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
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
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
Previously, the man had followed Meursault and Raymond around the town for a while. When the two confronted the Arab, Meursault was given the gun by Raymond because he did not want to shoot the man. The Arab man brandished a knife and slashed Raymond. Later, Meursault still had the gun and went for a walk toward the area where Raymond had been slashed. Seeing the Arab man on the beach, Meursault was clearly and justly scared of the man.
Camus gives the reader no background or details as to why Meursault shoots the Arab, let alone why he shoots him four times. As the reader, it is hard to analyze the situation because of how natural the occurrence seems. There was no premeditation to his actions and it seems that it was only a coincidence that Meursault had the gun in the first place. When looking at the text it appears that Meursault is shooting at the blade of light reflecting off of the Arab’s knife into his eyes, “the Arab drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun. The light shot off the steel and it was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead”(Camus 59).
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.
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.
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.
Throughout many parts of this book Meursault plays things off as if he doesn’t care what is going on around him and that he is just going through life with only the motions, without care or feelings to what happens to himself or to what is going on around him. Many monumental things were happening in Meursault’s life during the course of this book, including the possibility of marriage to the one person that seems to bring any sort of happiness into his life, the possibility of moving to Paris for his job, the murdering of an arab man for defense, and becoming new friends with many people. Though all of this is happening in his life, he always seems to find a way to pass it all off to just go with whatever is happening around him and have no wants or ties to happiness. It’s all just there and continuing on in his life. For example when Marie, Meursault’s lover, asks to get married he states, “Marie came that evening and asked me if I’d marry her.
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.
Finally, the major turning point for Meursault happens at the shooting of the Arab on the beach. From this point on his reflection of himself and human nature in trial and prison give the most substance to the themes of the book. We see some of his social and moral development at this time as he tries to understand the magistrate and his religious points of view. Meursault takes the steps to try to empathize with the man, yet he agrees with the man because the argument and long standing conflict starts to make him uncomfortable. This shows improvement in his moral dilemma and allows his experiences to aid him.
In the novel, The Stranger, the sun symbolizes multiple things. It symbolizes warmth and comfort yet also symbolizes pain. The sun symbolized comfort when he was on the beach with Marie and “the combined warmth from her body and from the sun made [him] doze off” (51). The comfort is halted by the piercing light reflected from the Arabs knife. The unbearable discomfort influenced Meursault to use the gun to shoot the Arab.
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.
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).
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.