Absurdism In The Outsider

From page fifty-eight to fifty-seven of Albert Camus’s The Stranger he uses the relentless Algerian sun as a motif for the awareness of reality that pursues the main character, Meursault, throughout the passage. When each motif appears in the novel such as this passage, Meursault’s actions change. This exemplifies that the light, heat, and sun trigger him to become debilitated or furious. Albert Camus sets up this motif in the passage to indicate to the reader that this motif shows the major themes of this novel. This motif shows Meursault’s emotion, how the imagery of weaponry affects Meursault’s actions, how the sun is a representation of society, and how the sun weakens Meursault.

“The Outsider” by H.P. Lovecraft tell the story of a man’s decent further into loneliness after venturing out into the real world after escaping the castle he has been concealed in his whole life. Lovecraft presents a dark and eerie writing style to manifest certain elements in the story that set the theme. Lovecraft suggests themes of loneliness as well as loss of innocence in the story, “The Outsider”, by employing the use of tone, diction, as well as point of view.

The solitude of man with the innate endeavoring nature to incessantly find passion, be fruitful, and embrace the tangibles causes us to lose focus of the scornful end. The condemnation we find ourselves in subsequent to the impotent attempts to satiate our inexplicable questions, is the puncture to our ideal notion . The disenchantment the truth of our obscure being offered is masqueraded with the absurdity through which we seamlessly wander through this life. The irrefutable desire to numb the conscious is the bittersweet burden which we carry to suppress the abyss of disparity which we are floating amidst. Monsieur Meursault in Albert Camus’ The Stranger is the blaring anomaly. Fortifying himself through his indifferent nature and blunt honesty, Meursault is ostracized. Deemed with a psychosis he finds comfort in the unruly inescapable solace of life, death, which morphs into his gradual declination. The sun tracing his unusual circumstances, catalyzing his imminent reactions provides itself as the only paradigm to symbolize Meursault. The intricacies which unfold are reiterated by the Sun which juxtapose the indigenous contingency to find meaning. Meursault’s paradoxical compel and abhorrence to the sun highlights the idea that the what we choose to learn may not be abiding in beauty. Our choice in this duality sets forth the invitation to introspection offering its only absolute form through our own willingness. Meursault understanding himself is bonded to the sun

The mood of the passage when Meursault is alone on the beach is established on the first line, “There was the same dazzling red glare” (Camus 57). Immediately, the sun is placed at the center of attention as it is the origin of the glare that Meursault was referring to. This makes the mood feel arduous due to the intensity of the sun’s “dazzling red glare” in addition to the fact that the sun stays up for a significant period of time during the day (Camus 57). As a result, it creates no expectations that the sun will cease its effect on Meursault soon and a precedent is created that the persistent effect of the sun will have a significant impact on his future decisions.

When it comes to the sun Meursault lets the sun change his emotions, he never talks about the weather being too cold he can’t handle it. It’s just the sun that seems to bother him the most and his mood changes all of sudden as well“ All of it-the sun, the smell of leather and horse dung from the hearse, the smell of varnish and incense, and my fatigue after a night without sleep-was making it hard for me to see or think straight” ( Camus 17) here Meursault is already tired and then the sun shining down on him and all of this is making him notice every little thing that is happening around him even the smells of certain things and he’s not thinking straight. The sun changed his whole view of his surroundings , some people might feel a bit tired and hot but Meursault seems to let the sun affect him strongly to the point where he’d do anything to get away from it.

The sun is a reliable indicator of Meursault’s feelings. It can make him sleepy, angry, happy, or even resentful. This is very important for a man with such a limited range of emotions. It seems as if he uses the sun to justify the feelings he experiences, as well as the murder he commits. The sun plays a key role in not only his feelings but also in his decision-making. He said, “… my nature is such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings.” This is very important in seeing just how significant the sun is in relation to Meursault’s actions.

