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Meursault Dialectical Journal

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Recommended: Theme of death in literature

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.

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 …show more content…

Marie asks Meursault to marry her and continues to support him throughout his court trial even though he does not feel the same emotional connection.
Raymond Sintes- Meursault's neighbor who enlists his help after he believes his mistress is cheating on him. A man who takes initiative through violence, Raymond seeks revenge to punish her and the mistress's brother for the wrongdoings she has committed against him.
2 more characters
Thomas Perez- A loving elderly man who grew very close and fond of Meursault's mother at the nursing home. Thomas Perez and Madame Meursault's relationship was one of few sincere relationships that the novel illustrates and serves as an opposing view to Meursault's understanding of the world.
The Chaplain- A priest who visits Meursault throughout the trial and demands that he take comfort in God. Meursault is unwilling to accept religion and proclaims himself an atheist as he will not let religion hinder his belief that the world is

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During the beginning of the novel, Meursault goes to his neighbor Raymond’s house. The visit results into a physical fight due to insults made towards Meursault. Relating to aspects on violence, this scene was made to show simple

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998 Words | 4 Pages

Meursault shows his lack of emotional attachment to people: "I explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings"( page 41). Meursault shows the regrets of his nature but also, at the same time, explains that it’s not going to change. Rather than focusing on finding someone to spend his life with, Meursault would rather find someone who can always keep him pampered. Meursault again shows his regret for his actions when he says, "I wanted to try to explain to him that it was because of the sun, the sea, the light, in fact, everything, that I had simply loved him with no personal motive" (Page 68). Meursault shows his lack of care for those whom he loved, but at the same time shows that Meursault might not be able to fully control what he does, but rather does everything out of impulse, therefore making him regret his actions in some situations.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

Meursault is not an emotional person. Meursault often seems not to react to major events that happen to him. For example when his mom dies, he says, “Really, nothing had changed”(24). There is an obvious emotional disconnect. Either he was not close to his mother or her death had little to no effect on him.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

Forthwith, the sun’s treachery shows the immoral role of Meursault’s idiocrasy in killing the Arab. The sun tormented, pained, compelled, stressed, tensed and mercilessly drove him in jail. The sun then symbolizes the leading stick in this inherent absurdity of

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932 Words | 4 Pages

I don’t know … everything will have a more official feel” (Camus 3). The use of diction shows Meursault's dispassionate to visit his mother. Through the use of words, Meursault is prevailed as emotionless and complicated to understand as he does not mourn for his mother, but is calm and lifeless. Also, through the work of diction, it reveals that Meursault has an affection towards Marie, but does not have a habit of comforting his feelings for her, but goes with what occurs in present. But the relationship he has with Marie shows that he cannot give women a healthy relationship.

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1196 Words | 5 Pages

(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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684 Words | 3 Pages

This frustration later haunts him at the beach after the fight with Arabs. The heat drives him to such an extent to where he has no other option but to kill the Arab to discard his frustration and Meursault follows through because he is not thinking clearly. During the trial, it is evident that the choices he made earlier have grave effect on him but he accepts the consequences. As the novel comes to an end, the reader can see that Meursault finally obtains the ability to think clearly. The day before the verdict is announced, he mentions “the sun was getting low and it wasn’t as hot anymore”

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966 Words | 4 Pages

Then he starts talking to his neighbor, Raymond, and he is a bit of trouble. He would beat up his girlfriend and the cops would go to his house a lot. Raymond invites Meursault and Meursault’s girlfriend to a beach house his friend, Masson owns, when he see the brothers of the girlfriend raymond would beat up, they got into a fight. Then after Meursault took a walk and saw the guy they just fought they kept staring at each other when the arab pulls a knife on him and Meursault had raymond 's gun in his pocket. Then he kills the man.

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1575 Words | 7 Pages

The novel is about a man called Meursault whose mother died and he did not grieve at her funeral. In the latter part of the book, the jury used this incident to his trial, which he was convicted of murdering an Arab

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Thesis: Through the course of the novel, the underlying motifs of death’s ever looming presence, and its ultimate inevitable are omnipresent in the overall narrative. Point: The point of view, introduced in the opening paragraph of the prose, allows the reader to comprehend Meursault’s perspective on death. As he is faced with death through the novel, the funeral and the murder, he remains detached from himself.

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Raymond suspects that his mistress has been cheating on him and asks Meursault to write a letter, “ one with a punch and also some things in it to make her sorry for what she’s”. Raymond’s anger blinds him from acting rationally as he suspects that his mistress is cheating on him and he constantly beats her down.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

It quickly becomes clear that Meursault’s tone following the death of his mother reflects his desensitized and seemingly distant state. After realizing that his mother had

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758 Words | 4 Pages

He focuses on the freedom produced through the acknowledgement that there is no existence of a divine intelligence. Preaching that “existence precedes essence”, one understands that humankind exists prior to a defined nature and one has the choice to determine what humankind ought to be (Sartre 22). Likewise, his commentary also brings to light a more promising tone in Camus’ misanthropic and disheartening novel. He explains the absurd is ultimately an inseparable part of the human condition. In the novel, Meursault is confronting the world with his strangeness as a fully conscious being.

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He lives much like how wild animals live , doing only what is necessary to survive and nothing more. He has no purpose in life and no meaning, he simply lives in the present. He only interacts with people when it benefits him or because he feels like it, as seen with how he treats Raymond, Salamano and Marie. Meursault is a socially awkward anti-hero. Meursault kills an Arab man in the

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1416 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout most stages of ‘The Outsider’, by Albert Camus, the readers create the label of Meursault as portraying an anti-heroine like personality as they may derive through the parts such as Meursault showing no emotion whatsoever in the light of his mother 's death, the killing of the Arab, etc. The often displayed apathetic nature of Meursault throughout the entire book simply illustrates Meursault’s somewhat introverted-self and throughout this essay, The quote, said by the chaplain in the final chapter, “I 'm on your side. But you can’t see that because your heart is blind. I shall pray for you.” suggests that Meursault is a cold and indifferent individual.

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