The Stranger, By Albert Camus

George Simmel’s, ‘The Stranger’ and W.E.B. Du Bois’, ‘Souls of Black Folk’ pose very parallel arguments in understanding the role of a ‘stranger’ in society. In Simmel’s work, he examines the trajectory of the stranger through an abstract lens. He establishes a conceptual framework for the ‘stranger’ within society while Du Bois presents a more tangible illustration through the experiences of African Americans in the United States. Although each approach is discrete from the other, the theories behind both arguments are comparable.

The story of The Stranger by Albert Camus is quite simple. Monsieur Meursault is a simple man, leading a simple, useless life until he makes some new friends and finds himself with someone else’s blood on his hands and his life on the line. Through Meursault’s reaction to his own impending death, Camus portrays the meaninglessness of human life.

Sitting across from a petite Chinese woman, a reparative therapist my mother found for me, I confided in her that I did not see any point to my existence. I explained to her that according to my church and family my purpose on this terrestrial ball was to serve God and that instead my “lifestyle” was serving Satan. Pouring out my heart, I told her that I did not want to live anymore if just being alive sentenced me to hell. She candidly responded, “Well enjoy your life the way you want and then go to hell.” Heart-broken I smiled, said thank-you, and left her office. Later that night, I went to the garage and tried to hang myself. Soon after, I began a journey to search for the meaning of my existence.

4 The analogy of living “in the trunk of a dead tree” and getting used to it portrays the existentialist ideology because it shows that Meursault has the freedom to think and to choose to to be

“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 novel The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, encompasses contemporary philosophies of existentialism and absurdism. Existentialist and absurdist philosophies entail principles regarding that one’s identity is not based on nature or culture, but rather by sole existence. The role of minor characters in The Stranger helps to present Camus’s purpose to convey absurdist and existentialist principles. The characters of Salamano and Marie are utilized in order to contrast the author’s ideas about contemporary philosophies. Albert Camus’s creation of minor characters such as Salamano and Marie in The Stranger embody the expectations and perspective of society. Camus’s purpose in utilizing minor characters is to contrast societal norms and ideals to absurdist principles and values.

In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, main characters Raymond Sinters and Meursault possess vastly different personalities and mindsets: one is indifferent to just about everyone and everything while the other is full of intense emotions. Despite being totally opposite mentally and emotionally, both Raymond and Meursault are guilty of committing heinous crimes. In this essay, I will argue that Meursault’s inability to feel significant emotion unless a situation directly and significantly affects him coupled with his lack of concern over the consequences of his actions make him more likely to harm others than Raymond, who actually experiences emotion in response to circumstance that do not necessarily affect him along with concern over his

Does conforming to society’s standards help or hurt us in the long run? “The Stranger”, by Albert Camus, explores the evolution of Meursault, the nonconforming protagonist. Meursault continuously repeats, “It doesn’t mean anything” to his friends and acquaintances to illustrate how indifferent he is about the world. Meursault’s behavior affects people’s judgment of him, and he is later punished for believing in his own values. For most of his life, Meursault abstains from following society 's norms, but by the end of the novel he evolves into someone who cares about what others think of him. Meursault, who used to follow only his own principles, realizes that the only way to live and feel alive is to be recognized.

mother. He does physically attend her funeral though oddly, he does not request to see the body at the wake, rather he decides to imagine the effects of heat and humidity on the rate of a body's decay and have a smoke. Through understanding the first-person perspective of Meursault it’s appropriate to conclude that he is heavily if not totally unaffected or phased by his own mother's death, as if it had no factor in his life. In other words, her death has little to no real relevance to him. The emotion that Meursault displays, or rather lack of, goes against common social norms seen throughout society. Camus uses the character of Meursault to depict an individual who is not of the social customs of French Algiers and it is because of this

In Albert Camus novel, The Stranger, he tells us right at the beginning of the book that life has no meaning and everything is pointless. He shows us by telling us about a man by the name of Meursault whose mom just died and he feels nothing. He arrived at the funeral he did not cry or showed any signs of sadness in his heart. Meursault has friends who also think that life is also just something that is before you die and there is nothing after it and you should not care about anything because you will die soon. Raymond is a pimp who has a short temper and will heart anyone who hurts him which shows he is very shallow. Solomano beats and curses his dog out daily with no remorse of how his dog feels about it. He also has a friend and her name

Albert Camus introduces the novel The Stranger in an absurd way. He purposely lets the reader know that the main character Meursault has no care for life. To him the only thing that derives from life is death, so what does, or does not happen is of no concern to Meursault. Not only does he not care about the life of others, he especially does not care about his own. This state of mind ultimately leads him to his own demise and death, which is ironic but yet revealing of Albert Camus's message.

Meursault is a very observation character, which means that the use of imagery is very common throughout the book. Imagery is the way in which the reader can get to know how Meursault feels emotionally. Meursault constantly describes the weather, “all that heat was pressing down on me and making it hard for me to go on”. Through the imagery, one can tell that it is a hot day and that is significant because its shows that Meursault feels tense. The fact that he is even feeling something is important because throughout the book one can make the assumption that he doesn't care about anything. Camus uses imagery to display Meursault’s emotions.

Philosophies work to guide behaviors and beliefs of a person and can be found in different forms of literature to develop understanding of a character. In The Stranger, Albert Camus’ narrative style establishes various philosophical principles that influence the reader’s perception of ideas in the novel. While multiple principles are evident, the ideas of living in the moment and creating personal meaning are accentuated through Meursault’s narration. This style, in terms of tense and first-person perspective, helps to underscore these philosophical ideas in The Stranger as they influence Meursault's character.

In the novel The Stranger, the author Albert Camus emphasizes the absurdities of life and he does this by conveying the existentialist philosophy through Meursault’s blunt nature and his indifference to life. The novel explores existentialist ideology which represents the philosophy of life essentially being “pointless”. Since the message of existentialism can have a powerful negative connotation it’s surprising to understand how Meursault could be considered anything close to free especially, considering the freedom he gained occurred after he committed murder, but considering the sequence of events he goes from trapped to free. His freedom is gained after since his routine hindered him from the enlightenment he gained from being captured.

In his Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus argues that life has no meaning. In the following paper I will explain the reasoning behind Camus’ argument that life is meaningless. First, I plan to describe the context of the analogy that Camus uses to defend his main argument and the various ways in which he connects the character Sisyphus’s situation to that of a modern day person. After which, I will acknowledge and further argue Camus’ idea that acceptance is the only way to achieve happiness. I will then conclude the essay by using a variety of examples to apply Camus’s ideas to my own personal experiences.