The Stranger, By Albert Camus

After only a few days of trial, the jury in The Stranger declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by guillotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the two main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and persecution of Meursault to express his belief that the justice system is flawed because of his absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious. In order to reform the justice system, Albert Camus believes that capital punishment needs to be abolished.

In the novel, The Stranger, author Albert Camus confronts some important issues of the time, and uses the singular viewpoint of the narrator Meursault to develop his philosophy and effectively weave together themes of absurdity, colonialism, and free will. Through the progressive disruption of Meursault’s life and his characterization, Camus presents the absurdity of the human condition along with the understanding that a person can actually be happy in the face of the absurd. Camus also intentionally sets the story in the colonized country of Algeria, and hints at the racial tensions that exist between French-Algerians and Arabs.

Within the last defendant Raymond’s testimony, who was Meursault’s friend that all this was ultimately caused from, we can see the how exactly the prosecutor fully intends to rationalize Meursault. Raymond was

Meursault experiences a philosophical triumph as his execution dates nears, due to his acceptance of the absurd, which confirms his identity; much like the absurd world, he doesn’t acknowledge human experiences and relationships. He is content with this, and welcomes the crowd, confident that nothing can take away his satisfaction. This shows that while he gains philosophical peace, he still is unable to grapple with interpersonal relationships and the role he was intended to play in society. Meursault does not overcome society’s judgment, but rather revels in the hatred. Through his conversation with the chaplain, Meursault discovers happiness in the fact that the absurd world mirrors his own indifference. Meursault compares his beliefs about life to those the chaplain holds, and comes to some finality in his thought process. He settled on a firm stance, “sure about [himself], about everything, surer than [the chaplain] could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death waiting for me” (Camus 108). Meursault becomes infatuated with the absurd world, rather than rejecting it in disgust or horror. He strongly identifies with the absurdity, “opening up to the gentle indifference of the world” (Camus

2) Meursault, talking about prison stated “it was one of Maman’s ideas . . . that after a while you could get used to anything.” At first Meursault struggled going without women, cigarettes, and nature. During a conversation he had with a guard he said he thought that it was unfair treatment. “But that’s why you’re in prison. . . .Well yes – freedom, that’s why. They’ve taken away your freedom.” After a while Meursault adjusted to the differences. He learned to sleep as a way to pass the time. He would reminisce on past sexual encounters. He would think back to all the objects he had in his room, where they were, and details on them. “I realized then that a man who had lived only a day could live a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored.” Despite his physical imprisonment Meursault still had his mental freedom. He was able to recount past experiences and let his mind wander. Meursault was able to still think his own thoughts and have his own opinions because these are things which every man is granted that shall never be taken from him.

In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Meursault is seen as a very unique character, but not in a good way. Throughout the novel, he continually fails to show normal human emotions to things like his mother’s death, Marie’s love, and the man he killed. Most people in his town, along with the reader at first, are not able to reason out his actions but as the final events of the novel unfold, the reader begins to see Meursault in a different light.

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.

In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character, Meursault, is an absurdist who lives in the moment and refuses to be distracted by societal norms. He views the world as random and is indifferent to it. But to many French people living in Algeria, religion, social order and character are intertwined and are imperative to human life. Camus uses the crucifix and the courtroom to convey the idea that religion is man’s desperate attempt to create meaning in life where there is none.

Meursault was introduced as a young man whom recently found out his mother, Maman, died. He was not the most emotional person, but he dealt with his feelings the best he knew how. Meursault lived his life on the verge of truth and honesty. He was honest within every aspect of life, from women to freedom. He was never certain about anything in life ,but one thing he was sure of, death was inevitable. After murdering an Arab, he was on trial in front of many people being interrogated with many questions about why he did what he did, but also to evaluate his psyche about the situation. Unlike others, Meursault did not hide from the truth and that is what others could not cope with. Living his life the way others were afraid to, Meursault was the outcast in his society.

In “The Stranger” by Camus, Meursault’s actions throughout the story can be summed up in one word, absurd.

Meursault ends up committing murder and is later found guilty and sentenced to death by guillotine. Meursault is psychologically detached from the world. Events that would be significant for most people, such as marriage or a parent’s death, do not matter to him. When maman passed away, Meursault was not saddened. Despite Meursault not being saddened, he still made the long journey to attend his mother’s funeral.

Albert Camus said, “Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that 's what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.” In other terms, Camus is indicating that absurdity affects us all even if it’s hidden all the way on the bottom, but it’s the joy that comes from absurdity that makes us take risks and live freely without any thought or focus. Camus also specifies that the only force of power stronger than absurdity is lucidity because lucidity brings out the truth and clarifies everything in order to bring light and clearness into life. Later on, in The Stranger the audience finds out that Meursault; the main character, is more understanding about his life and comprehends that everything happens for a reason and everything that happened to him was based on absurdism and the absurdist views he had towards life. In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the weather and setting has a major impact on the way the character behaves and acts after experiencing either a calming or irritating factor. Albert Camus strategically uses the influence of the weather and setting to affect the mood of the character and how he behaves. The behavior of the character sets focus on both the troubles and peace brought to Meursault throughout the novel. The weather and setting guides the novel in which it uniformly sets the main idea of absurdism and the effects it has towards

The Absurdities of Society A. The novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, that takes place in Algiers, North African French Territory in the 1940s. The story opens up with the narrator, Meursault, talking about the death of his mother. One would imagine this to be a tragic time in ones life, but not in his. Meursault defies social norms, which is one of the huge conflicts in the book, Meursault vs. So-ciety. Meursault met up with an old co-worker the day after his mother’s funeral.

Meursault’s character from the point of introduction establishes himself to be a deviant from society, as he reveals that his mother has died, stating that it “doesn’t mean anything,” while contemplating it may have been “yesterday” (Camus, 1). Meursault does not react in the same fashion in which one would expect a person to, by showing a lack of emotion towards the news. Instead, he imparts an indifferent attitude, inciting a reaction that makes one wonder: what ever happened to make this individual so cold to his own mother? However, this is just Meursault’s way of being,

To what Extent does Albert Camus' Succeed in proposing his absurdist view in the human condition and his non-existent search for meaning. In ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus, Camus includes his philosophy of the absurd through the main character Meursault. The main theme of the novel is that the significance of human life is only understood at the point of death. One of Camus' main philosophical beliefs was that only when facing the possibility of death, does a person obtain an accurate perception of life.