Meursault's Selfishness

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

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.

The solitude of man with the innate endeavoring nature to incessantly find passion, be fruitful, and embrace the tangibles causes us to lose focus of the scornful end. The condemnation we find ourselves in subsequent to the impotent attempts to satiate our inexplicable questions, is the puncture to our ideal notion . The disenchantment the truth of our obscure being offered is masqueraded with the absurdity through which we seamlessly wander through this life. The irrefutable desire to numb the conscious is the bittersweet burden which we carry to suppress the abyss of disparity which we are floating amidst. Monsieur Meursault in Albert Camus’ The Stranger is the blaring anomaly. Fortifying himself through his indifferent nature and blunt honesty, Meursault is ostracized. Deemed with a psychosis he finds comfort in the unruly inescapable solace of life, death, which morphs into his gradual declination. The sun tracing his unusual circumstances, catalyzing his imminent reactions provides itself as the only paradigm to symbolize Meursault. The intricacies which unfold are reiterated by the Sun which juxtapose the indigenous contingency to find meaning. Meursault’s paradoxical compel and abhorrence to the sun highlights the idea that the what we choose to learn may not be abiding in beauty. Our choice in this duality sets forth the invitation to introspection offering its only absolute form through our own willingness. Meursault understanding himself is bonded to the sun

Camus uses many different aspects of existentialist philosophy throughout the entirety of the novel. One aspect of existentialist thought that is used in the novel, is that “existence is always particular and individual—always my existence, your existence,his existence” ( “Existentialism” ). This can be seen through various characters, but most importantly through the protagonist, Meursault. In one scene of the novel, Meursault says, “Then he asked me if I wasn’t interested in a change of life. I said that 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” (Camus 40). In this scene Meursault is talking about how his boss offered him a new job in Paris in part because he thinks Meursault would enjoy the new change in life. This relates back to the existentialist thought that everyone's existence is particular to their own, because Meursault doesn’t really care to start over in a new city, whereas someone such as his boss believes that many young people would love to.

The core idea of Albert Camus’ philosophy of absurdity centralizes upon the idea that humans exist in a meaningless universe, and follows that humans must simply accept this fact to live life to the fullest. In addition to this absurdist notion, Albert Camus also uses The Stranger to show how humans still strive to create superficial meaning to fulfill their own personal needs. Through the experiences and interactions in Meursault’s life, Camus illustrates that in spite of how events in life follow no rational order, society attempts to futilely create meaning to explain human existence.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Sometimes life can be a confusing series of people, emotions, and experiences, which can lead many to struggle with their purpose in this world. Therefore, many look to the philosophies and writings of ancient and modern philosophers in order to piece understanding into their lives. A very prevalent philosophy that had roots in early Christian and Buddhist writings, but exploded in Europe during the 1940’s and 1950’s, was Existentialism. The Existential movement focused on the ideas of individual freedom, absurdity, authenticity, individualism and alienation. This was both a movement of literary and philosophical greatness, with many writers expressing their philosophical beliefs through their literature. These writers believed that there was no greater purpose in a person’s life and that there was almost no point in existence. Moreover, these authors both valued authenticity and created a sort of absurdity to the society they lived in. Therefore, this struggle to grasp the meaning of life can be seen through an existential light in many novels with authors such as Camus. In Camus’s novel The Stranger, Camus explores the existential ideas of absurdity and authenticity through the actions and ideas of the main character Meursault.

Albert Camus, born in colonized Algeria, a father to absurdism, and author of The Stranger confronts the philosophical themes of purpose, integrity, and passivity. The Stranger’s main character, Meursault, is a laconic man whose passive actions and brutal honesty lend to connections in his court trial. Those of which condemn him to execution. Meursault falls victim to his complete honesty, complete passivity, and disregard for the purpose of action. He is straightforward, and his actions usually follow his thoughts. Actions and decisions that most average people regard as serious, Meursault regards as arbitrary. Meursault’s exemplification of absurdism proves to not only lend to his characterization, but as a comfort in his death as well.