Meursault Reflection

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.

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.

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.

Diction shows the difference in Meursault’s views and beliefs as he spends more and more time in prison, adapts to his new lifestyle,

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.

In Part 1 of the novel, Meursault does not fully grasp the significance of life because of his absurdist way of life. Camus presents Meursault as a person who does not live life, but reacts to what life presents him. Meursault is incapable of understanding the metaphysics of the world due to his lack of emotions. The greatest understanding of Meursault is through his own mind; instead of being subjective, he is objective. “Behind them, an enormous mother, in a brown silk dress, and the father, a rather frail little man I know by sight” (22). His thoughts include “note-taking” details about his environment with an

Meursault’s atypical view of the world is first seen when at his mother’s funeral when he does not cry, but rather, he worries more about the heat of the day than the burden of burying his mother. His absurd view of the world is also apparent when Marie asks Meursault to marry her. Meursault looks at marriage, a life changing decision, with indifference, which does not make Marie stop loving him, but she does not understand how the man she loves can be so emotionally detached from her. Marie’s character represents those who are ‘normal’ in society because she outwardly shows her love for Meursault, and looks towards the future. She, unlike Meursault, does not just live within the moment.

This pistol of Meursault’s epiphany radiates an unnatural and insincere sense, almost overdriving reader to comprehend the true meaning of the sentence. Meursault feels apprehensive towards his mother’s death, which is disparate of Meursault’s detached nature. However Meursault is aware that he is expected to return to his norms from the society though being drawn into a whirlpool of life. [He is] going back to work (pg.28), which gives him a sense of independence (providing his daily bread) and provides him an exclusive purpose, which Meursault believes no one has in life

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

Meursault was introduced as a young man whom recently found out his mother, Maman, died. He was not the most emotional person, but he dealt with his feelings the best he knew how. Meursault lived his life on the verge of truth and honesty. He was honest within every aspect of life, from women to freedom. He was never certain about anything in life ,but one thing he was sure of, death was inevitable. After murdering an Arab, he was on trial in front of many people being interrogated with many questions about why he did what he did, but also to evaluate his psyche about the situation. Unlike others, Meursault did not hide from the truth and that is what others could not cope with. Living his life the way others were afraid to, Meursault was the outcast in his society.

The story begins with “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (3). The lines introduce Meursault’s key personality trait, his indifference. He simply states the facts and has little emotional expression when talking about his mother’s passing. At his mother's funeral, he felt others expected him to talk and show emotion and it made him uncomfortable.

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.

At one point, he declines a job offer to go to Paris. Despite the fact that he'd be able to leave colonial Algeria for Paris, which would seem like a good life choice for many, he doesn't care for the offer. Meursault said that “people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that [he] wasn't dissatisfied with [his] here at all” (41). Meursault shows himself not only be indifferent to things or people around him, but that he's also indifferent to his future as everything is the same to him. In his relationship with Marie, Meursault was indifferent to the idea of getting married to her. When asked about marriage and if he really loved Marie, he responded that “it didn't mean anything but that [he] probably didn't love her . . . that it didn't really matter and that if she wanted to, [they] could get married” (ibid). Here he was, saying that he didn't care if he got married. By doing this, he discarded his own ability to decide his future, and instead put it in the hands of someone else. In this respect, Meursault is also like the world, in that his future is decided by others, but unlike the world, Meursault has the ability to decide his future, but never takes the chance, because, like the world, he doesn't care.

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.