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Albert Camus The Outsider Analysis

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Albert Camus’ The Stranger follows Meursault, a Frenchman living in Algiers when he commits a murder of an Arab man. The novel was written initially in French, but had been translated into a number of different languages, in which deviation in words occurred. The title itself, when examined under multiple translation, creates a new connotation for the novel. L’Étranger is the novel’s original title and it derives several similar, yet different meanings: The stranger, outsider, or foreigner. The British translation selected The Outsider, whereas the U.S. version prefers The Stranger. The term ‘stranger’ carries the idea of both nearness and distance, of nonrelation. The denotation of an outsider is one who doesn’t belong to a specific group. …show more content…

German sociologist, Georg Simmel, states in his sociological essay The Stranger, “He is fixed within a particular spatial group… But his position in this group is determined… by the fact that he has not belonged to it from the beginning, that he imports qualities into it, which do not and cannot stem from the group itself.” (1) The stranger is an individual whom actively participates in his group, yet is also significantly detached from it due to differentiation. Meursault’s behavior is not classified as ‘normal’ within his society; he is the extraneous element within his group because of his perspective. Due to his outsider behavior, intolerance and conformity is encouraged in others. Meursault feels this rejection first hand in the courtroom: “…the prosecutor exclaimed, “Oh no, that is quite sufficient!” with such glee and with such a triumphant look in my direction that for the first time in years I had this stupid urge to cry, because I could feel how much all these people hated me” ( Camus 89-90). As the prosecutor leads him further into condemnation, Meursault realizes how much the people detested him. Accompanied by this recognition, he feels the urge to cry. Meursault, while he recognizes his peers’ distaste, fails to identify their reasoning for doing so. The people shun Meursault from their group, …show more content…

Meursault is part of a functioning group, yet is disconnected with his different ideals. His differentiation generates narrow-mindedness, motivating his peers to reject that behavior. However, without this variation within a society, there would be no example to look upon. Meursault’s existence as the stranger creates the society’s standards, ones that he is not included in. The process of estrangement and realization in which Meursault experiences can be seen through the varying aspects of his point of view during vital events in the novel. His commentary, realization, and embracing reaction all convey Meursault’s growth and acknowledgement as a stranger in society. By using Meursault’s narration and characterization, Camus provides a commentary on society’s standards and ruthless behavior towards those unlike the majority. Camus utilizes first person point of view to include Meursault’s unconventional and nonconformist ideas about normality and religion to reinforce him as the stranger of

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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

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counseling, where the co-leader can take a few minutes work on some better communication methods so that the client can learn some new and healthier methods to communicate. When the co-leader does not have a client to work with, the co-counselor can be part of the counseling process with the leader of the group. When attracting group members, most counselors are attract group members by using printed materials and websites to attract group members. Counselor can also attract clients by word-of-mouth. By asking counselors if they would know people that would benefit from counseling (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2014).

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Taylor Smith Mrs. Fowler IB Language Arts 17 May, 2016 The Stranger: The Epiphany 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.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

Will Hartman Ms. Hogan English 4 March 10 Is Meursault a bad person? Is Meursault a bad person or just misunderstood? " The Stranger" by Albert Camus follows the life of a man named Meursault. This book was set in the 1940s. After careful consideration of Meurasult's actions and motives, it is obvious that he is an imperfect individual who is guilty of making very unethical decisions.

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2595 Words | 11 Pages

Meursault has an absurdist attitude toward his world inside of his mental and physical world. Meursault blames his rash actions on the world and environment. At Meursault’s trial, after he killed the Arab, he defended himself by saying, “it was because of the sun.” (Camus, 103) Meursault actually believed that the sun made him kill the Arab man. In The Stranger, the sun is the main antagonist.

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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.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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932 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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138 Words | 1 Pages

According to Sartre “The Stranger” as a novel is “about the absurd and against the absurd” and Bonner’s essay has given me the idea of the indifference

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(59) After long passages describing the painful violence of the sun, Camus’s transition into the murder is shockingly abrupt, provoking a sense of bewilderment at the unexpected randomness of the murder, conveying effectively the irrationality of Meursault’s murder of the man. However, during the trial, when Meursault reveals that he murdered the Arab only because of the sun, refusing to allow others impose their logical but false interpretations upon his life, “people laughed” (103) and even his own “lawyer threw up his hand” (103) as they are unable comprehend and accept such an irrational motivation. To protect themselves from this harsh reality of the universe, they can only fabricate and impose their own logical explanation for Meursault’s behavior. The prosecutor, for instance, is convinced Meursault murdered the man in cold blood, certain in the narrative he has constructed out of events completely unrelated to the murder, from Meursault’s “ignorance when asked Maman’s age” (99) to his association with a man of “doubtful morality” (99). In both cases, Meursault’s indifference for societal standards of morality has painted him as a man immoral and cold-hearted enough to premeditate the murder.

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2319 Words | 10 Pages

On the history and systematics of the sociology of the stranger” . The sources pointed out that there were four limitations can be identified in the stranger. First, Simmel’s conception of the stranger has periodically been equated with the concept of the marginal man; it’s an atypical type of social type of people. Secondly, Simmel’s significance of the variety of ways in which Simmel used the metaphor of simultaneous closeness and remoteness not explained clear enough, it can see that some of the scholars thought that some of his imagination to the outsiders of a community is too overwhelming and

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463 Words | 2 Pages

In the Novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the story Depicts the life of Meursault a man who lives a pretty normal life. In this essay I will be talking about Mr Salamano and his dog. I think that Salamano is a pretty interesting character because because his style is comparable to his dog. He has scabs on his face and talks to himself and his dog sometimes. The only friend that Salamano has is his dog and Meursault, but Meursault is friends with everyone.

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1437 Words | 6 Pages

The 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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1491 Words | 6 Pages

As the French, absurdist philosopher Albert Camus once said, “Being different is not a bad thing. It means you are brave enough to be yourself.” That summed up with our topic, which is absurdity through human existence, a human being should tolerate the absurd condition of human existence. Albert Camus introduces Meursault the protagonist and narrator of the book The Stranger, who is a stranger through society eyes and the title point out his personality in the world of absurdity. Meursault is indifferent and alienates young man to others.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

In his novel The Stranger, Albert Camus creates an emotionally incapable, narcissistic, and, at times, sociopathic character named Meursault to explore and expose his philosophies of Existentialism and Absurdism. Throughout the story Meursault follows a philosophical arc that, while somewhat extreme - from unemotional and passive to detached and reckless to self-reflective - both criticizes the dependent nature of human existence and shows the journey through the absurd that is our world. In the onset of The Stranger, following his mother’s death, Meursault acts with close to utter indifference and detachment. While the rest of “maman’s”(9) loved ones express their overwhelming grief, Meursault remains unphased and, at times, annoyed at their

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