The Stranger Character Analysis

Throughout the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist Meursault is tortured and motivated by the presence of the sun. The sun symbolizes life in the sense that it embodies the inescapable fact of life, known as death. The sun crops up over and over again throughout the novel from Maman’s funeral to the Arab on the beach, and eventually to Meursault in the courtroom. This reinforces the notion that the sun mirrors life as well as society, as it is always present. The sun mirrors society based on the fact that it is constantly oppressing Meursault, just as society seems to in regards to his unorthodox actions and emotions. From beginning to end, Meursault is significantly affected by the heat of the sun both physically and mentally.

Meursault is a psychologically detached man on trial for murder. However, it is ultimately his psychological detachment, not the murder of another man, that proves to be most damaging to his reputation and judicial case. Deemed a monster by society for his lack of emotion and general indifference, Meursault is sentenced to public execution by guillotine. The Stranger, a philosophical novel by Albert Camus, explores the concept of alienation as a result of failing to adhere to society’s accepted moral standards. Camus begins with the idea of extreme indifference in a world that expects deep human emotions and feelings, continues with the murder of the Arab man, and ends with the concept of human life ultimately having no grand meaning or importance

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.

This easy-going, pleasant hedonism is interrupted permanently by Meursault's murder of the Arab on the beach. Not only is he incarcerated, but also he must examine the reality behind the illusion of his trial and, ultimately, of his life. Introspection has not been his metier. It takes him a while to realize that the judge, the jury, the journalists, even his own lawyer, do not wish him well. Meursault finally realizes that he is going to be convicted, not because he killed an Arab but because he did not mourn his mother's death.

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

In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the murder committed by Meursault is questionably done with no reason. Although the entirety of the second part is spent in society’s attempts to find a cause, Meursault has a durable existential mentality that proves that even he knows that there is no true reason for the crime. Through the use of light and heat imagery and diction in The Stranger, Albert Camus comments on the duality of society trying to find a cause for the murder and Meursault defying this because of his existential mentality. These elements heighten Meursault’s negative outlook on life by

It is sunny and hot: to what extent does heat and sun imagery shape Meursault’s action In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, weather imagery plays an important role. Some of the most important imagery is heat and sun imagery. The main character, Meursault, is always aggravated when the sun is present. Sun and heat are shown to control his emotions.

Albert Camus employs Thomas Perez as a foil to emphasize Meursault’s disinterest for his mother in order to justify the court’s opinions of him. During Maman’s funeral procession, Thomas Perez’s care for Maman and his struggle to walk foils Meursault’s disinterest in his mother’s death. Compared to Perez, Meursault’s indifference towards Maman is stressed by Perez’s struggle to walk and to keep up with the funeral, “going as fast as he could,” while Meursault complains about the sun. Perez foils Meursault by fainting at the funeral of Maman, who he loved, which contrasts to Merusault as he briefly narrates the event and feels “joy when the bus entered” so that he may leave his mother. Thomas’s weakness and love, accentuate Meursault’s indifference

The Stranger by Albert Camus follows the story of a man named Meursault, who received notice that his mother had passed away. Meursault was not emotionally connected to his mother, and his reaction is not what the reader would expect, as he did not seem to care at all. Therefore, the day after attending his mother’s funeral, Meursault goes to the beach and meets up with his girlfriend, Marie. After the beach, Meursault and Marie go to a movie and spend the night together. When he returns home from work the next day, Meursault runs into his neighbor, Raymond, who beats his mistress. Later in the story, Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go to a beach house, which is owned by Raymond’s friend, Masson. At the beach, Masson, Raymond, and Meursault

In Meursault’s first encounter with Raymond he is asked to aid the pimp in luring back a lover who had fled his abuse, Camus writes: “One with a punch… to make her sorry for what she’s done...if i’d mind doing it right then I said no.”(32) Through this Camus portrays this other aspect of Meursault's indifference, his susceptibility to influence. Camus states:”he’d spit in her face, then throw her out”(32) revealing Raymond’s true intentions to Meursault, yet Meursault still agrees to assist him in luring back his mistress in order to please Raymond since he had “no reason not to please him” (32) Again Camus has characterized Meursault as indifferent, conveying this through the ease by which Meursault is able to agree to assist Raymond in a task considered to be immoral because he had no reason not to. However Meursault's susceptibility to influence was not limited to only that of human origin. On a later excursion with Raymond, Camus again reveals this “flaw” in Meursault's character, stating: “It occurred to me that all i had to do was turn around but the whole beach throbbing in the sun was pressing on my back...All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead...That's when everything began to reel.(59) Through this Camus reveals the true

Camus made strong connection between heat and sunlight throughout the novella. The heat and sunlight depict human behavior in the story. It shows how with the changing weather man’s perspective or behaviors also changes. The heat and sunlight is a symbol of feelings and emotions, that Meursault cannot deal with. Meursault's everyday life is distraction because the heat and sunlight and he does not seem to handle it well.

This brings up the theme of absurdity. Meursault acknowledges that the weather causes him to kill the Arab in an impulsive manner, rather than saying that the murder is premeditated. He fails to justify his claims because the court cannot trust the absurdity of the argument. Even while Meursault is on trial, Meursault emphasizes on the Algerian heat: "But it went on much longer than when he was talking about my crime--so long, in fact, that finally all I was aware of was how hot a morning it was" (Camus 101). He worries about the heat and not about the trial and the prosecution. He does not concentrate on the prosecution, and cannot express clear responses to the questions the judges ask him. More heat is brought in when the judges and people in the courtroom start fanning themselves, which is another indication of the intense heat. Many readers see the sun as an object of beauty and providing warmth, not a symbol of aggression. The weather shapes Meursault into becoming more apathetic and so he does whatever he wants to do. He does not consider the consequences that will come in the future. Meursault does discover the beauty of the sun in prison and that he has to supply meaning and purpose to his life. However, in the end, he realizes that the universe feels indifferent about him: "I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like

Camus shows many non-physical aspects to express many emotions that drives Meursault through everyday tasks. Similar to the sun, society is generally thought to be a positive figure. People usually regard a good strong society that firmly establishes its members with a strong, unified code of morals as something to be desired. These morals are what drives every single person each day through difficult and challenging tasks. Morals of a society are what makes it stand out. In the same way, people tend to think of a bright, warm, sunny day as something good and positive as in for a vacation or a time to relax. However, both the force of society and the force of the sun can become overpowering. When the sun becomes overpowering it beats down on the people, suffocating

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.

The novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, follows the story of a man, Meursault, and how his emotionless way of living and his one grave mistake ends up killing him through a court of law. Throughout his journey, there is tension in him, and between him and other people and groups. This tension is represented throughout this novel with the motif is heat. And as tension can grow and is part of everyday life, it is part of Meursault’s as well. Furthermore, through tension and it growing, it can result in a conflict of multiple varieties. This motif comes up at scenes such as the trial in the courtroom, the conflict on the beach with the Arabs, and the magistrate and his heated argument. And due to Camus specific placement of the motif during these scenes, it also foreshadows conflict and trouble throughout the novel. Camus’ motif of heat shows a tension between opposing sides to foreshadow various types of conflict which demonstrate the theme that tension leads to conflict.