The Outsider By Albert Camus

In Albert Camus’s work of literature The Stranger, the characterization of Meursault plays and valuable role in outlining the meaning of this novel. Meursault is the main character in this book and the story follows a part of his life form his first person point of view. Meursault, like the author, does not believe in God, or any religion for that matter. Throughout this story it is revealed that meursault lives a highly indifferent life, and physical impulses such as sex and smoking make him happy. Meursault is tried for the murder of an Arab, but the court case is unusual in the fact that it is based on evidence and character witnesses. Because Meursault finds no value or meaning in life it brings questions of moral into his

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

In The Outsider, Albert Camus uses the technique of foreshadowing to develop the plot and to create a parallelism between the two parts of the novel. By creating a parallelism between the two parts of the novel, Camus is able to emphasize certain ideas that he has deemed important. The idea is first subtly represented in Part I and only upon critical investigation can it be seen again in Part II. This technique can be seen in many instances in Part I due to its descriptive nature of Meursault’s day to day life. Examples of this are: Meursault’s mother’s death, judgement against Meursault from other characters and Meursault’s reaction towards the sun and heat. These examples show how Camus has left hints within The Outsider that build up to

In The Outsider, Meursault is ultimately punished not for the murder of the Arab, but for his lack of adherence to the social codes governing appropriate behavior after his mother’s death. In this respect we can argue that Camus novel is not about the Arab’s murder but it is about the inability of society to understand Meursault’s detachment. The murder trial turns into a trial that judges and condemns Meursault because he appears indifferent, removed from society, and his behavior in unacceptable.

“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don 't know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn 't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (1.1.1) In The Stranger, Albert Camus sets the stage for the character of Meursault. Meursault, being the main character, portrays an individual who struggles with himself in functioning and reacting to daily situations. Meursault views the world with lack of meaning and disregard to the meaning of human life. His lack of remorse for his mother’s death is just one example of Meursault 's absurd behavior. However, the absurdity is heightened when he is put on

The cultural values of The Stranger’s main character, Meursault, bring about controversial viewpoints from all audiences. Echoing the title of the book Meursault lives his life as a stranger, detached from the world around him. In this novel, Albert Camus creates a society dependent on emotional and materialistic needs. However, Meursault, as a character, illustrates a point of view that is independent of emotion. Thus, he does not live his life in agreement with the cultural values demonstrated by the people surrounding him. His impulsive decision to kill a man is the pivotal point between his acceptance within his society and the malice he faces for violating the human right to life. Ultimately, Camus shows how the popular resentment of this murder is based on society’s ideals of justice, love, and a life of purpose, all virtues that Meursault does not possess.

In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault the protagonist, becomes drawn into a “senseless” murder that has to face the absurdity of life and because of his actions, Meursault is presented as a danger due to his lack of “morality” to society. Meursault who is not able to take control of his life but respond to what life offers him believes in the simplicity of life. He tries to understand the living through logic and objectivity, which ultimately turns futile, as he himself cannot maintain proper control over his thoughts and emotions. From the interactions between Marie, to the murder of the Arab, and the meeting with the Chaplain, Meursault overcomes his indifferent views to form an opinion about what life really means. The central theme presented by Camus is how the threat of mortality becomes a catalyst for understanding the significance of life.

In ‘The Outsider’, the society continually brings back Meursault’s past actions against his will, such as his behaviour at his mother’s funeral. Under the rule of the French Colonialists, the French Algerian court is a microcosm of the

In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Meursault, the protagonist, could be seen as amoral if he was judged on the basis of his actions alone. However, through Camus’s use of a first-person narrative, one can began to understand Meursault as not an amoral man, but simply an indifferent one that did not fit within societies expectations. It took a tragedy in order for Meursault to realize that he needed others.

In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the novel centers around the life of Meursault, a French Algerian, who begins the novel attending his mother’s funeral. Meursault does not express grief over his mother’s death, and treats the day after the funeral as just another day with no nostalgia for what came before. As the novel progresses, Meursault continuously shows this lack of emotion and connection to others in his life, making him a stranger to not only the reader but other characters in the story. When Meursault befriends a neighbor of his, Raymond, and helps him with his cheating Arab girlfriend, he unknowingly gets sucked into a conflict that will affect the rest of his life. A victim of circumstance and choice, Meursault commits a murder, and

The Stranger by Albert Camus starts off with Meursault receiving a telegram. The contents told him that his mother had died. She was living in an old folks home in Marengo. Meursault asks his boss for a short leave as to attend the funeral, only to grudgingly accept causing Meursault to feel guilty. He arrives late, seeing the coffin closed. The caretaker comes in and idly chats much to Meursault's annoyance. Meursault spends the night watching over his mother's coffin, eventually his mom's friends enter, causing a slight annoyance as he was almost asleep but eventually falls back asleep, along with the his mothers friends. Meursault eventually realized the origin of his boss's anger was because he asked to take 2 days, but on a friday, meaning

In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus there are three major themes established by the main character, Meursault. His detachment from his emotions and him essentially being a sociopath set’s a major tone for the novel. In The Stranger, the major themes introduced are Isolation, The Meaninglessness of Human Existence, and Lack of Human Emotions. These are the three most major because it’s all surrounding the main character, Meursault and these themes provide similarities between Lord of the Flies and Macbeth. These themes only exist because Meursault himself embodies and reinforces them all throughout the novel.

“Existential angst prevents the protagonist from fulfilling his individual purpose.” This quote is justifiable to the extent that if a man views his existence as meaningless they tend to overlook and reject their point of living. According to sartre essence is a factor that classifies a being as existing. Thus, if one is in the state of angst they believe that their existence has no essence. Further more they lack enthusiasm and motivation that they need to achieve their individual purpose. In “The stranger,” Albert Camus depicts the life of a strange man whose absurd decisions averted him from achieving his individual effort. Similarly in “the myth of Sisyphus,” ———

   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.