The Truthfulness of Meursault in The Stranger Essay

Meursault contradicts society's expectations. He does not indicate any signs of grief at the funeral and is therefore labeled a monster, thereby threatening the level of morality that has been instilled into the other members of society. Meursault's ideology concerning life has led him to deny the idea of a god or of an afterlife. Meursault's ideas threaten the ideas passed down by the Catholic Church in the Algerian society. There is no proof of an afterlife and therefore no purpose to worship a god.

One can also notice the negative connotation of the words the author manipulates to imply Meursault’s unhappiness in prison. In this passage, the shift in Meursault’s growth in self reflection when he looks at his reflection on the tin plate, shows his recognition of himself. He observes and understand himself when he looks directly at himself unlike before. It’s in this passage that Meursault finally recognizes himself and his voice, “I, distinctly heard the sound of my own voice. I recognized it as the same one that had been ringing in my ears...and I recognized that all that time I had been talking to myself” (81). The importance of Meursault’s recognition of his voice symbolizes his understanding of himself. Until now, Meursault lived his life without the recognition of himself or his voice. This significant change shows Meursault’s beginning to understand himself, his views or philosophies, and his life as he spends more and more time in prison.

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.

2. Why does Meursault become so upset with the priest who comes to visit him in his cell? What is the priest trying to make him do?

Meursault is an independent and absurd guy who refuses to lie about himself to save his life. At the beginning of the book he avoids conversation and showed existentialism. For example, when the caretaker asked him, why he doesn’t want to see his mother’s body, he just simply said “I don’t know”. Another reason is when he would say, “marriage, no marriage, who cares.” Towards the ending of the book he starts to open up. In order for him to realize how wrong he was, he had to suffer the consequences. Meursault states, “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone; I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate(2.5.165). “Meaning, he finally has awareness and is open-minded about his life.

Camus employs a change in routine, Meursault having food with other people, which reveals the cause for him becoming involved and encountering bad situations. Meursault mentions his everyday routine when saying, “I ate at the restaurant, at Céleste’s, as usual” (Camus, 3). The principal factor of his everyday routine which involves food, usually took place at Céleste’s. Meursault in the textual quote displays a shift in his food routine when mentioning, ‘I’ve [Raymond] got some blood sausage and some wine at my place. How about joining me’ (28)? Raymond’s invitation leads up to him becoming involved in a faulty situation. Meursault mentions the situation when saying, “He’d thought of asking me to write it for him. Since I didn’t say anything, he asked if I’d mind doing it right then and I said no” (32). Through the excuse of just having dinner with Raymond, it results in Meursault writing a letter to Raymond’s ex-girlfriend. Later the letter causes a quarrel which results in Meursault becoming a witness as well. Another instance of a change from Céleste’s restaurant is when Meursault consumes coffee at his mother’s funeral. Another change in routine is shown by Meursault when he mentions,

The chaplain comes to see Meursault against Meursault’s own wishes and the chaplain tells him that he should turn to God for comfort in his final days. Meursault does not believe in God and he tells this to the chaplain. The chaplain seems so sure about everything in life and about everything that will happen but to Meursault, the only certainty is that everybody dies. If it does not happen today, it will happen tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. Life is indifferent to everybody and nothing in it is important unless the person makes it important. There are no pre-set values that everyone must believe in when they are born. The choices a person makes are what define him because existence precedes essence. If someone chooses to value love, then it is important to him or her and he or she should care about it. If someone chooses to believe in God, then He is only important to him or her and only he or she should care about Him. The reason that he did not cry at his mother’s funeral is because he does not believe that this is the appropriate reaction since everybody dies at one point or another. The reason that he said that he probably does not love Marie and that it is not important, is because he does not have love as one of his values; therefore, he should not care about that emotion. Finally, the reason he did not show remorse for killing the Arab is because he did not feel that emotion. What Meursault does value is the truth. He

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

Meursault was introduced as a young man whom recently found out his mother, Maman, died. He was not the most emotional person, but he dealt with his feelings the best he knew how. Meursault lived his life on the verge of truth and honesty. He was honest within every aspect of life, from women to freedom. He was never certain about anything in life ,but one thing he was sure of, death was inevitable. After murdering an Arab, he was on trial in front of many people being interrogated with many questions about why he did what he did, but also to evaluate his psyche about the situation. Unlike others, Meursault did not hide from the truth and that is what others could not cope with. Living his life the way others were afraid to, Meursault was the outcast in his society.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus writes about a detached yet normal man, Meursault, who encounters unusual situations that evidently leads to his demise. From cover to cover, it was established by the author that Meursault had an unusual way of thinking and that he was continuously revealing his peculiar perspective on life and death. Throughout the novel, Meursault is reminded of death and continues to be judged by everyone in the society that he lives in, for instance, when he was put on trial for shooting an Arab man. Camus writes about the main character by describing his absurdist mindset. It is through the focus of funeral scene, however, that Camus is able to formulate the values of the character and the society in which they live in. This scene was able to reveal Meursault’s perspective on life as well as death.

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.

During the trial, conventional morality is satirized. The Public Prosecutor's convoluted logic equates Meursault's lack of emotion of his mother's death to symbolic matricide and even to actual parricide. As foolish and bizarre as this reasoning is perhaps there is a kernel of truth to it. Meursault has neither parents nor children. He is without a past that he cares about, nor

The courtroom portrays Meursalt as an appalling man for enjoying himself the day after his mother’s funeral. The broad statement said by the prosecutor shows that society does not allow one to have any entertaining moments after a time of repentance because it is thought to be disrespectful. A quick rebuttal by Meursalt’s lawyer helps realign the trial so that it is actually focusing on why they are having the trial in the first place by saying, ““Come now, is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?” The spectators laughed.” (96). The trial never focuses on why Meursalt killed the Arab man and no one ever bothers to make any real efforts to discover his motives. This reveals that the courtroom is more interested in the type of person Meursalt is and how he can be a danger to society than the death of the Arab. The courtroom judges Meursalt as a heartless man with the only intention of killing a man because he felt like it, yet neither ever proves the killing of the Arab, not even in their closing speeches.

distant at his mother’s funeral and he was distant with Marie and he was distant with the

In The Stranger, Albert Camus allows the main character to tell the story in order to give the reader an experience of his own. Obviously, with a novel also comes language, which Camus incorporates cleverly as a way to indirectly illustrate Meursault’s thoughts about certain situations. Although the novel represents a postmodern setting, the author shifts the overall meaning. In The Stranger, Camus applies a unique literary style as a power that deflects blame from Meursault, the antiheroic character. In order to disclaim the fault of Meursault, Camus incorporates several instances in which he leaves a greater sense of authority to nonliving objects, while further drawing attention away from the main character. Based on the implication of