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Meursault's Life In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

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Many people live life with a purpose while others live life with the purpose that everyone dies eventually. In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character, Meursault expresses his belief in life being meaningless due to his actions and thoughts towards his everyday life until he faces death. Meursault’s character conveys to having no importance in the world. As a man, he reveals no emotions or feelings towards anything. Everything and everyone surrounding his life means nothing. It is said that, “how a man treats his mother is how he will treat you”. Portrayed by Meursault’s mother's death, it is shown that he cared very little for her. Meursault shows no affection nor feelings towards his mother’s death and wishes to not see her one last time, before she is buried. Beside his mother, Marie was another known to be special women figure in Meursault's life. Although they had an intimate relationship, he never expresses his love or feelings towards her, his actions say different, “Then she asked me if I loved her. I replied, much as before, that her question meant nothing or next to nothing - but I supposed I didn’t.” (Camus 52). Just like he showed no feelings towards his mother's death, he showed no feelings towards Marie wanting to marry him, he felt as if it was just another “nothing stage” in his life. The …show more content…

“Meursault shows passion for the first time, vigorously defending the value of his life. Meaning is found in living, argues Meursault, and he will not give up on the meaning of his life just because he’s scared of dying. After the priest leaves, Meursault realizes that he’s happy – that living is a privilege, and that no matter when he dies, he will relish his moments of life.” ( Accardi Max) Although he began feeling something towards the thought of death, he realized that he is living and when you live, you die and that made him happy because he has been living all his life up until that

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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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At these events the sun is always present and when it is not, Meursault shows more feeling than usual. The sun is the primary motif of the novel because it portrays and reflects the intensity and emotion of events in Meursault’s life. A funeral, especially of a mother should always be an intensely sad time. However, Meursault shows little to no emotion during the funeral because he believes that everyone will die sooner or later.

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There are few books that have the ability to make one feel as uncomfortable as Albert Camus’ The Stranger––generally, people read to escape their lives, not to confront them. In the book, a man named Meursault kills someone in cold blood and is put on trial for his crime. The prosecutor capitalizes on Meursault’s inability to express his feelings, and so Meursault receives a death sentence. The Stranger explores many existentialist ideas, and one particular scene represents these themes better than any other: when Meursault faces his impending execution, it highlights the importance of facing the world’s absurdity and of accepting consequences, as well as the desire of outsiders to become a part of society. First and foremost, it is only in

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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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Scanning through his past several years, he returns to his mother’s death and analyzes her choice to seek a lover at the end of her life. While before he thought it was strange and even somewhat aggravating, he realizes now, being so close to death, that people will enter a desperate search for meaning when their time left is fleeting. But at the same time, he reasons potentially as a coping mechanism, there is no difference whether he dies by execution later that day or in 40 years because he will be dying all the same. Together, these two realizations, though somewhat contradictory, create his bridge to Existentialism. By establishing these two points, he can allow himself to, “open up to the gentle indifference of the world - finding it so much like himself”(122), and apply whatever meaning he wants to life in order to make it as rich and enjoyable as desired, rather than drifting along as a pitiful being waiting for some greater power to guide him along.

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