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Who Is The Absurd In Albert Camus The Stranger?

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In The Stranger by Albert Camus, there was the theme throughout of the author’s opinion of absurdity; the ludicrousness of the universe and the meaninglessness of human life. He propagated the notion of life not having any coherent meaning and any set mandate. The term “absurdity” defines man’s attempt to put meaning to life even where none exists. Man is constantly trying to prove that life has structure and order according to Camus as he has difficulties accepting that it is otherwise. Camus taunted us with many philosophical questions, over and over we are forced to wonder “who is man?”
Camus interest in exploring “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd” was evident through the main character, Meursault as he took us through the phases …show more content…

Atheism is just another form of religion seeking answers to the meaning of life, death and whether or not life exists beyond the grave. This was evident in the words, “Man is nothing but that which he makes of himself”. While he believed that physical death is the complete and final end of life, the chaplain held on the religious teachings of life after death. Meursault was more focussed on himself and his environment more so than he was on society and human emotions Again, this reinforced his beliefs that life is just a fleeting moment and no regard is needed to focus on the meaning of death. In the courthouse, the crucifix that was waved at him also opposed his view of absurdity of human life and had him publicly denouncing Christianity through his word, "Then God can help you," he said. "Every man I have known in your position has turned to Him." I acknowledged that that was their right. It also meant that they must have had the time for it. As for me, I didn’t want anybody’s help, and I just didn’t have the time to interest myself in what didn’t interest me”. He believed that the religion of Christianity only served to put order to human existence and it was through his own passion for life that he chose to reject that particular religion. He discarded the view that man should be submissive to a “Higher Being” as ludicrous and that man has no excuse for failure except for his own doing, his own strength and nothing to do with “God’s Will”. Meursault’s critical stand led to his branding as a threat to society and order, “Mr. Anti-Christ”. His philosophical views were not accepted as societal norms and so led to him to being

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Unfortunately for Christians, this concern was combined with suspicious preoccupation with state security and a tendency to interfere in internal affairs of ostensibly self-governing cities. In one letter he tells how to deal with Christians “They are not to be hunted out. [Although] any who are accused and convicted should be punished, with the proviso that if a man says he is not a Christian and makes it obvious by his actual conduct—namely, by worshiping our gods—then, however suspect he may have been with regard to the past, he should gain pardon from his repentance.”

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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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The prison chaplain embodies exactly what Meursault rejects: a non physical relationship with the the world and with human beings, a passive submission to the injustices of God and society, and a dogmatic faith in a better life in the future. This further indicates Meursault does not rely on anything external and is content with living in the present knowing everybody’s life will come to an end. He does not seek for an afterlife or a God much like the chaplain and society who is trying to find logic in every wrong doing or

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In the novel, a majority of Meursault 's actions are based upon his attitude that his presence ultimately does not “matter”. “‘But,’ I reminded myself, ‘it’s common knowledge that life isn’t worth living, anyhow.’ And, on a wide view, I could see that it makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threescore and ten—since, in either case, other men and women will continue living, the world will go on as before,” (Camus 70-71). The aforestated quote captures the quintessence of Meursault’s character and illustrates the reason for his disinterest with the injustices around him. With purely factual considerations, it is true that each human life is proportionally negligible.

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The Quest for Order: Social Chaos in Kurt Vonnegut’s Siren of Titan V. Balamurugan Dr. D. Shanmugam PhD Research Scholar Associate Professor Department of English English Wing, DDE Annamalai University Annamalai University The individual’s search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut.

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The novel categorizes him as dangerous and evil because Meursault refuses to conform to society’s accepted standards of behavior. Everyone is different and Meursault “refuses to conform to society’s accepted societal norms.” Experiences,

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So even though Meursault is alienated from the understanding of the desires of “Other”, his life is still bound to the desires of society for which he will be judged by in his trial (Chaitin). In fact, Meursault’s biggest conviction in his trial is for not crying at his own mother’s funeral.

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In The Stranger, the crucifix appears to represent Christianity, a religion that Monsieur Meursault refuses to believe in or accept. Additionally, it represents rational beliefs that the magistrate attempts to thrust upon Meursault. He wants Meursault to accept God so that his sin will be forgiven. However, Meursault rejects the notion that his life have any significance or rational explanation.

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Life is said to be meaningful and a mission to find yourself. However, for people such as Meursault, who is the anti-hero in The Stranger life has a different meaning. Camus views the world in the eyes of an outcast within his society to show his difference through lack of heroic attributes. In the novel, the story follows the story of a man named Meursault who can’t see the point of existence, and who one day, accidentally shoots an Arab man without knowing his own motivations. He ends up being put to death because he doesn’t show any remorse but he didn’t care for his fate because he was going to die eventually.

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The novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, is an absurdist piece in which the main character, Meursault, goes through a series of tragic events which result in his death. Meursault is an emotionless man who fears nothing and has no worries. He has a morbid, careless personality. A comparison can be made from Meursault’s personality to the philosophy of absurdism. The philosophy of absurdism says that life is meaningless, death is inevitable, and life is essentially absurd, meaning unreasonable or illogical.

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Rationale My task is related to Part III: Literature-Texts and Contexts section of this course. My written task is a series of diary entries in the point of view of Meursault which express his feelings and actions based on explicit and implied events from the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus. In writing the journal entries, I wanted to show the character development of Meursault prior to him leaving school (first journal entry), then just after Maman’s death (second entry), and finally before his execution (final entry). I did this to reinforce common motifs, and themes, such as the idea of Absurdity: life has no inherent meaning but the one an individual assigns to it, and an individual is free to make their own decisions, but must face the consequences of their actions.

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In this association, it must be conceded that he is remotely extremely delicate and mindful, regardless of his absence of self-understanding and enthusiastic reaction. This is confirm by his point by point depictions. He is particularly delicate to regular excellence – the shoreline, the flickering water, the shade, the reed music, swimming, having intercourse to Marie, the night hour he likes so much, and so forth. He even says that if compelled to live in an empty tree truck, he would be substance to watch the sky, passing fowls, and mists (95). Albert Camus effectively persuades his readers of the ideas of absurdism using the character Meursault.

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Nothing, nothing mattered…” (Camus 120-121). All the chaplain’s talk about God and life having higher purposes turned the reserved Meursault into a violent person full vehement words. By having Meursault physically attack the priest, Camus truly reveals how little of an impact believing in God has on him. This is the final act that Camus included in this story to show how ready Meursault is to give up, not pray for forgiveness from God, or believe in any sort of life after

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Camus’ notion of absurdity can be simply understood as two basic premises. First, that as people - we typically want to attain meaning and reason in our

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He “was a deeply spiritual man” though “he dreaded religious fanaticism and repressive orthodoxy” (Robertson-Lorant

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