How Does Meursault Reflect On His Mother's Death

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.

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.

Meursault deals with others people as if they are only there to please him or they are just taking up his time. As evidenced with his relationship with Marie, Meursault was merely using her for sex because that is what he wanted from her and at that time in his life. He lives from pleasure to pleasure with Marie; he only looks forward to seeing her when he knows he can have sex with her. When visiting day rolls around at the jail he is not as enthusiastic about seeing Marie as you would think he would be after not seeing her for several months. Because he knows he can't have sex with her, it totally cheapens the moment while she talks to him. Meursault drifts off into space basically ignoring her. For Meursault there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for him if he talks to her, the thrill is gone and thus the pleasure has dried up for him.

3. To what extent does Meursault accept his fate? How does he arrive at his final understanding of his situation, and how would you describe that understanding?

In conclusion, Marie and Meursault showed many similarities and differences in mannerism, action and emotion. This statement was easily expressed by Meursault’s mind thinking, “It occurs to me that anyway, one more Sunday, was over, Mamam was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that nothing had really

Jeannette, realizing that her father is dying, reflects about him with great affection, praising him with long and sentimental sentences but in her last moments with him (before Rex has a heart attack) there is a change in syntax, and as she leaves his makeshift apartment she, “...just smiled. And then [she] closed the door” (279). By employing short sentences, Walls is able to show that she has matured and come to realize the truths about her father, seeming detached and

Camus as our last reading was probably the easiest to read, however it was very depressing. Camus introducing the character Meursault who is an average working man, in which we come to find out he believes in life is meaningless and that you can have goals and desires but then reality comes in and you have what you have. And he made a point in saying if you try to say otherwise you aren’t living in truth because the meaning of life will never be found. Toward the end of the novel is when we really get inside Meursault’s head on these thoughts “but everybody knows life isn’t worth living” (Camus 114). He goes on to describe the fact of life that doesn’t matter what age, man or women, natural death or execution everyone was going to die and

1. Meursault is in a kind of sexual relationship. Everytime he sees her, he can’t stop his sexual attraction towards her. His thoughts are all about her physical features and sex. When Marie asks Meursault if he love her, he told her it didn’t matter. “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but I don’t think so” (35).

In the experimental novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, he explores the concept of existentialism and the idea that humans are born into nothing and descend into nothingness after death. The novel takes place in the French colony of Algiers where the French-Algerians working-class colonists live in an urban setting where simple life pleasures are of the upmost importance in the lives of working class people like the protagonist of the novel Meursault. What is fascinating about this novel is that it opens up with a scene of perpetual misfortune for him through the death of his mother although he seems to express otherwise. The reader perceives this nonchalance as a lack of care. Maman’s death and its impact on Meursault appear in both the

Meursault has no meaning in life, so in whatever circumstances he is currently in, he will eventually adapt to. He has no reason to change for how he is just for society to accept him. His surroundings, however, have definitely changed him. He is distant from his emotions and life’s surroundings. The setting of this quote is a symbol of Meursault’s true character.

When Meursault mother died, he started off by saying “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours."(Actively learn the stranger) That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.”. When a normal person's mother dies, they are certain about her death, they want to know the day their mother passed and how she died, but Meursault was not concerned about her death or how she died. That is very unusual for someone to act in that type of event.

The novel starts out with Meursault getting a telegram saying that his mother had died. He takes time off work to go to her funeral and completely fail to show the emotion that the reader expects to see of a son towards his recently passed mother. First and foremost, when he arrives, the coffin is

Although it seems like a heartless and ridiculous response to the subject matter, Meursault's existentialistic honesty makes him heroic. In a way, Meursault loves Marie, but his problem with communication is one of the root cause for his alienation because his response never satisfies the 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 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.