Minor Characters In The Stranger

The battle for existence is what drives Meursault to connect more to the physical world. In The Stranger by Albert Camus, there’s a young, detached man named Meursault living in French Algiers. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault receives a telegram, which informs him of his mother’s death. He acts calm during and after the funeral and frolics around with his girlfriend, Marie. While on the beach with his friends, they are suddenly confronted by Arabs and get into a fight. 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

III In the beginning of the story it starts off with Meursault receiving a telegram that his mother had passed

Although generally overlooked by the average recreational reader, minor characters have long served as incredibly useful tools in a variety of ways for many different authors across a multitude of works. Whether they serve as mouthpieces for a writer’s message, a personification of a specific philosophy, or are simply devices to move the plot along, minor characters are extraordinarily important in the vast majority of works, being carefully crafted and placed at certain instances by the creator of the work. As such, their importance and purpose in the works Dante’s Inferno, Candide, King Lear, and Monkey cannot be overstated, and while at first they may appear forgettable and non-essential, further analysis shows the ingenious nature of each

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

Meursault is not an emotional person. Meursault often seems not to react to major events that happen to him. For example when his mom dies, he says, “Really, nothing had changed”(24). There is an obvious emotional disconnect. Either he was not close to his mother or her death had little to no effect on him. This relates back to the idea that he’s an emotionless person. Another example is the way he responds when his girlfriend proposes to him. Meursault responds to her by saying, “It didn’t make any difference to mean that we could if she wanted to”(41). He is agreeing to mary Marie despite his lack of emotional attachment to her. An example of

From the beginning of The Stranger, the reader understands Meursault is a complex character. The very first line of the book is, "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don 't know," (pg. 3). This introduces Meursault and his emotional indifference extremely well and sets the precedence for the entire book. By focusing on a trivial detail rather than how she died or expressing his grief the reader doesn 't connect to Meursault. He goes on to say it doesn 't mean anything, referring to the telegram 's information; however, it 's almost conveyed in a way that the

Throughout the novel, The Stranger, Meursault’s characterization was developed through the appliance of motifs and figurative language. “Death” (Page 75) was the main motif throughout the novel; however, it is in the last passage that the reader

Throughout Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger the idea of existentialism and absurdity is portrayed through the life of main character Meursault. Through this first person narrative, we experience his viewpoint on life and the acceleration of its meaning

Maupassant’s Boule de Suif is set in late 19th century France during the Franco-Prussian war and focusses on the journey of ten very different characters travelling from Rouen to Le Havre. The short story illustrates to us the long journey of the ten passengers by stagecoach and the tensions which arise between such contrasting characters. Through the use of a third person omniscient narrator, Maupassant introduces to us the main character of Boule de Suif and the nine other passengers sharing the carriage with her. The ten are all unique and are divided in terms of social class and political views. We have in the extract under examination, the scene in which Boule de Suif begins to form a bond with the others by sharing her food with them. Maupassant’s creation of the interesting character Boule de Suif and her relationships with the other characters is done through his use of effective techniques such as imagery, symbolism and tone. These techniques support the key themes of equality, fraternity and betrayal which are present in the short story.

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.

Through the use of diction, Meursault perceives life is meaningless, which leads him to have the absence of strong bonding with acquaintance around him. He indicates that he lacks empathy from personal and social level. Meursault is a simple man who lives his life in a stickler type and changes annoy him. As the novel introduces Meursault mother being dead, he shows lack of concern and a burden to visit his mother for the last time. “Maman died today...I don’t know … everything will have a more official feel” (Camus 3). The use of diction shows Meursault's dispassionate to visit his mother. Through the use of words, Meursault is prevailed as emotionless and complicated to understand as he does not mourn for his mother, but is calm and lifeless. Also, through the work of diction, it reveals that Meursault has an affection towards Marie, but does not have a habit of comforting his feelings for her, but goes with what occurs in present.But the relationship he has with Marie shows that he cannot give women a healthy relationship. Meursault is used to sleeping around with her that he does not value love she provides for him. “A minute later she asked me if I love her… I didn’t think so”(35). He is honest, but is much direct about it, but he cannot love

2. Summary: Meursault, a shipping clerk living in Algiers, receives news of his mother's death. After hearing about the death of his mother, he travels to the nursing home that that he put her in after no longer being able to financially provide for the both of them. Unlike the traditional response to death by grieving for the deceased, Meursault continues on with his daily tasks as if his mother had never died. During a trip with Raymond and Marie, Meursault shoots the Arab, the brother of the mistress that cheated on Raymond, and is imprisoned. 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.

In the Novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the story Depicts the life of Meursault a man who lives a pretty normal life. In this essay I will be talking about Mr Salamano and his dog. I think that Salamano is a pretty interesting character because because his style is comparable to his dog. He has scabs on his face and talks to himself and his dog sometimes. The only friend that Salamano has is his dog and Meursault, but Meursault is friends with everyone. Salamano is a great example of a character in this novel whose style reflects his personality.

With only a cursory glance, it seems impossible to answer. To properly understand this question, it is first important to ascertain what “matter” means. Arguably, what matters is subjective to each person. There is no absolute definition and thus, value in itself is reliant upon the individual. It is an age old question, however, it has a multitude of different variables. Through the novel The Stranger, author Albert Camus writes with existentialist undertones to analyze the value of human life.

Momma is an influential character in Marguerite’s life. Her strict parenting style instills important values in young Marguerite, but she is unable to display affection. It is difficult for Ritie in her formative years to lack clear displays of love, especially