Albert Camus The Stranger

Even though Meursault makes it perfectly clear that he does not believe in God, does not need help, and does have time to waste on him the chaplain still engages with him. He insists on Meursault giving some faith and repenting his sins, but Meursault’s defiance remains solid. He even calls the chaplain “monsieur”, explaining that he is not and never will be his father. Meursault’s resistance and refusal are almost a sort of ‘opposite reflection’ to the chaplain’s notions. Every time he proposes a religious idea, Meursault is quick to retort with a worldly alternative. It’s almost as if he’s replacing the chaplain faith just like he replaced his title of “father” with

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

It quickly becomes clear that Meursault’s tone following the death of his mother reflects his desensitized and seemingly distant state. After realizing that his mother had

To revisit the conversations he had with the magistrate will provide insight to his atheistic values. He “... was asking me very earnestly if I believed in God. When I said “No”, he plumped down into his chair indignantly” (The Stranger, 43). The following simply affirms that he is indeed an atheist. For Meursault he does not feel remorse for any of his actions or antics because there is no purpose to life; There will be no judgement or ‘Hell’ for Meursault after death. Normally people of faith abide by certain commandments that would thus grant them acceptance to ‘Heaven’. Meursault finds such beliefs as silly and pointless, much like everything else. Meursault holds a pessimistic and absurd outlook on life; Camus made it apparent to infuse his atheistic and existentialistic values into the form of

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

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

Existentialism is a philosophy that invites us to find purpose and meaning in life by thinking independently and acting deliberately, without overt influence from social norms. This philosophy manifests in Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger in the strange character of Meursault, who defies many major social norms throughout the novel. He places no faith in justice or authority figures. He does not pretend to grieve for his dead mother. He finds no logic or rationality in the universe. By exposing the meaninglessness of these social norms in society, Camus invites us to challenge the social norms that dictate our daily lives and to create our own meaning in the society.

In The Stranger by Albert Camus’ which sets in 1940s French Algeria, shows the significance of the absent character Maman. Monsieur Meursault is an existentialist which he shows his lack of emotion and translation towards Maman and her death. Madame Meursault and her son have a meaningless sense of love in there relationship and no sense of family and life. Monsieur Meursault not only shows the lack of love and emotion though his Maman but though Marie, shooting the Arab, and being judged as a criminal through the trials.

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

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

Aside from the sun, the issue is also focused on how many times Meursault shoots him, which is not once but, “I fired four shots more into the inert body, on which they left no visible trace. And each successive shot was another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing” (Camus 39). The court tries to connect this shooting with his mother’s death and attempts to say there are psychological problems. However, he is not remorseful of his crime even after knowing he was going to prison. This behavior is deemed as irrational and detachment from mankind, but Meursault himself inadequate to feeling emotion appears indifferent to the whole

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

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.

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

Atheism is just another form of religion seeking answers to the meaning of life, death and whether or not life exists beyond the grave. This was evident in the words, “Man is nothing but that which he makes of himself”. While he believed that physical death is the complete and final end of life, the chaplain held on the religious teachings of life after death. Meursault was more focussed on himself and his environment more so than he was on society and human emotions Again, this reinforced his beliefs that life is just a fleeting moment and no regard is needed to focus on the meaning of death. In the courthouse, the crucifix that was waved at him also opposed his view of absurdity of human life and had him publicly denouncing Christianity through his word, "Then God can help you," he said. "Every man I have known in your position has turned to Him." I acknowledged that that was their right. It also meant that they must have had the time for it. As for me, I didn’t want anybody’s help, and I just didn’t have the time to interest myself in what didn’t interest me”. He believed that the religion of Christianity only served to put order to human existence and it was through his own passion for life that he chose to reject that particular religion. He discarded the view that man should be submissive to a “Higher Being” as ludicrous and that man has no excuse for failure except for his own doing, his own strength and nothing to do with “God’s Will”. Meursault’s critical stand led to his branding as a threat to society and order, “Mr. Anti-Christ”. His philosophical views were not accepted as societal norms and so led to him to being