Essay On The Stranger

While reading The Stranger I noticed that traits that Albert Camus character depicts in the book are closely related to the theories of Sigmund Freud on moral human behavior. Albert Camus portrays his character of Meursault as a numb, emotionless person that seems to mindlessly play out his role in society, acting in a manner that he sees as the way he’s supposed to act, always living in the moment with his instincts driving him, and if the right circumstance presents itself the primal deep seeded animal will come out. I believe that most of the character’s traits fall under Freud’s notion of the Id and Ego mental apparatus, and don’t believe that his idea of the super-ego is represented in this book.

In the story “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, the belief that the themes of loss and retrieval are at the core of Mersault’s mythology, and that they illumine the notion of exile to which he returns so often is widely discussed. I however do not believe that either one of those themes has anything to do with the Mersault and the exile to which he returns to so often, rather I believe that Mersault’s own attitude is the reason for the exile he experiences in the story.

Meursault's character is the determining factor in his conviction and sentencing. His social rebellion is deemed immoral and abominable. The reader and the novel's characters both try to rationalize Meursault's actions in order to give his life meaning. But according to Meursault, life is meaningless and consequently needs no justification.

In his short story, “The Strangers That Came to Town,” Ambrose Flack is showing that true freedom is about being accepted. It shows that true freedom is about being accepted because of the way that the Duvitch family is placed in a community where they are not accepted at first but then do become accepted. Mr. Duvitch didn’t talk much to anyone because of lack of freedom to be who he was, Mrs. Duvitch didn’t have the freedom to also be who she was because people talked about her and the Duvitch children to were quiet ones who didn’t have freedom in the sense that they couldn’t just go out and play with the other kids.

In “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, the juxtaposition between Chaplain’s morals and the Meursault's are symbolic of the acceptance and rejection of social constructs like religion, showing how adhering to one’s own values are ultimately more rewarding. Throughout the novel, Meursault is defined his actions driven from prioritizing his physical needs first. This mentality lands Meursault in jail for killing an Arab because he was distracted by the sun. As he is about to approach his death sentence, the Chaplain attempts to get him to convert to religion and become a believer in his final moments, as “he was expressing his certainty that my appeal would be granted, but I was carrying the burden of sin from which I had to free myself. According

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.

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

“Tell me, is that a nationality, ‘Arab’?” muses Harun, the narrator of Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation (Daoud 138). Daoud’s novel is full of questions and ramblings such as this one that serve as a response to Albert Camus’ The Stranger, which explores the trial of a French Algerian (Meursault) for killing an Arab man. In The Stranger, Camus fails to name the Arab victim and gives him no backstory nor significant reason for the cause of his murder. In The Meursault Investigation, Daoud gives the dead Arab a name: Musa. Much like Musa’s Quranic and Biblical counterpart, Musa is unable to speak for himself and so his brother Harun is left with the task of narrating the story. The Meursault Investigation draws many parallels between Meursault and Harun: both have a complicated relationship with their mother, both have an ambivalence towards their home country and most obviously both murder a ‘stranger’. The parallels in the novel are used to compare and contrast the different qualities of the two men and also cause the reader to change the way they view Meursault in The Stranger. Camus portrays a Meursault that is detached and passive, while Daoud gives an emotional Harun who ends up seeing Meursault from The Stranger as a “mirror held up to [his] soul” (Daoud 131). Through Harun’s identification with Meursault and the various parallels between the novels, Daoud is able to raise questions in the reader as to whether Meursault was as cold hearted and detached as he

I agreed to act as a witness for him” (37), the contextual evidence proves that Raymond only uses Meursault for his own benefit by making him his witness. In this relationship, Camus presents Raymond with selfish-like characteristics for using Meursault for his own benefit and not returning the favor to Meursault.

Albert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate.

The chaplain comes to see Meursault against Meursault’s own wishes and the chaplain tells him that he should turn to God for comfort in his final days. Meursault does not believe in God and he tells this to the chaplain. The chaplain seems so sure about everything in life and about everything that will happen but to Meursault, the only certainty is that everybody dies. If it does not happen today, it will happen tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. Life is indifferent to everybody and nothing in it is important unless the person makes it important. There are no pre-set values that everyone must believe in when they are born. The choices a person makes are what define him because existence precedes essence. If someone chooses to value love, then it is important to him or her and he or she should care about it. If someone chooses to believe in God, then He is only important to him or her and only he or she should care about Him. The reason that he did not cry at his mother’s funeral is because he does not believe that this is the appropriate reaction since everybody dies at one point or another. The reason that he said that he probably does not love Marie and that it is not important, is because he does not have love as one of his values; therefore, he should not care about that emotion. Finally, the reason he did not show remorse for killing the Arab is because he did not feel that emotion. What Meursault does value is the truth. He

After Maman died, Meursault met his girlfriend, Marie. She was as beautiful as he could imagine and he loved her company. As most people who possess very strong feelings for

On the first line of chapter 1, Meursault is unsure of his mother’s death, and doesn’t know if “Maman died today. Or, yesterday maybe” (3). Aside from not even knowing the time of his mother’s passing, he remains emotionless at her funeral and does not cry. Meursault presents himself as being extremely detached from the world around him. He leads a very dull and Sisyphean life. He talks a lot of going to work every day and going to bed, only to be followed by the same routine the next day. He also shows no motivation or aspirations of achieving more, whether it be in work or in love. When offered a promotion to go to Paris, Meursault simply responds with “that it was really all the same to me… people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all” (41) . The only thing Meursault seems to show some interest in is Marie. Even then, in chapter 4 when Marie asks Meursault if he loves her, he replies “I told

The French philosopher Roland Barthes once said, “Literature is the question minus the answer” (Barthes 2). This statement hold true for most works of literature that explore a central question. According to Barthes, literature often raises a question, but leaves it up to the reader to determine the answer. The Stranger by Albert Camus is an excellent example of how a central question, “Is there value and meaning to human life?” is raised and left unanswered, resulting in different interpretations of the answer, depending on the viewpoint of the reader. Although the question is never explicitly answered, Camus offers perspectives on what French society regarded the answers to be, such as connections with others, elusion to freedom, and faith in religion and God.

distant at his mother’s funeral and he was distant with Marie and he was distant with the