The Last Chapter Of Meursault's Fear Of Death

In modern society, a person is sentenced to death because they pose a significant risk to society. In the book, The Stranger by: Albert Camus which is a Philosophical fiction, the character Meursault, in my opinion, is a risk to society. Meursault is emotionally indifferent from others, he has lack of moral standards and since he is an atheist.

At the end of the novel, Meursault is able to understand the meaning of life. He was able to do so because he was approaching death, which is an existentialist principle, death is the one certainty of life. Before, when his mother died or when he killed the Arab, he did not have any feelings. When he thought about his own life and that he was about to die, he accepted it. He realizes that one can truly enjoy their lives when they approach and accept death. The understanding of this allowed Meursault to be at peace with himself. With this being said, this novel was an unusually good book, which made me think. A majority of the book made me feel like the rest of society, which was not accepting Meursault's behavior although analyzing gave me

This novel is a classic example of many people's lives, which includes fear, jealousy, pride and their insecurities to name a few. The transformation of the narrator from before his reincarnation until afterwards is filled with tragedy and grief, but it is through the sacrifice of his own life that he is permanently freed from his jealousy and egotism. His "punishment" or his purgatory seemed to prove how good of a person he was all

The prosecutor often refers to Meursault's behavior at his mother’s funeral. Since Meursault showed no sign of remorse at her funeral, it was used against him repeatedly in the case that would determine his fate. This court case put Meursault in such a difficult and lonely situation, “Everything was happening without my participation. My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking my opinion...whatever interest you can get people to take in you doesn’t last long”(Camus 98). Prison is where Meursault begins and finds his enlightenment, he spends his time there mainly thinking about the life one can experience as a free man, in prison it's where Meursault's real character shows in the entire book. Due to this, it feels like Meursault is reborn to the readers. Prison and the court case bring out a side to Meursault that was never really shown in the book, he begins to defend himself against all, “What did other people’s deaths...What would it matter if he were accused of murder and then executed because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral”(Camus 121)? Both Siddhartha and Meursault go through solitude in different ways but end up revealing something about their character as if they are reborn, another step toward each of their enlightenments.

In conclusion, Marie and Meursault showed many similarities and differences in mannerism, action and emotion. This statement was easily expressed by Meursault’s mind thinking, “It occurs to me that anyway, one more Sunday, was over, Mamam was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that nothing had really

Meursault says this when he comes back from his mother’s funeral and is able to convey the meaningless of life and reflect on his mother’s death. Meursault still lacks remorse or grief and fails to reminisce about his mother in a typical or normal way. Instead, Meursault feels that since now his mother is gone, his apartment is too big for him. He doesn’t express how her death affects him emotionally, but spatially and abstractly. This signifies just how alone he is and how he views himself to be too small when inhabiting such a big world. Even though Meursault fails to display any signs of distress due to his mother’s death, this scene is probably the closest he gets to somewhat admitting he misses his mother enough to notice that she

Later on he commits the crime of shooting an arab man, whom was the brother of his friends ex-partner. Yet again he showed no emotion whatsoever even after what he did. Since he had already had a bad reputation for not mourning his mother’s death, not feeling sorry for killing a man made it all worse. No one felt pity for him whatsoever, not even his lawyer who was suppose to be on his side. Meursault is considered a threat because of his lack of moral feelings www.sparknotes.com. He is found guilty and sentenced to prison, where in time he learns to accept himself, and his way of viewing life, and for the first time feels happy.

“Since we’re all going to die, it’s obvious that when and how don’t matter”(114). This quote is Meursault’s way of coping at the end of the book with the fact that he is inevitably going to die. In fact, he even goes as far as to say that his life is going to be forgotten. His final meeting with the prison chaplain clearly shows that Meursault refuses believe in life after death, and that there is nothing other than life and death. “‘Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains?’ ‘Yes’ I said”.(117) The chaplain, who represents the largely religious society of 1940’s France, can not accept the fact that a man facing death will not seek salvation in the

When Meursault mother died, he started off by saying “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours."(Actively learn the stranger) That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.”. When a normal person's mother dies, they are certain about her death, they want to know the day their mother passed and how she died, but Meursault was not concerned about her death or how she died. That is very unusual for someone to act in that type of event.

The chaplain comes to see Meursault against Meursault’s own wishes and the chaplain tells him that he should turn to God for comfort in his final days. Meursault does not believe in God and he tells this to the chaplain. The chaplain seems so sure about everything in life and about everything that will happen but to Meursault, the only certainty is that everybody dies. If it does not happen today, it will happen tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. Life is indifferent to everybody and nothing in it is important unless the person makes it important. There are no pre-set values that everyone must believe in when they are born. The choices a person makes are what define him because existence precedes essence. If someone chooses to value love, then it is important to him or her and he or she should care about it. If someone chooses to believe in God, then He is only important to him or her and only he or she should care about Him. The reason that he did not cry at his mother’s funeral is because he does not believe that this is the appropriate reaction since everybody dies at one point or another. The reason that he said that he probably does not love Marie and that it is not important, is because he does not have love as one of his values; therefore, he should not care about that emotion. Finally, the reason he did not show remorse for killing the Arab is because he did not feel that emotion. What Meursault does value is the truth. He

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.

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)

Primarily, Meursault’s aloofness towards the world started to crack after experiencing Maman’s funeral. In the beginning of the novel before the funeral of his mother, Meursault’s desire to “ [see] Maman right away” (Camus, 4) so that he can leave as soon as possible expressed the height of Meursault’s absurdism. Even during the funeral Meursault seemed to care more about “[Perez’s] ruined face”(Camus, 18) than his mother’s casket. However this changed during the sunday after the funeral when Meursault seemed to finally take notice of his mother’s absence from his life stating how his apartment was “just the right size when maman was here”(Camus, 21). This quote is significant because previously Meursault stated “ I didn’t go [to the old

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