Camus also specifies that the onlyRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus1411 Words   |  6 PagesThe novel The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, encompasses contemporary philosophies of existentialism and absurdism. Existentialist and absurdist philosophies entail principles regarding that one’s identity is not based on nature or culture, but rather by sole existence. The role of minor characters in The Stranger helps to present Camus’s purpose to convey absurdist and existentialist principles. The characters of Salamano and Marie are utilized in order to contrast the author’s ideas about contemporaryRead MoreThe Stranger by Albert Camus720 Words   |  3 PagesAlbert Camus’ portrayal of the emotional being of the main character in The Stranger is an indirect display of his own personal distress. The use of symbolism and irony presented throughout this novel is comparable with the quest for such that death itself would be nonetheless happy. Camus’ irrational concept is based off the exclusion of any logical reasoning behind the events in the text. Meursault’s first impression given to the reader is that of ignorance and a nonchalant behavior to indifferenceRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus1345 Words   |  6 PagesAbsurdism is a philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe. Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger is often termed an absurdist novel because it contains the elements of Camus’s philosophical notion of absurdity. Mersault, the protagonist, is an absurd hero that is emotionally detached and indifferent form society. Neither the external world in which Meursault lives nor the internal worldRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus Essay1591 Words   |  7 PagesThe Stranger was written by the French author Albert Camus, and was first published in 1942 in its indigenous French. It’s described as being the most widely-read French novel of the twentieth century, and has sold milli ons of copies in Britain and the United States alone. It’s known by two titles; the other being The Outsider. The backstory to this is very interesting but, more importantly, the subtle difference in meaning between titles suggests certain resultant translative idiosyncrasies whenRead MoreThe Stranger by Albert Camus1115 Words   |  4 PagesIn the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the pointlessness of life and existence is exposed through the illustration of Camus’s absurdist world view. The novel tells the story of an emotionally detached, amoral young man named Meursault. Meursault shows us how important it is to start thinking and analyzing the events that happen in our lives. He does this by developing the theme of conflicts within society. Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger portrays Meursault, the main character, as a staticRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus1365 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout The Stranger, Albert Camus uses routinesituations to de monstrate how the protagonist, Meursault is not just another ordinary individual. Camus depicts Meursault as an independent being, disinterested in his surroundings, contrasting him with the majority of his peers. Meursault traverses the entire novel, exhibiting little to no emotion. Instead, he displayscharacteristics synonymous to someone suffering from psychopathy. Regardless of the situation, Meursault refrainsfrom assigning meaningRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus Essay1844 Words   |  8 Pagesof the novel, The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, multiple debatable topics have risen. Does Meursault have a heart? Is he an existentialist? Why does he seem to not be phased by his mother dying? This novel is definitely on the more controversial side, which is somewhat strange because although it seems like a novel about almost nothing, everything seems to have a much deeper meaning than it puts off. However, one topic that seems to be overlooked is the fact that The Stranger r elates highly toRead MoreThe Stranger By Albert Camus1488 Words   |  6 PagesIn the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus there are three major themes established by the main character, Meursault. His detachment from his emotions and him essentially being a sociopath set’s a major tone for the novel. In The Stranger, the major themes introduced are Isolation, The Meaninglessness of Human Existence, and Lack of Human Emotions. These are the three most major because it’s all surrounding the main character, Meursault and these themes provide similarities between Lord of the Flies