The Stranger by Albert Camus. Copyright 1988 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Biography and Context
Initially, Albert Camus lived with his deaf mother after his father died. From years 1913 to 1943, he lived in Algeria much like Meursault. His grandmother tried to make him get a job but he wanted to get an education. In 1930, he graduated with a major in Philosophy then he went to the University of Algiers to help his career in publishing. His literary works, The Stranger and “The Myth of Sisyphus”, display a fascination in the philosophy of Existentialism. He joined the Algerian People’s Party to resist French colonization and to liberate the Algerians. His perspective on French colonization is evident in The Stranger when he did not give the Arab
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The first chapter includes an Arab nurse described to have physical deformities, like the abscess wrapped in bandages and an absent nose. Furthermore, Raymond’s girlfriend faced physical abuse routinely. The police officer seemed to have completely dismissed her, while her abuser avoided consequences. The Arab that Meursault murdered seemed insignificant since he lacked a physical description and the lawyer seemed to think he’d win. I conclude that these issues in the book reflect real life, discriminatory conflicts in that current Algerian society. I think that Camus purposely left these Arab characters nameless to convey the bias towards the Arabs in French colonized Algerian society. Camus’ sentiments towards French colonization is similar to the international moods of many subjugated nations at the time, since this book was written during a great decolonization …show more content…
This definition characterizes existentialist philosophy since it signifies free will.
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Literary Devices
1 Camus artfully uses a simile in describing the killing of the Arab. He compares it with “knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.” This quote also displays verbal irony because Meursault wasn't all that unhappy in prison, he was content.
2 The sun symbolizes Meursault’s primitive consciousness. The glare of the sun provokes the desire of lust in Meursault during his day at the beach with Marie. Heat is always present in significant events in the book because it reminds the reader that Meursault is only an animal with baser needs
3 There is vivid imagery in The Stranger to express a person’s train of thought and what Meursault is thinking. The “blood-red earth spilling over Maman’s casket” is an example of how Camus wanted to create an experience of Meursault’s present.
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
In the novel The Meursault Investigation, Kamel Daoud weaves a sister story for Albert Camus’s The Stranger, and has a dialogue of sorts with Camus. At times Daoud’s novel is very critical of Camus, standing in opposition to the attitudes and themes in The Stranger. The existence of The Meursault Investigation and the character of Musa is a criticism of the incomplete picture that Camus paints in his story, and the namelessness of “The Arab” that Meursault killed. Daoud gives a name to Meursault’s victim beyond that of “The Arab.” At other times, Daoud’s book parallels a lot of the ideas put forth by Camus. This can be seen as Harun slowly comes to resemble the man who killed his brother after committing a murder
In the novel, The Stranger, author Albert Camus confronts some important issues of the time, and uses the singular viewpoint of the narrator Meursault to develop his philosophy and effectively weave together themes of absurdity, colonialism, and free will. Through the progressive disruption of Meursault’s life and his characterization, Camus presents the absurdity of the human condition along with the understanding that a person can actually be happy in the face of the absurd. Camus also intentionally sets the story in the colonized country of Algeria, and hints at the racial tensions that exist between French-Algerians and Arabs.
In the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Camus uses a variety of literary devices in order to create a moment of inward reflection from readers, in which we reflect on just how absurd our existence is. Camus expresses his critique through one major character, Meursault, and a few minor characters as well. Camus’s use of irony pushed readers to look beyond the surface, and come to the conclusion of where the irony was displayed. Camus also made use of ironic moments in order to contrast the expectations of society, to how Meursault differs from that, all to gradually expose the hypocrisy of mankind. Camus generally uses this literary device in order make us evaluate our own selves and more importantly to display the fact that we as people can be truly happy, only if we accept our fate, instead of fighting it. In a way, he’s suggesting we be more like Meursault. Examples of this would be the funeral caretaker insisting that Meursault view his mother's body, and Meursault continuously refusing. Camus does this to make people think: what exactly is wrong with Meursault not wanting to see his dead mother? Through this technique camus shows societal expectations of how people are supposed to mourn lost, and certain responses to lost are deemed abnormal. Thus Meursault’s lack of grief automatically made him an outsider. Other uses of irony can be shown through Meursault's interactions with the chaplain, and the authority involved in his criminal case played out later on in the
Albert Camus in The Stranger demonstrates how in French-occupied Algeria, Meursault, a French colonist, is on trial for his inconsiderate behavior in regards to his mother’s death, rather than being convicted for the murder of an Arab man. Over the course of the novel, Camus illustrates how this French-colonized society frequently takes advantage of Arabs, explicitly making note of the embedded racism during 1830 to 1962. In doing so, he makes apparent the demeaning attitudes towards Arabs; whereas Meursault does not undergo any reciprocated aggression for the crime he commits, alternatively being treated as a free man. As he internally becomes accountable for his actions, Camus insinuates how the white population is not aware of the present racial inequality until put in situations similar to those oppressed.
