Albert Camus Morality Essay

Meursault didn’t care enough to see how his mother was doing. If he loved her, he would go out of his way

Later on he commits the crime of shooting an arab man, whom was the brother of his friends ex-partner. Yet again he showed no emotion whatsoever even after what he did. Since he had already had a bad reputation for not mourning his mother’s death, not feeling sorry for killing a man made it all worse. No one felt pity for him whatsoever, not even his lawyer who was suppose to be on his side. Meursault is considered a threat because of his lack of moral feelings www.sparknotes.com. He is found guilty and sentenced to prison, where in time he learns to accept himself, and his way of viewing life, and for the first time feels happy.

Meursault is a risk to society in view of the fact that he is emotionally indifferent from others. Meursault is detached from the world around him."I said that it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to,” says Meursault. “I said it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to ... I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't love her.” In these two quotes, this proves that Meursault doesn’t care about Marie and he doesn’t care about his mother’s death.

Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions embody the absurd, even before he has any awareness of the fact. Since Meursault is embodied absurdism, it is not necessary that he be hyperaware of his thoughts and intentions. His truth has already been built into his character by the

The emotionless actions of Meursault make him commit a murder at the Algerian beach. He remembers the discomfort that he had to go through during his mother’s funeral as he shoots the arab. The pain (vulnerability) that Meursault experiences at the beach led him to commit a murder because he became angry thinking about his mother’s death and so he gets all his anger out by killing the arab. When Meursault come to the courtroom he speaks the truth, which show that he is very honest, but the people in the courtroom view him as being a very cold-hearted human being. This could make the reader look at Meursault in two way, we could see him as a hero or a killer for his honesty .

Maybe it was yesterday" (Camus3). This quote clearly states that Meursault and his other were not close it might also seems as if he does not care about her death or even when she passed. Since he grew up not knowing about God he thought that life was meaningless and when you die you die. On her funeral he did not want to see her body and did not even cry. The reason why he did not cry was because he

On page 102 Meursault said, “That I had no place in society whose most fundamental rules I ignored.” He doesn’t hang around with everyone he sees, and keeps himself isolated from the common crowd. He does take advantage of people, especially woman, when he sees fit. If he’s getting satisfied, then that’s all that counts. He is a stranger from the rest of society.

Meursault’ emotionlessness contribute a lot to why his relationship with Marie is indifferent. Since their relationship has started Meursault has always been more interested in the physical aspect of the relationship than the emotional. Meursault take more interest in looking at Marie than talking to her. He says, “...Marie looked at me with her eyes sparkling. I kissed her. We didn’t say anything more from that point on”(Camus 35). Meursault may listen to Marie sometimes, but it seems that he keeps her around only for physical pleasure and something to look at. Many times he references the way her appearance, such as breasts or skin, has made him want her right then. Meursault show no emotion in the relationship because he only cares about living life in the moment.

He has no initial reaction to the news of her death, and at her funeral service he did not bother to even see her before she was buried. His lack of emotion is evident in the very first lines of the book, “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.” This shows that Meursault is hardly caring for his mother. Society’s standards would result in him to be in absolute mourning and wanting to go as fast as possible to her body. This is not the only example of Meursault’s lack of emotion and care for factors in his life. He does not care for love and marriage after having intercourse with someone; the society standard at this time was to get married if two partners had intercourse. He does not care for promotion and career advancement when his boss offers him a better job opportunity; the standard at that time and right now is to pursue the best career possible. In these scenarios Meursault is living free from the chains, and does whatever he thinks is right to do. Eventually, society rejects him and his ways, and he gets in trouble with the law. He is judged by society and his ways are ridiculed, making Meursault appear to be a monster.

In The Stranger by Albert Camus. Meursault does not feel any great sadness over his mother's death, yet everyone in the novel seems to try to justify his actions. Why doesn’t Meursault feel any type of sadness or remorse for this mother's death? He seems to not have any kind of feelings or nothing for his mother's when she was alive if he did, he would not have been more remorseful for her death. Meursault acts as though he was not close to his mother's and like he didn’t want to attend her funeral. His friends also seem to back him up by defending him in saying reasons why he shows no feelings or sadness for his mother's death, they say “that’s his way of showing how he feels everyone shows how they feel in different ways”.

In addition, Meursault cannot find a solid place in society. He lives alone due to the death of his mother. Society cannot accept the manner in which Meursault addresses his mother’s death. Since he thinks that “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, [he doesn’t] know” (Camus 3), society believes that he does not care that his mother dies. Everyone judges him because he does not relate to the rest of the people. Meursault receives immense criticism at his trial concerning his murdering another man. At his trial, Meursault can “feel how much all these people [the jury] hated” (Camus 90) him. The jury does not commend him or even regard him with understanding about his mother’s death. Some people react to death without actually reacting to it; Meursault subconsciously chooses to do so but receives condemnation. Both characters experience isolation from society.

Primarily, Meursault’s aloofness towards the world started to crack after experiencing Maman’s funeral. In the beginning of the novel before the funeral of his mother, Meursault’s desire to “ [see] Maman right away” (Camus, 4) so that he can leave as soon as possible expressed the height of Meursault’s absurdism. Even during the funeral Meursault seemed to care more about “[Perez’s] ruined face”(Camus, 18) than his mother’s casket. However this changed during the sunday after the funeral when Meursault seemed to finally take notice of his mother’s absence from his life stating how his apartment was “just the right size when maman was here”(Camus, 21). This quote is significant because previously Meursault stated “ I didn’t go [to the old

In Albert Camus novel, The Stranger (The Outsider), the main character Meursault displays a unique indifference to his surroundings and the world around him. It takes him a degree of time to come to terms with his indifference, but when he does he feels truly free from society's constricting bonds. He leads an apathetic lifestyle that is characterized by his constant lack of a definitive personality. Meursault wanders through life as if in a drunken stupor, living the life of a pleasure seeker. When he accepts his death he is relieved of the pressure of dealing with guilt and with relationships towards other people.

Many people ask why morals should be able to prevail over people's desires. This is a valid question, one that must be answered if morals are to be defended. Morals must not only be reasonable for people to follow, but they must also have good reasons for people to follow them, otherwise people would not bother adhering to them. These reasons should motivate people to follow these rules. They must appeal to their perceived interests, but if these rules are to apply to all people, they cannot serve the interests of just a few people. Moral rules are not for imposing your own values and tastes on other people! As Narveson puts it, "[w]hat matters for morals is that its rules are individually reasonable for people to accept and to follow, so long as others do too" (MM, 16).

Everyday we are tested as individuals to make the right choice. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are directly correlated to our moral decision-making. But morals are somewhat misleading. What might be a wrong decision for one person might be a solution to another. So how do we define morals? Do we follow Gods’ moral rules because to do so would increase out likelihood of obtaining salvation in the afterlife? Or is it simpler than that. Is God going to deny our entrance into heaven because we have run a stop sign here and there? No. I believe our moral values are much simpler than that. I believe that our moral decision-making comes from our upbringing of what is right or wrong. Our parents and