Neither Victims Or Executioners, By Albert Camus

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the murder committed by Meursault is questionably done with no reason. Although the entirety of the second part is spent in society’s attempts to find a cause, Meursault has a durable existential mentality that proves that even he knows that there is no true reason for the crime. Through the use of light and heat imagery and diction in The Stranger, Albert Camus comments on the duality of society trying to find a cause for the murder and Meursault defying this because of his existential mentality. These elements heighten Meursault’s negative outlook on life by

"Never make an attempt to gain our freedom or natural right, from under our cruel oppressor, and murderers, until you see your way clear [6]--when that hour arrives and you move, be not afraid or

" The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices...to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill...and suspicion can destroy...and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own -- for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is...that these things cannot be confined...to the Twilight Zone."

“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”

“We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.” -William James (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamjam157170.html?src=t_savage)

"If one takes up arms they must always be willing to die or you are all but heading out thinking your own arrogance will protect you from your foes. After all, it only takes one moment before it's your head, or limb going flying to break that self-imposed notion of invulnerability you humans can get. As for saving the world I highly doubt a world paved with the blood of the innocent is going to make anything other than a paradise for demons. A funny path for those claiming to do God's work when they use the methods of the Devil."

It is common for conflicts to form when an individual’s beliefs rejects societal ideas. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist Meursault, opposes the will of society. However, Meursault’s opposition to society is unjustified because his opposition negatively affects individuals in society due to Meursault's failure to follow two key tenets of existentialism, humanism and paramount ethical decisions. Meursault is existentially unjustified when he chooses not to call the cops while Raymond beat his wife because Meursault failed to follow the existential tenet of humanism. Towards the start of the novel Marie and Meursault hear Meursault's neighbor, Raymond, beating his mistress because she slapped him.

“The power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies they saw deadly light and were afraid.”

In the novel of The Stranger by Albert Camus, Mersault has been presented as a character that was sentence to death after killing an Arab. The conflict of this portrays a contrast between Mersault’s morals and the society’s moral. Mersault is different compared to the society. The reason for this is that he can’t relate himself to other people because he does not live the way other people do.

Albert Camus’s absurdist novel The Fall deals with many overarching themes: justice, guilt, judgment, freedom, and power. One of the more understated themes is that of punishment, as Jean-Baptiste Clamence is never formally punished. And yet, though the law does not condemn him, he still finds himself plagued by guilt and fear of judgment even after he claims to have found a solution. Camus shows, through symbolism and Clamence’s own narration, that the lack of punishment is a burden for Clamence in his supposedly happy life. While speaking to his companion of his new lifestyle in Amsterdam, Jean-Baptiste Clamence proclaims that he has “discovered the secrets of the good life” (Camus 144).

Here he begins with `absurdity' of existence of which man is unconscious but the plague breaks the chain of habit and awakens the realization of what is absurdity. Caught in an inextricable plight, now man attempts to live in such a world on his own terms. To have a deeper understanding of this gradual progression what is necessary is to have recourse to Camus' philosophical propagations that are marked by a distinctive advancement: from The Myth of Sisyphus to The Rebel. The first asseverates that profound reality of human existence is its `absurd quality' and there is no readymade way of emancipation from it: one has to accept it to live consciously. But the second makes a positive declaration that emancipation is possible only through the formation of resistance, based on human solidarity.

In studying the works of authors, we are able to see the many factors that play a key role in their lives. These authors incorporate different components into their novels and stories to present a deeper meaning within their work. In his various books, short stories, and plays, the French-Algerian writer Albert Camus relates to his philosophical beliefs: specifically existentialism and the absurd, as well as his connecting idea of rebellion. Camus’ most prominent works – such as the novels The Plague, The Stranger, The Rebel, and others – reflect these beliefs and ideas he held.

“The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to

Among the many casualties of World War II was the surviving populace’s faith in the previously unshakable institutions they had defined so much of their life around. Formerly vaunted, unquestionable axes of life - religion, national pride, community life - had been irreversibly stripped of their unquestioned status. One would assume that the dissipation of such illusions would be up the alley of part-time philosopher and full-time writer Albert Camus, who had eloquently laid out his opinions on such human constructs in his Myth of Sisyphus. Much like the cursed king of Greek myth, man’s search for meaning in an absurd world was an endless and fruitless task, doomed to go on forever. Abandoning reason to place one’s faith in an imaginary God or supposedly immutable calling was a worthless effort: one should embrace their own life and live it within one’s own boundaries. Paradoxically enough, the descent of the Nazi war machine upon Europe, and with it the rejection of those leaps of faith, caused camus Myth and devoted himself to resisting the terror of Fascism, a struggle symbolically represented in his novel La Peste (The Plague) by the sleepy Algerian town of Oran and its struggle against a deadly outbreak. In a sense, Camus moved past the personal and perpetual rebellion against the Absurd to confront a ephemeral and collective threat no less existential. Unlike the lone absurd hero of the Myth, who much like Sisyphus we must imagine to be happy even in the face of