Meursault Quotes

The Stranger is a novel written by Albert Camus and was published in 1942. It follows the story of Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian, and his actions leading to his eventual death. Camus, a French philosopher, author, and journalist most notably renowned for his philosophy of absurdism, distributes a recurring theme of existentialism and absurdism throughout the novel, and heavily does so in passages that serve the most significance to the story. One of the most important passages within the novel is when Meursault repeatedly defies the chaplain in the cell. It serves as a pinnacle for the entire story, and grants readers a look into the main characters state of mind. In this passage, Meursault comes to a dramatic realization of who he is through an existential epiphany, and with thorough analysis the overall significance of the passage to the story is revealed.

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

In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist Meursault represents Camus’ atheistic existentialist mindset by depicting emotional and psychological detachment from the world. Not only does Meursault symbolizes Camus’ atheistic existentialist beliefs, he also exemplifies Camus’ argument that “nothing matters.” Meursault’s display of apathy towards societal standards such as his indifference to his mother’s death, his deviant behavior in his relationships with Marie, Solomon, and Raymond, and his immoral action of killing the Arab highlight Camus’ atheist existentialist perspective.

This causes a transition from the death of his mother to later the trial of the murder. After committing the murder, Meursault struggles to understand the reasoning behind why society begins to look down on him, as well as his irrational attitude and ideas. Whilst Meursault is in trial, his lawyer and the people around him attempt to put logic behind why he decided to kill “the Arab”. They attempt to give this act reasoning and an explanation. This ties to a theme of absurdity, exhibiting the fact that there always seems to be a reason or excuse to why a person does something uncharacteristic, or immoral. While the reasoning behind the murder is less prominent, it can be seen as a way for Meursault to test his emotions, or sense of care. Throughout Meursault's trial, the jury and judge tend to question him more about his mother rather than the murder, possibly picking apart his background, hoping to find logic behind why he would kill someone. “But he cut me off and urged me one last time, drawing himself up to his full height and asking me if I believed in God. I said no” (p. 69). When first questioned about the murder, the magistrate was more appalled with the fact that Meursault didn’t believe in God rather than the murder. “ I accuse this man of burying his mother with crime in his heart” (p. 96). Ultimately the judge primarily focuses on Meursault’s life before the murder, and his history

Meursault has an absurdist attitude toward his world inside of his mental and physical world. Meursault blames his rash actions on the world and environment. At Meursault’s trial, after he killed the Arab, he defended himself by saying, “it was because of the sun.” (Camus, 103) Meursault actually believed that the sun made him kill the Arab man. In The Stranger, the sun is the main antagonist. It vindictively attacked Meursault and caused him to act the way he did. Meursault claims that he didn’t intend on shooting him, but the sun blinded his thoughts and his ability to think and reason quickly and rationally. The environment parallels the Gods in the myth of Sisyphus. The Gods are stubborn, harsh, and irrational, just like the environment. Neither of them have good intentions for the protagonist, yet both protagonists eventually overcome them and absurdly prosper. Meursault’s external world has rational order, but the world inside of his head doesn’t have any order whatsoever. His external world contains his occupation and things that he does on a daily basis, which seem to be scheduled and orderly, but the world inside of his head is disarranged. With what appears to be a hectic life, Meursault doesn’t seem to realize, because a vast majority of his physical life is so scheduled. It is routine to him. But, his mental life is disorganized. Meursault constantly has varying thoughts dancing around his mind, one of which is the environment. The environment is behind all of Meursault’s struggles and problems in his mental world and interferes with his physical world as well, causing him to think that the world is irrational. Holden’s attitude toward the world is particularly similar to Meursault’s because nihilism and absurdism are quite similar. Both believe that the world is irrational and out to get them. The only difference between the two is that Meursault discovers that even though he believes that the world manipulated him and demanded to kill the

There are two significant themes that exist throughout the novel, passivity and religion. The theme passivity is portrayed when the main character Meursault received a telegram that his mother had passed away at her nursing home, and his thoughts when he saw this telegram were, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus and Ward 1). Meursault’s treated his mother’s death with a casual demeanor almost seeming uninterested. Another example of the theme passivity being portrayed throughout the novel was when a lady in church was explaining to Meursault the effects of working outside. She had explained to Meursault that, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church” (Camus and Ward 78).