The entire second half of the novel is set in the courtroom, which symbolizes society’s views towards life and social order. After Meursault murderers an Arab man on the beach while vacationing with his friends, he is convicted and is placed on trial for his
Irony in part one establishes Meursault’s confliction with society as he is seemingly unaffected and ultimately indifferent over an occurrence that universal sentiments would perceive as utterly devastating. When Meursault is faced with the death of his mother in the genesis of the novel, he remarks, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 1). The immense indifference of Meursault’s morality when it comes to the death of a human being, let alone his own mother, allows readers to draw a contrasting line - from the very first sentence - of Meursault’s moral behavior relative to what society would deem as “acceptable”. Camus uses this expectation defying event to invoke the reader’s stance on the human condition’s tendency to mourn
The murder of the Arab is used by Camus to compare the sun and society. Society oppresses and overpowers those who refuse to assimilate and embrace "normality." Meursault is the epitome of abnormality and is thus the main target of society's, of the sun's, wrath. “The sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me..” (58-59). The day he buried his mother he did not cry rejecting the norms of society. Not crying at his mother’s funeral caused anger and confusion which the motif of the sun burns on
Now, his works are seen with the existentialist philosophy. To show how he believes existence is worthless, he wrote The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus finds no meaning in the task he has to do for the rest of his life which shows how Camus believes there is no purpose to existence, which is similar to The Stranger. However, that is the thought of the author during the 1940’s. Now a day the reader has the ability to try a think of what the author meant.
Finding the meaning of life has been an endeavor undertaken by countless philosophers with almost no uniformity from their answers. Ranging from promises of eternal life, to the belief that life has no meaning at all, Albert Camus, a French philosopher, offers his own unique view on the matter. In Camus’ novel The Stranger, he uses the beach scene where Meursault, the main character, kills an Arab in order to signify that life definitely has a meaning at times, albeit with absurd implications.
It is often seen to be a symbol of life, power, strength and energy. But in the outsider is used to symbolize something else. The sun is the indicator to Meursault’s emotions and actions. He is constantly referring to the sun and using it in a way to express how he is feeling. “And what with the sun and the smell of leather and horse-dung from the hearse, and the smell of vanish and incense and the sleepless night I’d had, I was so tired that I could hardly see or think straight.” (Chapter one, Part one pg. 21) Meursault uses the sun as one of his excuses to his disinterest and so called tiredness at his mother’s funeral. Again when the murder of the Arab occurred he mentions
The sweat blinding Meursault enables him from thinking clearly and reflects how powerful the sun is to throw him off of his usual train of thought. All Meursault can think about is the sunlight affecting his body and mood. All he can feel is “cymbals of sunlight crashing on [his] forehead” (59). Camus specifically describes where the particles of sun encounter his main character and how severely it bothers him. Still on the beach, his attention is on the “warm thick film” in his eyes (59). The sun throws off Meursaults’ focus on more than one occasion.
Not also that but Meursault is also constantly stubborn with others opinions and beliefs. It's not just the life of the main character, but it also views our lives as well. It can be cruel, unusual and rebellious if it’s not to society's laws and the absurdity of the human behavior has us doing these type of actions. The world and the point of being alive may not be entirely meaningless but conventional. Throughout the whole book, he is brutally honest about everything and his interpretation of virtues falls right into Camus’s category of his absurd ideology. Even though the author was an Existentialist, hes has more of an Absurdist thought put into his novel. Both of these beliefs are different yet the same because both relate to the point of being yourself. However, one rejects humanity and the other goes along with individual experiences and actions that are basically making your own
In the beach scene with Meursault, Masson and Raymond, and their fight with the Arabs, Camus’ motif of heat represents tension and foreshadows conflict between the two groups to show that tension leads to conflict and to build suspense. During this scene, the motif of heat specifically symbolizes cultural tension as well as foreshadowing physical conflict. When walking with Masson and Raymond in the beach scene, Meursault noticed that the “the sand was starting to get hot underfoot” (Camus 50) and it was “hard to breathe in the rocky heat rising from the ground” (Camus 50, 52). Camus uses the diction of underfoot to show that the heat is not there yet, but it is about to come. Furthermore, the diction of "rocky heat rising off the ground" shows that the heat is no longer under them, but now something that they are in. By using this kind of diction, Camus shows a transition in the state of heat which parallels the growth in tension in the Pied-Noir of the approaching Arabs. Due to its placement previous to conflict, it shows that tension leads to conflict. Another example of this theme is the inclusion of “the blazing sand looked red to me now” right before Raymond and Masson attack the Arabs with
Albert Camus, born in colonized Algeria, a father to absurdism, and author of The Stranger confronts the philosophical themes of purpose, integrity, and passivity. The Stranger’s main character, Meursault, is a laconic man whose passive actions and brutal honesty lend to connections in his court trial. Those of which condemn him to execution. Meursault falls victim to his complete honesty, complete passivity, and disregard for the purpose of action. He is straightforward, and his actions usually follow his thoughts. Actions and decisions that most average people regard as serious, Meursault regards as arbitrary. Meursault’s exemplification of absurdism proves to not only lend to his characterization, but as a comfort in his death as well.
Camus emphasizes absurdity and happiness to the readers. For example, in the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, he illustrates his thought on the plight of all human beings. Camus states that Sisyphus is happy. He says that Sisyphus is happy because he accepted his tragedy. Even though in the miserable situation, Sisyphus embraced the absurdity. He tells the reader to create their own meaning of life and accept the absurdity. In addition, Camus stood upon the justice. Especially, he rejected the concept of the death penalty.