Topic 3
Through the eyes of society we must learn to conform into the values of what other need or want, if not achieved we will begin to wither away into dust without a second glance from those who surround us. With this always at the back of our minds we must always remain constant and aware of what we say and do, so that way later on in the future society will never frown upon us at any moment and time in our lives. Meursault from the novel The Stranger by
Albert Camus was one individual who never wavered at the judging hands of society instead he lived his life as to how he saw just and fit. Which also led to his downfall in the end with no second glance from society.
With time we as human beings to create regular habits and customs which makes us the individuals we are known for allowing us to be distinguished from others. Meursault distinguish himself by creating the image of being out of place towards others already allowing there to be some sort of distance from others. This is first seen while being in front of his mother’s casket
“We put the cover on, but I’m supposed to unscrew the casket so you can see her. He was moving towards the casket when I stopped him. He said You don’t want to? I answered, No”
(page 6). Here we see just how he doesn’t fit into the image of society. Compared to others he takes action as to not wanting to see his mother, which is opposite of what most people in society do. Instead of moron for her by showing his emotions for her he doesn’t
What causes people’s behaviors to change over time? Is it the society shifting as a whole or it is the little things that gradually affects humans? Each generation has its own special traits, and these traits are depending on the surrounding environment-immediate context. The immediate context is words or behaviors that people are using present day have their meanings, which connects to the surrounding environment. There is a time period that everyone believes that he or she is the best, which brings up the idea of self-centered. In An Army of One: Me, the author Jean Twenge, compares situations under the idea of ‘self-esteem” and the society is over-popularized the idea of “me”. This social problem causes the unbalanced understanding of normal tasks and over trended to individualism and self-centered. However, this social phenomenon does not appear suddenly; instead, it depends on people’s living conditions and the surrounding environment, in other words, which it the immediate context. In The Power of Context, the author Malcolm Gladwell, introduces people were living in a negative environment that full of crime and bad behaviors, which results people’s actions are also changing with the surrounding context. However, there are also little things that exist in the surrounding environment that influences human behaviors; as a result, people are gradually changing the environment into a positive way. During this process, people become more selfless and serve to the society.
Think of our dependency on our environment and constant surroundings. They help create our persona and thus who we become in the future. From the point of birth, people live in a set environment
In one of his later interviews, Camus made the somewhat irritated comment that Meursault is the “only Christ we deserve.” While this seem to be a pithy, witty comment, we need to figure out how Meursault is like Christ. Christ taught his disciples and had them go and teach others, yet Meursault has no disciples and chooses to say little. Meursault murders while Christ brings a man back from the dead. Most drastically, Christ ”died for our sins” in order to make all those who follow free from original sin. Meursault just dies.
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
The unalterable human condition is one of the truths of human existence. Throughout the course of history, humans tend to act in the same ways, repeat the same mistakes, and end up little better than they were a century before. Although technology has changed, increasing the quality of life, behavior patterns have not changed, decreasing
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.
Flat characters play a significant role in all novels. For instance, the brother of Raymond’s mistress is a key flat character. The Arab never grows throughout the novel; rather, he remains a stalker, stalking his prey, tempting a fight. Without the role of the Arab, Meursault, would never have gone to prison, and never be tried for murder.
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.
Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions embody the absurd, even before he has any awareness of the fact. Since Meursault is embodied absurdism, it is not necessary that he be hyperaware of his thoughts and intentions. His truth has already been built into his character by the
In The Stranger, Albert Camus writes about a detached yet normal man, Meursault, who encounters unusual situations that evidently leads to his demise. From cover to cover, it was established by the author that Meursault had an unusual way of thinking and that he was continuously revealing his peculiar perspective on life and death. Throughout the novel, Meursault is reminded of death and continues to be judged by everyone in the society that he lives in, for instance, when he was put on trial for shooting an Arab man. Camus writes about the main character by describing his absurdist mindset. It is through the focus of funeral scene, however, that Camus is able to formulate the values of the character and the society in which they live in. This scene was able to reveal Meursault’s perspective on life as well as death.
In Albert Camus’s novel, The Stranger, the main character Meursault can be described as an ant-hero. He is a simple man who lives by himself in a small apartment located in Algiers. Meursault is an indifferent man who is completely detached from society. He is ambitionless, emotionless, and he is also deprived of the consequences and rules of society. Meursault lacks the fundamental qualities typically found in a hero. Throughout the novel Meursault demonstrates the characteristics found in an anti-hero.
The Stranger by Albert Camus was published in 1942. The setting of the novel is Algiers where Camus spent his youth in poverty. In many ways the main character, Meursault, is a typical Algerian youth. Like them, and like Camus himself, Meursault was in love with the sun and the sea. His life is devoted to appreciating physical sensations. He seems so devoid of emotion. Something in Meursault's character has appealed primarily to readers since the book's publication. Is he an absurd anti-hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? Critics and readers alike have disputed a variety of approaches to Meursault. I believe he is the embryo
In “The Stranger” by Camus, Meursault’s actions throughout the story can be summed up in one word, absurd.
Many people often base their opinions on a person by judging his whole life in general and his attitude towards life without caring about who the person really is deep down inside. This unfair reasoning can occur in the courtroom when people are put on trial and the judge and the jury must delve into the life of the accused and determine if he is a hazard to society. Occasionally, the judge and jury are too concerned with the accused’s past that they become too biased and give an unfair conviction and sentencing. In his novel, The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the courtroom as a symbol to represent society that judges the main character, Meursalt, unfairly to illustrate how society forms opinions based on one’s past.
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