Taisha Pacheco
8/14/2015
Mrs. Bauman
AP lit
Block F
The Stranger The major theme in the Stranger is “absurdism”. In the Stranger, the main settings are: Meursault’s home, the beach where the Arab was murdered, the courthouse, and eventually jail. The Stranger is taken place in Algeria in the 1940’s. The prosecutor characterizes Meursault as a murderer, as a monster. In page one hundred and two, the prosecutor states: “ For if in the course of what has been a long career I have strongly as today have I felt this painful duty made sacred imperative and by the horror I feel when I look into a man’s face and all I see is a monster.” The biggest conflict is the aftermath of the murder of the Arab. Meursault had to go through a conflict with the court process. Everyone was judging him. Everyone in the courtroom was focusing more on his reaction to his own mother’s death rather than the actual crime. The protagonist is Meursault. The antagonist is also Meursault. Meursault is his own worst enemy. Meursault means well, but the “sun” made him murders the Arab. However, Meursault is a murderer. Meursault didn’t defend well his case due to his indifference. Meursault’s faults, views on life, and ability to focus the physical aspects rather than emotional aspects is what made the court turn on him, not his actual crime. The crime is what makes him the antagonist. Despite the fact that taking someone’s life is horrible and immoral, if he wouldn’t have murdered the Arab
The Article “A Stranger in Strange Lands” written by Lucille P. McCarthy is an examination of the writing process. This article follows a college student through a twenty-one month study to determine how the students writing ability is affected as he transitions from one classroom to another. Focusing on specific writing processes in different types of classrooms,this article hopes to uncover the importance and effect of writing towards a specific audience within a particular genre and to offer a better understanding to how students continue to learn to write throughout college.
In the novel The Meursault Investigation, Kamel Daoud weaves a sister story for Albert Camus’s The Stranger, and has a dialogue of sorts with Camus. At times Daoud’s novel is very critical of Camus, standing in opposition to the attitudes and themes in The Stranger. The existence of The Meursault Investigation and the character of Musa is a criticism of the incomplete picture that Camus paints in his story, and the namelessness of “The Arab” that Meursault killed. Daoud gives a name to Meursault’s victim beyond that of “The Arab.” At other times, Daoud’s book parallels a lot of the ideas put forth by Camus. This can be seen as Harun slowly comes to resemble the man who killed his brother after committing a murder
The prosecutor then goes on to talk about how Meursault is supposedly a heartless man who didn’t care about his mother and wanted to be rid of her. In this scenario society, the prosecutor, is manipulating the jury. The prosecutor spends so much time talking about Meursault’s mother because everyone has a mother and it makes them upset to hear about how she was “treated.” However it’s as if Meursault is on trial for killing his mom and not the Arab. On page 99 the prosecutor rambles about how he was a terrible son, going to the movies with his “mistress” the day after his mother’s death.
On their way to the bus, they see the “Arabs” and the brother of the mistress Raymond assaulted. When they made it to the house, they all had lunch and enjoyed the nice crisp water and enjoyed the sun. After lunch, they went on a walk where they found the arabs, and Raymond stabbed one of them. They got back and then Meursault went back for a walk, and found another arab sitting there. Then randomly he started to feel heat, a blinding sensation which led him to then shoot this arab four times, which killed the man. Here we see that This chapter represents the climax of the first part of the book. Since his return from his mother’s funeral, everything that Meursault has done in the narrative up to this point—meeting Marie, meeting Raymond, and becoming involved in the affair with Raymond’s mistress—has led him to the beach house. Yet Meursault’s murder of the Arab comes as a complete surprise—nothing in The Stranger has prepared us for it. The feeling of abruptness that accompanies this shift in the plot is intentional on Camus’s part. He wants the murder to happen unexpectedly and to strike us as
The story of the Czech man that Meursault found in his jail cell, is vastly different from his own trial at first, but their stories relate the more one thinks about it. The Czech man’s story provides Meursault a sense of peace during the last moments of his life. A similarity between the two have missing pieces. In the story of the Czech man, “the first part of the story was missing, but I gathered that its scene was some village in Czechoslovakia”(99). While the article is physically missing the piece, the trial with Meursault is more of mystery, as to what influences him to kill the Arab not not with one shot but four. Although, it never explains to why he does so, it leaves one to consider plausible reasons. Though, both murders are different at first glance, but the more deeper one searches, the more similarities between the two become known.
Monsieur Meursault is an emotionally detached, absurd, protagonist male character who exemplifies his own meaning of justice. Meursault demonstrates several emotionless, indifferent, nonchalant actions throughout this melancholic novel. He lives his life through his senses, rather than logical reasoning, which withdraws him from being apart of societal norms. The drinking and smoking at his mother's funeral, his response to the sun at the beach,
Albert Camus took readers into the mind of a sociopath with the novel The Stranger. In the first sentence of the novel, the reader found out that the protagonist’s mother had passed away. The son, Meursault, was first viewed as shocked of the tragic death, but as the novel progressed Meursault’s reactions were actually a result of his emotionless nature. Throughout the novel, the reader is captivated and horrified by Meursault's disconnected temperament. In the course of going through his Mother’s death, helping his friend attack a helpless woman, and feeling like he does not have anything to live for creates a tone for the entire novel that was felt right away in the first sentence on the first page of Camus’ text.
