The Characterization Of Meursault And Mereytag's The Stranger

Characters play a major role in ensuring that the novels can be read and comprehended. However, the success of a novel is dependent on the quality of characterization and whether they will attract the

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.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.

After only a few days of trial, the jury in The Stranger declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by guillotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the two main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and persecution of Meursault to express his belief that the justice system is flawed because of his absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious. In order to reform the justice system, Albert Camus believes that capital punishment needs to be abolished.

1. How does Camus set up Meursault's personality -- how does Meursault respond to others' conversation, to ordinary social situations, and to the death of his mother?

In the novel “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, Meursault is in situations which involve the sun a lot. When Meursault is around the sun for too long he starts to feel as though he’s about to faint. “ After, that everything seemed to happen so fast, so deliberately, so naturally that I don’t remember any of it anymore” ( Camus 17) at this point Meursault has to endure the sun while walking through the village to get to the church. Meursault feels like his head is pounding with blood. In this particular situation he doesn’t have to make an actual decision because he’s just walking. Throughout the novel Meursault had a lot to deal with, like talking to his neighbors and having to listen to the horrible things his neighbors did like Raymond who beats his girlfriend and Salamano who was old but also beat his dog. Meursault is put into these situations where he has a chance to say something to both his neighbors but none of it seems to bother him.

Meursault is truthful to himself and others throughout The Stranger. Unlike most, he doesn’t feel it necessary to lie in order to make others feel better. He is truthful, regardless of whether or not the truth may hurt. For example, in chapter four Marie asked Meursault if he loved her. Instead of lying to her or giving a vague answer Meursault told her that he probably didn’t love her, but it wasn’t important anyway.

In the book The Stranger, the main character is viewed by society as callous. Meursault does not accept the norms of the society he lives in. Meursault is peculiar and does not behave like everybody else. Throughout the book Meursault is apathetic and detached. “Mother deceased. Funeral Tomorrow. Faithfully yours… that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (3) The reaction that Meursault had towards his mother, is not what we consider normal. How can you not feel love for the woman that brought you to life. A mother gives you love throughout the 9 months that she carries you inside of her. She protects you from anything she considers dangerous. “ I even had the impression that the dead woman lying in front of them didn’t mean anything to them.” (11) Meursault referred to his mother as the dead woman. He referred to her as if she was any other woman.

Albert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate.

In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Meursault is seen as a very unique character, but not in a good way. Throughout the novel, he continually fails to show normal human emotions to things like his mother’s death, Marie’s love, and the man he killed. Most people in his town, along with the reader at first, are not able to reason out his actions but as the final events of the novel unfold, the reader begins to see Meursault in a different light.

In the novel The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, Meursault, who works in an office, and Raymond, who says he works in a warehouse, end up getting involved with a few atrocious incidents. The main character, Meursault, is foiled by his friend and neighbor Raymond. A foil is someone who gives contrast to another. These two have many similarities and even some differences that enhance one another. Meursault and Raymond have some similarities that make it easy for them to get along with each other.

Camus describes in detail the street scenes yet never does Meursault become involved in them. Meursault is distant from the messiness of plans, ambitions, desires, hatreds, even love. Marie's protestations of love only puzzle him. When she asks him if he wishes to marry her he agrees only because he sees no real reason to refuse. He helps in Raymond's nefarious schemes for equally bland reasons, and also because Raymond plies him with food, drink, and cigarettes. He is even distant from his own trial. It interests him because he has never seen a trial before.

From the start of the story Meursault showed no regard to human life. Life to him was meaningless. His action toward his mother’s death was the 1st encounter into how emotionless, cold, untouched & unmoved Meursault was. Although he attended her funeral he was only there in the physical. Natures’ element and the environment around him was more of concern to him than the death of his mother. He was basking in how bright the sky was, and then got frustrated because the sun was so hot he was sweating, stating “The sweat was pouring down my face”. (Camus, 1988, pg. 16) He also couldn’t remember anything about the funeral except for one thing, stating, “everything seemed to happen so fast, so deliberately, so naturally that I don’t remember any of it anymore, except for one thing, the nurse spoke to me, she said “if you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke, but if you go too fast, you work up a sweat”. (Camus, 1988, pg. 17)

distant at his mother’s funeral and he was distant with Marie and he was distant with the

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