A connection I can make with all of these quotes is that they all affected Meursault. The color red, sun, and the heat all affected Meursault 's thought process and his actions. He does not know this, but these quotes will affect him in the current situation and in the future. The first motif is the color red. In this novel, the color red has the symbolic meaning of blood and love. The few times the color red is mentioned, it was either on Marie or on the sand. The red on Marie is a red and white striped dress that Meursault loved seeing her in. The dress appears two times in the text, before the shooting and after the shooting. Each time he sees her in that dress, the feeling of lust erupts from him. The red in the sand connects to the blood …show more content…
These two most often will correlate with each other. The aspect of sun and heat in this novel is very important. The most noticeable reason is the fact Meursault blames the sun for his actions. The sun symbolically represents a higher being or great source of power. This connects perfectly with Meursault’s claim for shooting the Arab. The pressure from the Sun could be seen a sign from God pushing Meursault into shooting the Arab. Meursault did not have a real reason for the murder. He was just at a bad place and time, and the heat got to him. However, this goes against his beliefs. Meursault does not believe in God, so to say that God pushed to pull the trigger, he would have to lie to the courthouse. The heat is also very important in this novel. Both times that death was in front of Meursault, the heat was unbearable for him; his mother’s funeral and the murder of the Arab. The heat is very uncomfortable for him, because he mentions it many times. Sometimes it is so bad, he becomes dizzy and is unable to think properly. When he is in court, every time he is questioned about the murder, he alway relates back to how hot the scene was. The heat was the most memorable thing from the scene. As previously mentioned, he is affected a lot by physical sensations. It was clear that his mentality strength and mood was affected by the sun. If the heat was not so intense during the time of the event, he might not have been pressured to shoot the
The color red is intense; it is often associated with emotions that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum. Passion, desire, and love are polar opposite of fire, war, and blood. James Hurst used the color red throughout his short story, The Scarelt Ibis, to create literal and figurative symbols, which illustrated the dichotomy of the narrator’s memories of his younger brother, Doodle, to convey both beauty and tragedy. A reader is immediately introduced to the symbolism of the color red, and its beauty, the moment they read the title of the short story, The Scarlet Ibis.
Meursault is eventually convicted and sentenced to death because of his inability to conform to the societal expectations of French Algeria in the 1940’s. 3. Characters: Meursault- the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Meursault is a young shipping clerk who has detached himself from the world around him. He is indifferent
Forthwith, the sun’s treachery shows the immoral role of Meursault’s idiocrasy in killing the Arab. The sun tormented, pained, compelled, stressed, tensed and mercilessly drove him in jail. The sun then symbolizes the leading stick in this inherent absurdity of
Another reason would be the key fact that meursault had acted in self defence. The day of the murder, Meursault had been walking on the beach alone minding his own business. As he walked along the beach, he noticed an arab man lying down. Meursault stopped because as he had recalled earlier, this arab man had gone on and attacked his friend Raymond with a knife. Unexpectedly the arab went on and pulled the knife out on meursault.
As Meursault perceives life contains no meaning, he is a hollow man who can not see the reality of life. He is much ignorant and lives in the present. “whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhumane and oppressive”(Camus 15).The sun represents the intimidating power of the natural worlds over human action. The sun is not repeated once, but many times during the funeral, which distracts Meursault’s attention and prevails the emotions, Meursault is unable to deal with himself. The sun is also the driving force, which makes Meursault murder the Arab man at the beach.
When talking about the meaning of the color red, Taylor Swift once said, “On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you've got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger, and frustration.” Swift’s perception of red is true in the novella Of Mice and Men. The color is repeated throughout the book when talking about women. Lennie, a main character, is often in trouble with women in red; they each symbolize something different but the same.
The first shot fired by Meursault was simply a reaction to the situation. Prior to shooting the Arab,
He shows no grief or regret. The intensity of the emotions that the heat and sun evokes on him is shown as he pours with sweat: “Sweat was running down my face…I tried to fan myself with my handkerchief” (30). The sun is the only thing that can get a reaction out of Meursault; in this case, he gets out his handkerchief. His emotions evoked by the physical world, by the heat, light, and sun, bar him from experiencing the real feelings such as grief for his mother.
During the beginning of the novel, Meursault goes to his neighbor Raymond’s house. The visit results into a physical fight due to insults made towards Meursault. Relating to aspects on violence, this scene was made to show simple
Camus uses the motif of weather, most commonly sun and heat, to express Meursault’s emotions. Meursault often describes the weather and how it ‘affects’ him. This can symbolize his actual feelings he tries to hide. An example can be found when Meursault is walking to his mother’s funeral. On the outside he is calm and even seems a little annoyed.
He also utilized symbols in order for the reader to find significance in divergent objects that would have otherwise been ignored. He then provided various things for the reader to have in order to parallel and further understand Meursault’s characterization as well as the vital transitions. Camus used figurative language, motifs, and Meursault’s development throughout the last passage in order for the reader to fully comprehend the work as a whole. Camus properly produced various aspects in his craft in order to contribute to the meaning of Meursault’s characterization in relation to the work as well as towards the previous novels, plays, and dramas that the reader has read and will read. Camus’s craft is indeed unique which made Meursault a unique character due to how he was introduced in the work as well as how he was
During my first read through The Stranger, I paid little attention to how the novel was written, focusing more on content and plotline. I mainly noticed that the sentence structure employed was very limited, the majority of the sentences were short, and the figurative language was restricted. The interactive oral on translational effects introduced me to the importance of the syntax and diction used and its significance with respect to Meursault’s character. In the discussion, we examined the first line of the novel of Ward’s version, which is “Maman died today” (Camus 3).
The sun unlike in many novels has a more immediate and compelling power in The Stranger. It mainly an agent of that brings frustration and irrationalism to Meursault's actions and life as a whole. The sun creates an environment Meursault is novice to and forces it upon him in which he uses the rage and frustration nurtured by the hostility of the sun and translates it by pulling the trigger; killing the Arab. Furthermore, the sun adds tension to his surroundings by “shining almost directly overhead onto the sand,” creating unfavorable circumstances that Meursault clearly detests. It also amplifies Meursault’s feelings to a point that he can no longer in control/contact with them.
This fight leads to Meursault going to a murder trial because he shoots one of the Arabs four times and kills him. Meursault shows importance of the physical world when he is at Maman’s funeral, while in a fight with the Arabs and when he is at his murder trial. Meaursault connects more to the physical world rather than to the
He was influenced by physical discomfort. After shooting the Arab once, he “fired four more times at the motionless body” (59) because, according to Camus’ existential philosophy, it does not matter whether he shot him once or four times because the Arab was dead regardless. The four extra shorts were not done out of panic