This is not the case, we are let down because we expected Meursault to act/be a certain way. We expected something, Meursault has not expected anything out of his life. Therefore, he has never been disappointed. Meursault has a meeting with the chaplin, who insists that Meursault asks God forgiveness. This causes Meursault to get frustrated because he did not believe in God and did not want to be pushed to believe something he doesn’t. Also, Meursault doesn’t lie because he doesn't feel the need to, so he is digging his hole deeper and deeper instead of helping himself. He believes that whatever happens is suppose to happen and he can’t change or control his life. Meursault fully accepts the absurdist idea that the universe is indifferent. This is a way that Meursault is compared to the universe, they are both indifferent. Meursault realizes that nothing he does will effect the universe, nothing will change when he dies. At the end of the novel, Meursault reaches an emotional realization which comforts him while he's on death row. He realizes that although he is about to be executed, it didn’t

This irrationality is apparent in the events leading up to Meursault’s murder of the man. From the very beginning, Meursault’s decision to head for the beach where he will eventually kill the man is random and meaningless as “to stay or to go…amounted to the same thing” (57). At the beach, it seems to Meursault “as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. [His] whole being tensed and [he] squeezed [his] hand around the revolver. The trigger gave.” (59) After long passages describing the painful violence of the sun, Camus’s transition into the murder is shockingly abrupt, provoking a sense of bewilderment at the unexpected randomness of the murder, conveying effectively the irrationality of Meursault’s murder of the man. However, during the trial, when Meursault reveals that he murdered the Arab only because of the sun, refusing to allow others impose their logical but false interpretations upon his life, “people laughed” (103) and even his own “lawyer threw up his hand” (103) as they are unable comprehend and accept such an irrational motivation. To protect themselves from this harsh reality of the universe, they can only fabricate and impose their own logical explanation for Meursault’s behavior. The prosecutor, for instance, is convinced Meursault murdered the man in cold blood, certain in the narrative he has constructed out of events completely unrelated to the murder, from Meursault’s “ignorance when asked Maman’s age” (99) to his association with a man of “doubtful morality” (99). In both cases, Meursault’s indifference for societal standards of morality has painted him as a man immoral and cold-hearted enough to premeditate the murder. Such a zealous search for a logical explanation appears

To start off, when Meursault states in the book that he feels a certain way for example heat or temperature it gives way to the descriptive patterns and symbolism, for example, to quote from the novel itself, Meursault says...“ I was able to understand Maman better. Evenings in that part of the country must have been a kind of sad relief. But today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhumane and oppressive” (Camus 15). From this quote, we can see that whenever it 's hot or he talks about heat in some way, we can see how in the atmosphere there is a certain kind of tension, or that he himself is nervous. It gives the book a pattern of sorts.When it

Raymond and Meursault run into trouble with the Arab which is Raymond ex-girlfriends brother. Meursault describes the day being “The sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the skin” (59). He brings his mother’s death and funeral up when talking about the sun. Meursault ends up shooting the Arab four times. “I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of the beach where I’d been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” (59). Meursault has no remorse, he does not feel guilty for what he did. “I didn’t feel much remorse for what I’d done. That I had never been able to truly feel remorse for anything. My mind was always on what was coming next, today or tomorrow” (100). Meursault is a careless person he does not feel guilty for killing the Arab or being sad or guilty for Maman

Meursault is a distinct individual who comes across socially awkward, with awareness to sensory aspects and peoples actions. He’s very disconnected from the world. Many aspects influence Meursault, some examples of these aspects are other individuals such as Raymond, Marie and the Priest. As well as other characters and their relationship with Meursault there are sensory aspects that affect Meursault. Physical things such as the sun and heat make him become uncomfortable and act “inappropriately.” The sun is present at his mother’s funeral, when he refuses to grieve. It is also at he beach, and it is the sun in his eyes that causes him to shoot the Arab.

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. Meursault describes the heat as, “inhuman and oppressive”(15). If you look at how this could reflect his feeling at the moment, you could infer the sadness and grief of losing his mother was too much for him. it was ‘overbearing’. This language is very strong and harsh. The harshness creates a tone of

II. Camus illustrates his critical observation of death by demonstrating it through the main character Meursault, who shows human existence has no logical meaning and people aiming to produce reasons as to why life is significant.

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.“Scorching blade slash at my eyelash and stabbed at my stinging eyes...sky split open... the door of unhappiness”(59). When Meursault attended his mother’s funeral, he was annoyed by the heat, but he felt that the sun is oppressive. When Meursault has a gun and shoots at the body when the sun is hitting his eyes, it shows the impair vision he has, and he is unable to acknowledge reality. From the sun Meursault is unable to concentrate, which gradually makes him miserable.He is unable to make ration and irrational decisions when using the gun and he is unable to think clearly. All of his action when the sun is on him reflects his ignorant to recognize himself and a driving force to commit crimes. Meursault’s actions are not done by him thinking, but more when the sun reflects makes Meursault more motivated to take action. The reason

Meursault’s major flaw is that he lack empathy and this idea becomes apparent in the first chapter of the book. The story opens with, “ Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral Tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (3). Meursault shows a complete lack of feeling when he