Amanda Glassman
English 12
10/20/15
Meursault Portrays a Teenager As I stood overlooking the edge of a steep, mountainous cliff, I noticed the waves gradually growing taller. In Hawaii, on this particular day, the waves seemed choppier than normal. Out of fear, I automatically associated the bottom of the cliff with death. On the other hand, my friend had a different mentality. Her eyes glistened as she gazed down. I could see her eagerness to dive straight into the ocean. Without even holding her breath, she was gone. However, her decision was not surprising to me. Like my friend, many teenagers live a day-to-day basis by sayings such as, “life’s too short” and “you can never get second chance.” These mottos often cling to juveniles, causing them to make rash and careless decisions. In today’s day and age, teenagers are the one group of people that portray this reckless behavior. Although frowned upon in society, existentialism is commonly found in many pieces of literature. This theory usually highlights man’s existence with society and the world. Like teenagers, the characters in these books and stories are usually displayed as emotionless and disconnected to the world. In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the protagonist, Meursault, perfectly fits the image of an existentialist. In this book, Camus creates realistic scenarios that Meursault undergoes, however, wants each reader to react differently to Meursault’s actions. The language of the novel is abrupt
In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as
In The Stranger, Camus employs lucid imagery, emblematic metaphor, and the personification of nature to demonstrate the transformatively humanizing effect that the murder had on Meursault, both revealing the pent-up troubles throughout his life and illustrating the true lack of emotion and care that has been a highlight of his existence. This passage exhibits the culmination of Meursault’s disposition throughout the first part of this novel. From the opening line of the novel that references his mother’s death with a notable lack of feeling or sorrow, it is apparent to the reader that Meursault outwardly expresses his lack of emotion or purpose in his life – a motif that carries throughout Part One. As this section comes to a close, Camus uses
People cannot think clearly when they are afraid. As numerous studies have shown, fear is the enemy of reason. It distorts emotions and perceptions, and often leads to poor decisions. Within a society motivated by fear, it leads to a solicitous of paranoia, hysteria, manipulation, and a lack of productivity. For people who have suffered trauma, fear messages can sometimes trigger uncontrollable flight-or-fight responses with dangerous consequences. Yet over time, many interlocking aspects of our society have become increasingly advanced at conversing messages and information that produce fear reactions. Advertising, political ads, news coverage, literature and social media all send the constant message that people should be afraid.
In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.
Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions embody the absurd, even before he has any awareness of the fact. Since Meursault is embodied absurdism, it is not necessary that he be hyperaware of his thoughts and intentions. His truth has already been built into his character by the
In The Stranger, Camus portrays women as unnecessary beings created purely to serve materialistically and satisfy males through the lack of a deep, meaningful, relationship between Meursault and females. Throughout the text, the main character, Meursault, creates closer, more meaningful relationships with other minor characters in the story. However, in his interactions with females in this book, Meursault’s thoughts and actions center on himself and his physical desires, observations, and feelings, rather than devoting his attention to the actual female. Living in Algiers in the 1960s, Meursault originates from a post-modernist time of the decline in emotion. Meursault simply defies the social expectations and societal ‘rules’, as
In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault the protagonist, becomes drawn into a “senseless” murder that has to face the absurdity of life and because of his actions, Meursault is presented as a danger due to his lack of “morality” to society. Meursault who is not able to take control of his life but respond to what life offers him believes in the simplicity of life. He tries to understand the living through logic and objectivity, which ultimately turns futile, as he himself cannot maintain proper control over his thoughts and emotions. From the interactions between Marie, to the murder of the Arab, and the meeting with the Chaplain, Meursault overcomes his indifferent views to form an opinion about what life really means. The central theme presented by Camus is how the threat of mortality becomes a catalyst for understanding the significance of life.
Arianna Wisher May 10th 2017 History History is very important to our world. There is so much you can learn about the past since we were not born yet.
