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Meursault's View Of Death

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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. Instead, through his point of view, Meursault focuses on the physical aspects of the world. With such a primary emphasis on such characteristics, it reflects on Meursault’s ideology on death, a mundane occurrence that is inescapable, and life, a meaningless existence with no higher meaning. During the funeral march, he is unfazed by …show more content…

Before the untimely demise of the Arab, Meursault reminds passive about shooting the Arab once given the gun by Raymond. As he is given the gun, he expresses his indifference of shooting the Arab by stating,” “It was then that I realized you could either shoot or not shoot”(56). In his comment, he implies that there is no true difference from the two alternatives, either way everyone must perish at some point in their lives. From this point in the narrative, Camus emphasizes the insignificance of human life through the murder of the Arab. In a fit of irrationality, he non nonchalantly murders the Arab in cold blood. After the first shoot, he passively states,” "the trigger gave[…]" (59). With a lack of empathy for the injured Arab, he continues to shoot the body four additional times. In the aftermath of the slaying, the narrator does not focus on the immediate consequences of the murder; rather, once more detailing the oppressive heat, a source of the murder. Because of the heat and the light reflected off of the Arab’s knife, Meursault absurdly thought to shot the Arab. Yet, even though he uses such factors as an excuse for the murder, he feels no remorse or regret for taking away a life. For, in his past expiernce with death, he knew it was a inescapable for the Arab. So, why should he feel regretful for a happening that is bound to happen at

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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.

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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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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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Meursault was guilty of shooting the Arab multiple times, killing him immediately. With no remorse, Meursault fired the gun at the Arab after he was already dead. When Meursault was tried for the murder, he was convicted more on the content of his character, rather than the crime itself. The prosecutor brought up the topic of his mother’s death often, which was noticed by the defensive attorney, “Come now, is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?” (Camus 96).

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Another reason would be the key fact that meursault had acted in self defence. The day of the murder, Meursault had been walking on the beach alone minding his own business. As he walked along the beach, he noticed an arab man lying down. Meursault stopped because as he had recalled earlier, this arab man had gone on and attacked his friend Raymond with a knife. Unexpectedly the arab went on and pulled the knife out on meursault.

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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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Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t matter whether you die at thirty or seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living -- and for thousands of years” (Camus 108). Meursault believes that because his life is chaos that he cannot control, that he should just go along and not inquire as to why things happen to him. Meursault’s language is very grim and bleak, regarding life. For

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865 Words | 4 Pages

While walking to the beach, the hot sand underneath annoyed him while the blazing sun above him added great discomfort to his mental state. When Meursault attempted to go to the water to cool off, he ended up finding the Arab. When the Arab drew out the knife, Meursault ended up shooting him repeatedly. The quote, “The sun was the same as it had been the day I buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the skin. It was this burning which I couldn’t handle anymore, that made me move forward.”

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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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He wants you to have the same revelation Meursault has now that death is upon him. With his certain impending death, Meursault becomes free after this stark realization that life is meaningless and nothing is certain except for death, and this is

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932 Words | 4 Pages

As Meursault perceives life contains no meaning, he is a hollow man who can not see the reality of life. He is much ignorant and lives in the present. “whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhumane and oppressive”(Camus 15).The sun represents the intimidating power of the natural worlds over human action. The sun is not repeated once, but many times during the funeral, which distracts Meursault’s attention and prevails the emotions, Meursault is unable to deal with himself. The sun is also the driving force, which makes Meursault murder the Arab man at the beach.

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Camus gives the reader no background or details as to why Meursault shoots the Arab, let alone why he shoots him four times. As the reader, it is hard to analyze the situation because of how natural the occurrence seems. There was no premeditation to his actions and it seems that it was only a coincidence that Meursault had the gun in the first place. When looking at the text it appears that Meursault is shooting at the blade of light reflecting off of the Arab’s knife into his eyes, “the Arab drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun. The light shot off the steel and it was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead”(Camus 59).

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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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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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1491 Words | 6 Pages

Everything he will say; the magistrate will not believe him, he even feels there is no need for a lawyer because he thinks everything he does, is right and there is not something to question. He comes to understand that he trying to find meaning in his own life, make him impotent to society’s eyes, he only murdered an Arab and that is it. During the trial, there are investigators that learn that Meursault does not feel any remorse at his mother funeral. As Meursault does not have any evidence why he kills the Arab man, the lawyer thinks that it will be a strong argument if Meursault can come up with some answers for the questions. The investigator asks,” If I had felt any sadness that day” (Camus 65).

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