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Meursault's Journey Essay

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A full stream of emotional development takes place in Albert Camus book “The Stranger” and is demonstrated through the protagonist, Meursault. From the beginning the audience realizes the lack of empathy in Meursault and watches as his morals start to develop and take place. The book starts with his mother dying, a tragic event that normally puts people through great grief and pain. For Meursault though, it’s nothing more than an inconvenient take off work. The audience immediately realizes that something about him is off from his visit to his mother. He lacks the basic human understanding of other people 's emotions and social cues. It seems that his life has always been that way and that he never noticed it to be a problem or strikingly different …show more content…

Finally, the major turning point for Meursault happens at the shooting of the Arab on the beach. From this point on his reflection of himself and human nature in trial and prison give the most substance to the themes of the book. We see some of his social and moral development at this time as he tries to understand the magistrate and his religious points of view. Meursault takes the steps to try to empathize with the man, yet he agrees with the man because the argument and long standing conflict starts to make him uncomfortable. This shows improvement in his moral dilemma and allows his experiences to aid him. The trial deals with the issue of why Meursault shot the man so many times and why he hesitated. The lack of an answer leads the reader to infer that he himself had no real idea how to deal with the emotions he must have been feeling at the time. With his mother recently dying, pressure for love to fall in line, and to back up his new friends in a fight was just too much emotional and moral overload for him. As someone lacking development in these areas pairing this and the straining physical conditions with the sun and the beach, it is no wonder why he snapped. From the end of his trial there is a strong reflection held in the time that he has in solitary confinement that allows for him to develop more moral understanding on his

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The heat is also very important in this novel. Both times that death was in front of Meursault, the heat was unbearable for him; his mother’s funeral and the murder of the Arab. The heat is very uncomfortable for him, because he mentions it many times. Sometimes it is so bad, he becomes dizzy and is unable to think properly. When he is in court, every time he is questioned about the murder, he alway relates back to how hot the scene was.

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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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Meursault´s indifference towards the society was caused by society’s ignorance towards him. Camus´s use of figurative language has helped to deliver the theme and the reader to visualise the experiences that Meursault have

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In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the author’s absurdist views of life are reflected through the main character Meursault. The reader follows Meursault from his mother’s funeral to his own death, as he exerts his indifference to the world around him. Camus’s employment of motifs represent Meursault’s consciousness of absurdity in a world where everything fails to retain meaning. Nevertheless, humans still seek value in their lives from surrealalities; absurdities that are incapable of immortalising humans. The motifs of religion, judgement, and death inspire Meursault’s heroism through his sincerity and rejection of these absurd social norms.

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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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By narrating the story this way, the reader is also drawn into Meursault’s perspective. The audience feels the absurdity of the events. As an outsider he is ignorant, yet so focused on everything around him. For example during the funeral, Meursault is far more affected by the discomfort of the heat than the thought of burying his mother. He is portrayed as emotionless, detached from the basic human experiences of love and affection.

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