It is inevitable that death is all around us. By understanding this, one has the ultimate choice to continue on with their lives or remain in a state of bereavement. An inability to escape this grieving state inhibits one to move on and consequently these feelings dictate and govern our whole lives. This philosophy, existentialism, advocates that as humans we have the power to direct our own lives and pave our own paths. Author Banana Yoshimoto recognizes this ideal and illustrates the journey of how several young adults finally realize their place and meaning in the world despite their struggles. They all face a similar tragedy where their loved ones perished from their lives, and are ultimately challenged to overcome their
In his novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, irony within the protagonist’s ( Meursault ) contrasting perception of the human condition is used to illustrate and invoke the reader to question the contradictory nature of societal expectations. His indifferent and unprecedented reactions to experiences - relative to the characters that Camus laid before him - aid in displaying the absurdity of a world constrained by the chains of conventional wisdom. The contrasting nature of Meursault's demeanor in defying conventional wisdom in experiences such as love and death not only reveals the underlying hypocrisy of the human condition but further illustrates the arbitrary essence of defining a human life.
In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the murder committed by Meursault is questionably done with no reason. Although the entirety of the second part is spent in society’s attempts to find a cause, Meursault has a durable existential mentality that proves that even he knows that there is no true reason for the crime. Through the use of light and heat imagery and diction in The Stranger, Albert Camus comments on the duality of society trying to find a cause for the murder and Meursault defying this because of his existential mentality. These elements heighten Meursault’s negative outlook on life by
In The Stranger, Albert Camus allows the main character to tell the story in order to give the reader an experience of his own. Obviously, with a novel also comes language, which Camus incorporates cleverly as a way to indirectly illustrate Meursault’s thoughts about certain situations. Although the novel represents a postmodern setting, the author shifts the overall meaning. In The Stranger, Camus applies a unique literary style as a power that deflects blame from Meursault, the antiheroic character. In order to disclaim the fault of Meursault, Camus incorporates several instances in which he leaves a greater sense of authority to nonliving objects, while further drawing attention away from the main character. Based on the implication of
The Stranger by Albert Camus focuses largely on the concept of absurdism. Camus uses family and personal relationships, or the lack of it thereof, to show the isolation that the main character, Meursault, undergoes in the novel and it’s effect on him overall. Camus utilizes the protagonists’ character development as a tool to further his plot of the novel. The absence of family and personal relationships tied in with the particular recurring topics of the novel are crucial in both the development of the protagonists’ characters as well as the plot as it affects the portrayal of the main character.
Widely recognized for philosophical writings as a French essayist and playwright, Albert Camus is a major contributor to exploring the absurd in modern Western literature. Characterized by highlighting the human condition, Camus’ writing style focuses on the everyday lives and inner psyche of individuals in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Such a character-driven writing style is most notably displayed in his 1946 work, The Stranger, a tale of an emotionally-detached man known as Meursault, who lives in French-colonized Algiers during the intermission of the two World Wars. Consisting of two parts—The Stranger first explores his daily life as a free man, and in the second, delves more into the character’s own philosophy as Meursault contemplates during his remaining time in jail. At its core, the story explores the relationships and interactions of the odd Meursault through the character’s inner monologue and dialogue with those around him. The story itself is very ambiguous in its’ nature, and the idea of contemplating the meaning of life and purpose is prevalent throughout The Stranger. Evidently, Camus writes Meursault as a man who believes that life has no meaning, and therefore people are free to do as they please. To supplement the protagonist’s view, the author also presents Meursault alongside various personalities of key supporting characters, each with their own unique personality, and differing outlooks on life. Doing so thus enables Camus to get readers to contemplate about meaning through multiple perspectives. Stylistically, through many devices that emphasize diction, imagery, and story themes. Ultimately, The Stranger is a way for Camus to convey that there are multiple ways to perceive the meaning of life, using Meursault to directly project a different view than what readers are used to. Surely, with the intent of crafting a protagonist so strange, that Meursault becomes comparable to other characters; less so as a reflection of what the author personally believes the meaning of life is, but more of what such exploration of the idea could be.
Have you ever had stitches before? Well this is the time of me getting stitches for the second time of my life. It was the summer of 2016 and I was at my grandma’s house with my sisters because my mom and dad had to work. At nine thirty or so my grandma asked, “Would you three like to make watermelon into a shape of a sphere?” “Um…. In a little bit” I said as I could taste the juicy, red watermelon. It was about 15 minutes later when my sisters and I started making the watermelon spheres. My grandma started chopping up the watermelon, and she had to go and feed her cat. She carefully put the cleaver down and walked out of the kitchen. I was the last to finish my watermelon spheres.