The author of The Stranger, Albert Camus, used unprecedented craft in order to develop the characters as well as the plot. In The Stranger, there were several portions of the author’s craft such as symbolism, motifs, figurative language, juxtapositions, diction and Meursault’s characterization in which developed throughout the work, more in the last passage, that contributed to the reader’s interpretation of the work. Although these explicit fragments of the author’s craft were utilized throughout the work, within the last passage, they were essentially employed for the reader to be competent to further assimilate the significance these literary devices throughout the work.
In part two of Albert Camus “The Stranger,” the main character is met with the reality of the judicial system and the reality that Meursault has strayed away from. In this position, Meursault is able to see the morality that exist within God’s fate. Being an atheist becomes a setback for Meursault when he realizes the reality that God is a part of the morality that Meursault believes everyone is destined too. Unlike other times, Meursault is faced with this absurd reality he has gotten himself into and can not control his fate due to the judges social constructs and god’s law which now hold superior power than him. Meursault is awakened in this hour of consciousness, revealing the newfangledness of life and what is accepted as God’s moral sense and sees things in a perspective he has never experienced before.
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
Holden Caulfield has a Nihilist view on the world where he lives in the beginning of the novel but later develops a more ethical view. In the beginning of the novel, Holden believes that the world is out to get him, so he alienates himself for protection Holden brings forth his hunting hat as a method for protection, “‘This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‘I shoot people in this hat.’” (Salinger, 22) Holden’s hunting hat is the strongest symbol in the novel. It gives Holden protection from people who could be potentially harmful to him. Whenever he is afraid or anxious he regresses and puts on his hunting hat for comfort. This anxiety is triggered by memories from his past. The world has stepped on him and beat him down, so now he uses
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.
The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, It follows the story of our tragic hero, Meursault, shortly after his mother dies through the events that lead to him being sentenced to death. Camus uses the motif of weather to express Meursault’s emotions. The Stranger shows how even when a person does not explicitly express emotion they are shown in some way. How emotions are expressed is a window to a person's personality. I will first discuss how Meursault appears emotionless, than how Camus uses the motif of weather to express Meursault’s emotions for him and lastly what impact this makes.
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.
In the discussion, we examined the first line of the novel of Ward’s version, which is “Maman died today” (Camus 3). The diction is significant because the phrasing allows for a smooth reading which is consistent with Meursault’s simple personality and oblivious nature.
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malicious intent. In the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character is accused of murdering a man on the beach and sentenced to death by guillotine. A more fitting verdict for this crime would be manslaughter, due to lack of malicious forethought. Meursault, the main character, shows sociopathic tendencies throughout the book. He also goes to the beach where he murders the man without knowing the man would be there. The Arab who Meursault shot had already slashed Meursault’s friend with his knife and during the second encounter, the Arab took his knife out again, so Meursault fired at him. To completely understand why Meursault is not guilty of murder, one must understand
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
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.
A full stream of emotional development takes place in Albert Camus book “The Stranger” and is demonstrated through the protagonist, Meursault. From the beginning the audience realizes the lack of empathy in Meursault and watches as his morals start to develop and take place.
What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him. Through the use of diction and symbolism; Camus reveals Meursault’s is apathetic towards his bonding with others and unable
Ryan Pomeroy Billy Goehrig Disc. @10 on Friday Absurdity in Actuality Everything you can comprehend is nothingness compared to infinity. How has the human race come to handle such a truth? Passing hopes, dreams, and desires look nothing more than absurd moments in time. A mere blink in the eyes of existence. How
The 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. Nothing matters beyond what is immediate and physical and real, and any attempts to rationalize the chaotic indifference of the world through religion, ethics, or law are as pointless as life