Meursault's Selfishness

The Novel The Stranger has been known to be an “absurd” philosophical fiction, that reflects strongly on Albert Camus’ philosophy. Albert Camus was a firm believer when it came to existentialism which is what The Stranger shows examples of by using Meursault and his decisions. Some people think that your decisions throughout life do not make you who ‘you’ are whether they are good or bad. Other people believe that the decisions you make are actually made based on your true character and help you find out who you were really meant to be, this was known as existentialism which is a philosophy. “I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I'd been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness. ”Meursault knew that when he decided to shoot the arab his life was soon going to change and understood that the consequences were not going to be good. He sensed that Raymond and the other arab were left shocked, he felt unhappy after repeatedly shooting the Arab because he did not believe his ‘fate’ would be being sentenced to death for murder, yet Meursault knew that what was happening to him was based off of his decisions in which he had to accept. “I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I had done this and I

In his novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, irony within the protagonist’s ( Meursault ) contrasting perception of the human condition is used to illustrate and invoke the reader to question the contradictory nature of societal expectations. His indifferent and unprecedented reactions to experiences - relative to the characters that Camus laid before him - aid in displaying the absurdity of a world constrained by the chains of conventional wisdom. The contrasting nature of Meursault's demeanor in defying conventional wisdom in experiences such as love and death not only reveals the underlying hypocrisy of the human condition but further illustrates the arbitrary essence of defining a human life.

Life is often interpreted by many as having meaning or purpose. For people who are like Meursault, the anti-hero protagonist of Albert Camus' The Stranger, written in 1942, the world is completely without either. Camus' story explores the world through the eyes of Meursault, who is quite literally a stranger to society in his indifference to meaning, values, and morals. In this novel, this protagonist lives on through life with this indifference, and is prosecuted and sentenced to die for it. Through Meursault and his ventures in The Stranger, Camus expresses to the reader the idea that the world is fundamentally absurd, but that people will react to absurdity by attaching meaning to it in vain, despite the fact that the world, like

This semester we have studied five works that all communicate different themes and views of existentialism through each protagonist's point of view. From reading, watching, and analyzing each piece of work, we have come to know existentialists as having a very interesting outlook on life. Almost all the existentialists in the five works we studied believe in freedom of choice. That humans define their own meaning in life and try their best to make rational decisions in spite of existing in what they consider an “unreasonable universe”. The protagonists in each short story and movie we have watched, have similar qualities between each other and quite a few differences. The two pieces of work that will be focused on are, ‘The Wall’ by Jean-Paul Sartre and ‘The Guest’ by Albert Camus.

Megan Graeser Professor Mary Bockover Philosophy 485 10 May 2018 Meursault and the Meaning of Life Albert Camus’s The Stranger is about a man named Meursault who has accepted that life is irrational and inherently meaningless. He considers himself an outsider, or a “stranger,” to society because he keeps to himself, but also because his world view is much different than that of his peers’. In the book, Meursault experiences moments in which one would usually feel grief, happiness, and even regret, but he is completely detached from the restraints of “irrational” emotions. In this short essay, I will argue alongside Meursault that the only way to enjoy life is to accept it for it’s meaninglessness.

In conservative societies, there is a strong pressure that forces individuals to think and act a certain way. In most cases, individuals from conservative societies are brought up surrounded by those morals and expectations. The process of development is key in developing individual thoughts and ideals, that in rare cases, ends up being the opposite of what is set in stone by a particular social construct. In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Meursault, the main character, is molded as a rebel and outcast for his time. Throughout the progression of the novel, Meursault is widely condemned for his inability to meet the social standards and expectations that society has created: “Camus’s objective is to depict Meursault’s expurgation from French-Algerian

In The Stranger, Albert Camus allows the main character to tell the story in order to give the reader an experience of his own. Obviously, with a novel also comes language, which Camus incorporates cleverly as a way to indirectly illustrate Meursault’s thoughts about certain situations. Although the novel represents a postmodern setting, the author shifts the overall meaning. In The Stranger, Camus applies a unique literary style as a power that deflects blame from Meursault, the antiheroic character. In order to disclaim the fault of Meursault, Camus incorporates several instances in which he leaves a greater sense of authority to nonliving objects, while further drawing attention away from the main character. Based on the implication of

third influence over camus is heideggers centrality of death to an individuals experiences. the last but not the least is sartres influence over camus regarding the existence of an individual which is absurd meaningless purposeless and full of void. these influences over camus are the most evident at the end of the novel the stranger where meursault in the most poetic passage yells his heart out at the chaplain of the prison and states nothing nothing mattered and i knew why.  all elected by the same fate me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers 121 this poetic passage gives an undeniable insight into the existential outlook of meursault over life. camus ideas on existentialism is clearly seen in the stranger and richard kamber states in on camus to understand meursaults views as because of deaths finality the way one lives and the choices one makes lack importance beyond the interests of individual human beings.

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.

Many visions and aspects of existentialism are clearly displayed throughout the book “ The stranger”. Author albert camus uses examples of existentialism throughout the book in order to show just what state of mind the main character is in. he continually uses moments from his own life to paint an even better picture for the reader to visualize. The main character meursault is clearly emotionally detached from the world. Mersalt is affected by the death of his mother-the author used his own real world problem in the and provides a great plot in the story.

Albert Camus’s novel, The Stranger is regarded to the philosophical ideas of Existentialism, yet seems to also incorporate Absurdist tenets throughout the book that show ideals of being a unique type of individual with different actions that society disagrees with.

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.

However, one of the stranger and more interesting philosophical identities, which exists in a world of its own, is Existentialism. Existentialists try to acknowledge the incongruent irrationalities of the world and try to live with them. One of these such prolific existentialist and literary sculptor is Albert Camus. In his novel, The Stranger,

The human tendency to seek meaning in life is invariably at odds with the human inability to find any. How, then, should humans attempt to resolve this dissonance? In The Stranger, Camus addresses this question by developing the character of Meursault, the novel’s narrator and protagonist (and, one could argue, anti-hero) who is sentenced to execution for killing another man. At the start of the novel, Meursault merely feels indifferent about his bland existence and the people and events around him. As the story progresses, however, Meursault transforms into a man who understands the source of that indifference and who is able to not only realize that the world lacks objective meaning, but, even more importantly, live freely in spite of that uncomfortable truth. It is only after accepting his fate and the absurdity of the universe that he attains true freedom and a state of serenity, in contrast with the dejected state of a suicidal nihilist and the anxious plight of an individual searching for nonexistent meaning. Meursault’s philosophical evolution dramatizes the essence of Camus’ contention that in order to surmount the dilemma of the absurd and achieve freedom, one must recognize the objective meaninglessness of life and then proceed to create one’s own personal meaning by living in spite of this absurdity, while recognizing the artificial nature of that

Albert Camus was a French-Algerian writer, who made an enterprising contribution to a wide range of issues in moral philosophy. Camus was a moralist as well as a political theoretician and stood in high public esteem not only in France but also all over Europe after World War Ⅱ. Albert Camus spent a dismal childhood with poverty and bereavement of his father’s death. In his school years, Camus became an avid reader, developing a lifelong interest in literature as well as profoundly opened his eyes to philosophy. Therefore, Camus principally dealt with philosophy themes in his work. In this short biography of Albert Camus, we will explore his philosophy of absurdism and its effect on Camus’s morality. Besides, the reader will be examining Camus’s influences on existentialism.