The Themes Of Death In Meursault's The Stranger
“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (Camus 1) If someone were to say this in our world, it would be condemned, and the person would be thought of telling a sick joke or having even a mental problem. In reference to an absurd world, though, this usage of extremist ideals about death can better explain the concept and how it is seen by the writer. The themes of death explored using absurdism in The Stranger is shown with a general disregard for death by Meursault and the strange way he sees life based on these existentialist views. The Stranger is a perfect example of an existentialist novel that was written for that time period, as during this time around the area of France and Europe there was an existentialist movement that Albert Camus, the author, was involved in. …show more content…
One way that he exemplifies these traits is in his view that death is meaningless. Death is an inevitability that all life has to go through, so when someone dies, even someone as close as his mother, it is merely another death. Another way is how he sees life, shown in how he focuses on physical things in life such as touch over emotions. Because death is meaningless, he sees life in a certain regard, in the sense that he focuses less on an emotional standpoint and more on a physical one. The last way Camus explains death using absurdism is using other characters to give Meursault situations or conversations in which he shows his views in those strange ways. These are some of the ways that Camus uses his absurd world and characters he has created to portray his
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1083 Words | 5 PagesThis fact is exemplified when the entire Bundren family goes upon an arduous three day journey to bury Addie 's corpse as according to her dying wish. Addie then begins to bound between existence and expiration. Meanwhile her logic-based son Darl struggles to compute how though Addie is dead she is the entire reason for the journey, showing influence from beyond the grave. Thus the Bundren family’s journey communicates the idea that one’s life cannot measured in length but in depth because one’s legacy will outlive one’s physical form from beyond the grave.
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1353 Words | 6 PagesThose who don’t know their purpose may feel that their daily lives are ridiculous. Camus’ The Stranger, portrays an inexplicably nonsensical character, Meursault, who winds up in a unanticipated situation. Similar to real life struggles, the character perpetually repeats insignificant actions not accordant to any essence.
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1437 Words | 6 PagesThe Stranger by Albert Camus follows the daily life of Meursault, a French-Algerian that embodies Camus’ philosophical views of absurdum. Meursault’s life is a simple one; at first glance, he is like any other working, middle class man. However, through the first person narration, we gain insight into his unconventional thought process. He does not place value on anything, including, possessions, love and ambition. Nevertheless, he is content with his life.
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Albert Camus Syntax Analysis
1382 Words | 6 PagesThe philosophy that is central to the novel, Absurdism, has elements that are derived from conclusions made on Camus’s own sociopolitical environment and the course of his own life. The political tension and overall chaos of the world in the early 1900s included not one, but two world wars, global economic depression, and the peak of European imperialism and violence. In moments in history in which people felt overwhelmingly helpless to the whims of a chaotic world, some choose to turn to assigning meaning through religion or metaphysical philosophies and analyses that help people explain their situation and thus control it. Camus, like the others that lived during this time, chose to accept the evident pointlessness to the world. Camus projects his own philosophy onto Meursault, and declares, “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world” (Camus and Ward 122), approaching life as how Absurdism facilitates.
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