The Stranger

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

All the facts the prosecutor presents are valid and true, though unrelated to his case. From the prosecutor's point of view, Meursault is a “monster, a man without morals” (96). Even Meursault agrees that "what he was saying was plausible" (99). The reader, who knows all of Meursault’s thoughts, knows how absurd the prosecution’s accusations are. Throughout the trial, Camus explains that perception means everything, and there is no absolute truth.

1. How does Camus set up Meursault's personality -- how does Meursault respond to others' conversation, to ordinary social situations, and to the death of his mother?

Camus uses many different aspects of existentialist philosophy throughout the entirety of the novel. One aspect of existentialist thought that is used in the novel, is that “existence is always particular and individual—always my existence, your existence,his existence” ( “Existentialism” ). This can be seen through various characters, but most importantly through the protagonist, Meursault. In one scene of the novel, Meursault says, “Then he asked me if I wasn’t interested in a change of life. I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all” (Camus 40). In this scene Meursault is talking about how his boss offered him a new job in Paris in part because he thinks Meursault would enjoy the new change in life. This relates back to the existentialist thought that everyone's existence is particular to their own, because Meursault doesn’t really care to start over in a new city, whereas someone such as his boss believes that many young people would love to.

In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as

On their way to the bus, they see the “Arabs” and the brother of the mistress Raymond assaulted. When they made it to the house, they all had lunch and enjoyed the nice crisp water and enjoyed the sun. After lunch, they went on a walk where they found the arabs, and Raymond stabbed one of them. They got back and then Meursault went back for a walk, and found another arab sitting there. Then randomly he started to feel heat, a blinding sensation which led him to then shoot this arab four times, which killed the man. Here we see that This chapter represents the climax of the first part of the book. Since his return from his mother’s funeral, everything that Meursault has done in the narrative up to this point—meeting Marie, meeting Raymond, and becoming involved in the affair with Raymond’s mistress—has led him to the beach house. Yet Meursault’s murder of the Arab comes as a complete surprise—nothing in The Stranger has prepared us for it. The feeling of abruptness that accompanies this shift in the plot is intentional on Camus’s part. He wants the murder to happen unexpectedly and to strike us as

In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as

In part two of The Stranger written by Albert Camus, the society’s actions regarding Meursault’s trial symbolizes the irrationality of the universe. Earlier in the novel it was established that Meursault remained emotionless and he had a sense of detachment to the society. Because the killing of the Arabs had no meaning or explanation, the trial in part two of the novel represented the societies attempt to reveal the absurdity. The purpose of this essay is to prove that through the usage of symbolism, Albert Camus rationalizes how the society was influential in how Meursault reformed as a person.

In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, the author shows Meursault’s character development by showing how in the beginning of the book he is physcologically detached from the world also by showing how he is brutally honest and cannot lie and whose moods are dictated by the nature also that Meursault is amoral, towards the end of the book he shows Meursault’s development by showing how Meursault’s thinking broadens and how he comes to peace with what is going on in the world.

In Part 1 of the novel, Meursault does not fully grasp the significance of life because of his absurdist way of life. Camus presents Meursault as a person who does not live life, but reacts to what life presents him. Meursault is incapable of understanding the metaphysics of the world due to his lack of emotions. The greatest understanding of Meursault is through his own mind; instead of being subjective, he is objective. “Behind them, an enormous mother, in a brown silk dress, and the father, a rather frail little man I know by sight” (22). His thoughts include “note-taking” details about his environment with an

In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault, the protagonist-narrator, is an absurdist, detached and deathly honest man who refuses to lie about himself to save his life. He is an independent man, one who will not accept God, or any of society’s formulas for happiness. In developing this character, Camus needed to sustain the distant tone used to develop the plot and Meursault’s character. However, further development of this character required more than just the distant tone. Camus developed Meursault through the use and creation of minor characters with roles important to no aspect of the plot and who serve no purpose other than the development of Meursault’s character. In his novel The Stranger, Camus uses the roles of minor

Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions embody the absurd, even before he has any awareness of the fact. Since Meursault is embodied absurdism, it is not necessary that he be hyperaware of his thoughts and intentions. His truth has already been built into his character by the

When he returns home to Algiers, Meursault carries on with life as normal. Over dinner one evening, his neighbor Raymond tells of his desire to punish his mistress for infidelity, and asks Meursault to write a letter to the mistress for him. Meursault agrees, saying "I tried my best to please Raymond because I didn’t have any reason not to please him" (32). While Raymond is a man of questionable morals, he acts with purpose. Meursault, on the other hand, acts with mostly passive indifference, doing things simply because he doesn’t have a reason not to do them.

Raymond is a static character who never really seems change his personality or morals. Throughout the novel he is a violent angry man who doesn’t hold the law in high regard. He is a secondary character and only serves as a plot development tool. Marie is also a static character who is consistently a women in need of a lover. Whether she finds this love after Meursault is imprisoned is unknown. Marie serves as a secondary character that serves as a way for Camus to express the absurdity of love. The Prosecutor is, once again, a static character that plays the role of representing the judgment of society. During the trial in which he convicts Meursault of murder, he focuses on his general apathy, especially toward that of his mother's death.

In “The Stranger” by Camus, Meursault’s actions throughout the story can be summed up in one word, absurd.