In our world, there are certainly expected manners of behavior ranging from emotional reactions to obeying laws. However, in The Stranger, Mersault lives his life detached from these societal constraints. Even though he lives an unusual life, he doesn’t completely alienate himself from society until he shoots a man. Later when he is in prison, violence erupts when he opposes the Chaplain’s Christian beliefs. Meursault’s rebellious actions in both of these scenes illuminate how society condemns people who refuse to conform to societal constructs.
In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault the protagonist, becomes drawn into a “senseless” murder that has to face the absurdity of life and because of his actions, Meursault is presented as a danger due to his lack of “morality” to society. Meursault who is not able to take control of his life but respond to what life offers him believes in the simplicity of life. He tries to understand the living through logic and objectivity, which ultimately turns futile, as he himself cannot maintain proper control over his thoughts and emotions. From the interactions between Marie, to the murder of the Arab, and the meeting with the Chaplain, Meursault overcomes his indifferent views to form an opinion about what life really means. The central theme presented by Camus is how the threat of mortality becomes a catalyst for understanding the significance of life.
The Stranger by Albert Camus follows the story of a man named Meursault, who received notice that his mother had passed away. Meursault was not emotionally connected to his mother, and his reaction is not what the reader would expect, as he did not seem to care at all. Therefore, the day after attending his mother’s funeral, Meursault goes to the beach and meets up with his girlfriend, Marie. After the beach, Meursault and Marie go to a movie and spend the night together. When he returns home from work the next day, Meursault runs into his neighbor, Raymond, who beats his mistress. Later in the story, Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go to a beach house, which is owned by Raymond’s friend, Masson. At the beach, Masson, Raymond, and Meursault
The Stranger by Albert Camus was published in 1942. The setting of the novel is Algiers where Camus spent his youth in poverty. In many ways the main character, Meursault, is a typical Algerian youth. Like them, and like Camus himself, Meursault was in love with the sun and the sea. His life is devoted to appreciating physical sensations. He seems so devoid of emotion. Something in Meursault's character has appealed primarily to readers since the book's publication. Is he an absurd anti-hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? Critics and readers alike have disputed a variety of approaches to Meursault. I believe he is the embryo
The courtroom portrays Meursalt as an appalling man for enjoying himself the day after his mother’s funeral. The broad statement said by the prosecutor shows that society does not allow one to have any entertaining moments after a time of repentance because it is thought to be disrespectful. A quick rebuttal by Meursalt’s lawyer helps realign the trial so that it is actually focusing on why they are having the trial in the first place by saying, ““Come now, is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?” The spectators laughed.” (96). The trial never focuses on why Meursalt killed the Arab man and no one ever bothers to make any real efforts to discover his motives. This reveals that the courtroom is more interested in the type of person Meursalt is and how he can be a danger to society than the death of the Arab. The courtroom judges Meursalt as a heartless man with the only intention of killing a man because he felt like it, yet neither ever proves the killing of the Arab, not even in their closing speeches.
Widely recognized for philosophical writings as a French essayist and playwright, Albert Camus is a major contributor to exploring the absurd in modern Western literature. Characterized by highlighting the human condition, Camus’ writing style focuses on the everyday lives and inner psyche of individuals in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Such a character-driven writing style is most notably displayed in his 1946 work, The Stranger, a tale of an emotionally-detached man known as Meursault, who lives in French-colonized Algiers during the intermission of the two World Wars. Consisting of two parts—The Stranger first explores his daily life as a free man, and in the second, delves more into the character’s own philosophy as Meursault contemplates during his remaining time in jail. At its core, the story explores the relationships and interactions of the odd Meursault through the character’s inner monologue and dialogue with those around him. The story itself is very ambiguous in its’ nature, and the idea of contemplating the meaning of life and purpose is prevalent throughout The Stranger. Evidently, Camus writes Meursault as a man who believes that life has no meaning, and therefore people are free to do as they please. To supplement the protagonist’s view, the author also presents Meursault alongside various personalities of key supporting characters, each with their own unique personality, and differing outlooks on life. Doing so thus enables Camus to get readers to contemplate about meaning through multiple perspectives. Stylistically, through many devices that emphasize diction, imagery, and story themes. Ultimately, The Stranger is a way for Camus to convey that there are multiple ways to perceive the meaning of life, using Meursault to directly project a different view than what readers are used to. Surely, with the intent of crafting a protagonist so strange, that Meursault becomes comparable to other characters; less so as a reflection of what the author personally believes the meaning of life is, but more of what such exploration of the idea could be.
“Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.” Henry Miller
The train was crossing Nevada’s dry landscape on a dark and gloomy day. In the back sat a man trying to get away. He wore a dark hat and jacket. Despite his past it was unlikely the security guards would recognize him as he was a long way