ipl-logo

The Outsider Reflective Statement

1761 Words8 Pages

Book: The Outsider written by Albert Camus, originally published in French as L’Etranger in 1942 translated by Joseph Laredo in 1982.

Reflective statement
Initially, I lacked general interest in Albert Camus’s The Outsider. I did not find anything particularly inventive or new. The interactive oral allowed me to explore aspects of the book in detail which admittedly made it seem impressingly alluring. The cultural and contextual characteristics were not as bland as they had originally appeared to me.
I had been pleasantly surprised with each new discovery the class had to offer. The first of which was that The Outsider was based during the 1940s in Algeria and had been published in 1942. At such a time Algeria had been both governed and colonised by France. The book mirrors the context in which it was written, by exhibiting a colonial attitude throughout the text. For example during Meursault’s trial Raymond and Marie were disregarded as they lacked the vocabulary to express themselves formally due to their lower social status background.

With this new outlook on the author and the book, I thought it …show more content…

The reader is aware of the fact that Meursault is either contemplating life or already has due to his obvious absence of emotion :“I probably did love mother, but that didn’t mean anything”.
His unconventional way of thinking causes Meursault to seem confusing to those around him Meursault’s absurdism becomes increasingly more apparent towards the end of the book as there are several characters questioning his motives for shooting the Arabian man after he had already been killed :“ But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t matter much whether you die at thirty or at seventy.”, upon hearing this people are shocked, it is not exactly

Show More
Related

  • Meursault Dialectical Journal

    395 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • What You Pawn I Will Redeem Essay

    875 Words  | 4 Pages

    “In some stories, characters come into conflict with the culture in which they live. Often, a character feels alienated in his/her community or society due to race, gender, class or ethnic background. The texts below all contain a character who is ‘outcast’ or otherwise disconnected from society in some way, reflecting important ideas about both the character and the surrounding society’s assumptions, morality, and values. Choose a text and consider the questions below as you critically read the text.

    Read More

  • Leaving The Outsiders In The French Revolution

    552 Words  | 3 Pages

    Outsiders are somewhat and are heard as an outcast, but today that isn 't the case. People are alienated when others become isolated from their surroundings. In revolutions and various pieces of literature outsiders are abused by authority and therefore alienated. Often in literature, authors tend to show how certain characters abuse their authority leaving the outsiders alienated throughout the story.

    Read More

  • The Outsider In Fiction Analysis

    216 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Outsider in Fiction: Journal Response The article ‘The Outsider in Fiction’ by Orson Scott Card talks about the point of view of an outsider, and how the term ‘outsiders’ can connect with everyone in today’s society. After reading, and carefully analyzing every texts, sentences, or passages in the article. The quote that jumped out at me the most was “Only rarely are there times when we feel that we truly belong and are utterly accepted— and then those times usually end with disillusionment, when we realize that we were never really as ‘inside’ as we though we were” (paragraph 4). I understand the point the author was trying to make, and the details the author phrased in order to support the main idea. But rather than believing that

    Read More

  • Diction In The Stranger

    932 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Outsiders Essay

    857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although S.E. Hinton never uses the word “outsider” in the novel, it describes the various characters in the story.

    Read More

  • Does Meursault Care About Dying

    332 Words  | 2 Pages

    16. Reread page 114 very carefully before answering the following question: Does Meursault care about dying at this point in his life? Yes, Meursault does care about his death while waiting to see if his appeal has been approved or not. This is evidenced by his thought process of rationalizing and coming to peace with the possibility of dying.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Colonialism In The Guest By Albert Camus

    1386 Words  | 6 Pages

    As an enemy of freedom, colonialism determines the decisions and fate of people and forces them to repress their own freedom. To investigate in what way people repress their freedom within a colonial context, we can turn to Albert Camus’s story “The Guest”. Repressing one’s own free choice under the influence of colonialism, can lead to forfeiting his/her freedom since not being able to express one’s true conviction renders his/her morality and self-determination, which is illustrated by Albert Camus’s story “The Guest”. The tension between Arab culture and the French authority as a result of colonialism is palpable in Camus’s story.

    Read More

  • Outsiders In A Doll's House

    598 Words  | 3 Pages

    An outsider is someone who is isolated or detached from the activities or concerns of one’s own community. (American Heritage Dictionary) It may come as a shock that there are people like this all over the world. In fact you may know some in your own life. Over the three stories there are examples in all of them.

    Read More

  • Meursault's Emotions In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

    724 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Gabriel Conroy And Araby

    116 Words  | 1 Pages

    Alienation is the process of feeling lonely due to someone 's lack of experience that separates them from society. As a result, characters in The Dubliners collection by James Joyce, such as “Araby” and “The Dead”, suffer from alienation. Joyce explores the feeling of being the “other” through its main character Araby from “Araby” and Gabriel Conroy from “The Dead”. Araby and Conroy are both very different from being young or old,uneducated or educated, and poor or wealthy. These characters show us in their story’s how doesn 't matter which lifestyle choice one makes because no matter what no one can escape from that one moment in your life where one feels as if they do not

    Read More

  • Theme Of Alienation In House Of Sand And Fog

    787 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ka Her Guy Thorvaldsen Literary Analysis 29 October 2015 Literary Analysis of Alienation in Andre Dubus III’s House of Sand and Fog As we live out our lives, it may be hard to fathom the fact that we are one in 7.1 billion people. However, even with such a population, many find themselves or at least feel alienated from those around them with the implementation of their own doing, some else’s, their society, or a combination of all of them. In Andre Dubus III’s House of Sand and Fog, the theme of alienation weaves throughout the novel as we follow the struggles of Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani, Kathy Nicolo, and Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon in the custody battle over the Nicolo bungalow. Through the complex plot, carefully-crafted characters, and enchanting writing, Dubus throws us into the lives of these three people observing how they live, how they handle adversity (whether of the past or the present), and how they ultimately find a solution to the chaotic, should-not-have-happened-in-the-first-place situation. As we unfold the lives of Behrani and Kathy in Dubus’ House of Sand and Fog, the theme of alienation becomes evident through how they view themselves, how their families treat them, and how the culture of their society has shaped them and where the society places them within itself.

    Read More

  • Outcasts In The Outsider

    710 Words  | 3 Pages

    An outsider. Someone who is excluded from society due to their social status, ethnicity or appearance. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (TPOBAW) by Stephen Chbosky explore the idea of outsiders within their novels. In The Outsiders, outsiders are portrayed by the greasers, a lower class gang. In TPOBAW, the main character, Charlie and his later friends are outcasts because of their social status.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Plague And The Myth Of Sisyphus

    1521 Words  | 7 Pages

    As Camus put it, “I rebel—therefore we exist” (23). I enjoyed reading through Camus’s theories and written work, although they are extensive. Since I cannot describe all his works, I chose to analyze The Stranger. Partly due to it being shorter than most of his works, and the title is mysterious enough to garner my attention. So, without further due, I present an in-depth analysis of The

    Read More

  • Meursault Murder Quotes

    655 Words  | 3 Pages

    During his own mother’s funeral at the beginning of the book, Meursault shows both antisocial behavior as well as a lack of sadness for her death. After being asleep for a while and finally waking up, Meursault notices a man near him, “…he was staring hard at me, as if he had been waiting for me to wake. Then I fell asleep again” (Camus 11). After he is sentenced to death, Meursault never feels guilt for killing the man. When he is nearing his execution date, all he hopes for is “that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with cries of hate” (Camus 117).

    Read More

More about The Outsider Reflective Statement

Open Document