Being on an open beach, Meursault mentions the extreme heat numerous times. Meursault claims that, “the heat was so intense” and that here was a “blinding stream falling from the sky.” (57) This quotation has a dual meaning. The literal meaning is that the he was extremely hot, but the figurative meaning may explain something. Since a blinding stream of heat can’t actually fall from the sky, Meursault is thinking figuratively. During the whole exchange with the Arab men, it has blinded Meursault’s thought and his ability to think and reason quickly and rationally. So, when he is referring to the blinding stream, he is really referring to how his senses are binded which caused him to act irrationally. When Meursault sees the Arab man, the man seems to be an apparition. Meursault describes him as “shimmering.” (58) When a person thinks of something shimmering, they would think of temptation and attractiveness. Since Meursault views the man as “shimmering”, it suggests that Meursault was attracted to the light and was tempted to kill him because of that. The heat of the day represents Meursault’s id. The heat of the day was, “pressing on my back” (58), “made me move forward” (59), and was, “cutting at my forehead.” (59) An id is similar to the devil on the shoulder, it is the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest. It causes people to do things that seem right at the time, but that they will regret later. The intense heat, just like the id, causes people to act out of line, and it messes with their

“Things are rough all over.” (Hinton 35) Ponyboy Curtis says this in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. An outsider is someone who is different or doesn’t fit in in a certain way, which is why Hinton never emphasizes who the outsiders are; readers can interpret this book and the outsiders in their own way because Hinton proves that everyone is an outsider in their own manner. While it can be argued that every character is an outsider, the main outsiders in this book are Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade, and Cherry Valance.

Meursault keeps staring at the sun and it hurts him now instead of bringing him serenity. The sun no longer provides any benefit for Meursault ever since he refered to it when he was about to murder the Arab

“The outsider`s” Have you ever felt like an outsider? An Outsider is the people that feel more distance when it comes to groups of society. The novel “the Outsider`s” took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma 1697, that is based on two groups of society. The Socs and the Greasers.

In Camus’ The Stranger, the heat consistently symbolizes Meursault’s emotions, shown through imagery and personification. On several occasions throughout the book, Meursault always mentions heat, therefore, heat can be identified as a motif. The heat pushes him to his breaking point. During his mother’s funeral procession, Meursault mentions, “the glare from the sky was unbearable” (Source A). This imagery portrays Meursault’s psychological pain and depression, but he cannot bear it.

Meursault condemns the sun when describing his surroundings displaying the negativity the sun exerts. He describes the weather, centering it on the sun. He describes the conditions outside once out there and how the sun is “bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat” (15). He describes the heat and “inhumane and oppressive” (15). Camus’

When Sartre says, “Hell is other people” (No Exit 45), Camus will remind him that there is no hell and none of it matters. Objectively, if hell means death, then to both protagonists in the philosophers’ works, hell is indeed other people. Meursault, the stranger in Camus’ book and to morality, passively observed his life until his inability to fit into a moral rubric sends him to a guillotine. His life and eventually his death describes absurdity and subjectivity, but never a moment does he appear to live them. On the other hand, Garcin, a sinner in hell confronts these existential values in Sartre’s No Exit. Unlike Meursault, he actively interacts with his emotions and the society. Yet no matter how different they are from each other, in an unbreakable system, it is other people who determine their fate. Actively and passively, Garcin and Meursault live their life only to find no escape. Through No Exit and The Stranger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus voice their similarities and differences in their philosophies of absurdity and subjectivity through their protagonists in forms of dialogues, decisions, and actions.

The novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, follows the story of a man, Meursault, and how his emotionless way of living and his one grave mistake ends up killing him through a court of law. Throughout his journey, there is tension in him, and between him and other people and groups. This tension is represented throughout this novel with the motif is heat. And as tension can grow and is part of everyday life, it is part of Meursault’s as well. Furthermore, through tension and it growing, it can result in a conflict of multiple varieties. This motif comes up at scenes such as the trial in the courtroom, the conflict on the beach with the Arabs, and the magistrate and his heated argument. And due to Camus specific placement of the motif during these scenes, it also foreshadows conflict and trouble throughout the novel. Camus’ motif of heat shows a tension between opposing sides to foreshadow various types of conflict which demonstrate the theme that tension leads to conflict.

It is often seen to be a symbol of life, power, strength and energy. But in the outsider is used to symbolize something else. The sun is the indicator to Meursault’s emotions and actions. He is constantly referring to the sun and using it in a way to express how he is feeling. “And what with the sun and the smell of leather and horse-dung from the hearse, and the smell of vanish and incense and the sleepless night I’d had, I was so tired that I could hardly see or think straight.” (Chapter one, Part one pg. 21) Meursault uses the sun as one of his excuses to his disinterest and so called tiredness at his mother’s funeral. Again when the murder of the Arab occurred he mentions