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Social Norms In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

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Existentialism is a philosophy that invites us to find purpose and meaning in life by thinking independently and acting deliberately, without overt influence from social norms. This philosophy manifests in Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger in the strange character of Meursault, who defies many major social norms throughout the novel. He places no faith in justice or authority figures. He does not pretend to grieve for his dead mother. He finds no logic or rationality in the universe. By exposing the meaninglessness of these social norms in society, Camus invites us to challenge the social norms that dictate our daily lives and to create our own meaning in the society. Contrary to the widespread belief and faith in authority figures to uphold …show more content…

This irrationality is apparent in the events leading up to Meursault’s murder of the man. From the very beginning, Meursault’s decision to head for the beach where he will eventually kill the man is random and meaningless as “to stay or to go…amounted to the same thing” (57). At the beach, it seems to Meursault “as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. [His] whole being tensed and [he] squeezed [his] hand around the revolver. The trigger gave.” (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. Such a zealous search for a logical explanation appears

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In Albert Camus’s “The Stranger,” Camus presents his existentialistic absurdist views in multiple ways throughout the novel; however, in one instance Camus uses imagery dealing with the sun and sky to articulate his philosophy further. Moreover, if such detail were left out, the reader would be faced with a seemingly incomplete philosophy and a futile understanding of Camus’s thinking, thus, leaving “The Stranger,” thematically flat. As an absurdist, Camus believed that intrinsic meaning in life is impossible. Seemingly depressing; however, Camus would argue that suicide or implementation of say religion is a fallacy.

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In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character, Meursault, struggles to conform to the societal norms that are expected of him due to him being an absurdist. Absurdism is based on the idea that the universe has no order or meaning and that humanity’s search for meaning to the universe is fundamentally futile. As an absurdist, Meursault views society’s standards and rules as unnecessary and pointless and because of this belief, he does not grieve after losing his mother because he feels it to be unnecessary. His lack of grief, however, contrasts with his neighbor, Salamano’s, intense grief after losing his dog on the street despite having a poor and relationship with his dog. Salamano’s grief represents the societal norms of grieving, and

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Albert Camus, though denying the tag of existentialism, was and still is a great name amongst French existentialist authors who helped sculpt and define the movement in literature. His works deals extensively with the philosophy of existentialism and existential questions, often resulting in the only answer provided by him, and that is of absurdism. His characters, settings, and situations are dipped in a “tender indifference”, as quoted by him in his magnum opus L’Étranger or The Outsider as translated in English, which was published in 1942. Camus presents his characters amidst different stages of life, whether they are dealing with a moral fall, an epidemic, or a death sentence, and shows the reaction of these protagonist embracing the meaninglessness of life, whilst continually trying to reach an end and also being unfazed by that end at the same time.

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After Meursault murders the Arab, a curious magistrate examines him about his reasoning. The magistrate tries to convert Meursault to Christianity by showing him a silver crucifix and telling him that God will forgive him if he repents. When the magistrate asks him if he believes in God, Meursault continually says that he does not. The magistrate then tells Meursault that he has “never seen a soul as hardened as [his]” (69). The magistrate cannot understand how Meursault does not believe that God suffered for his sins.

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Baker observes that Albert Camus dealt with the theme of absurdity in his works because of which he is an existential writer. Albert Camus, a prominent French novelist and philosopher who vehemently and explicitly denied existential thoughts and one who was completely opposed to existentialism is classified as a prominent existentialist. As all his renowned works, The Stranger, The Plague, and The Rebel deal with existential issues. Camus was preoccupied with issues such as meaningless of life, absurdity, irrationality, etc. He believed that in

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Bensoussan believed that two of them had insulted his girlfriend and an heated argument amongst them turned into a knife fight and later a gun fight. The officials interjected before any serious damage could be done, but the scene was so deeply imprinted on Camus’ mind that he allowed the encounter to be the final climax of his most famous literary work that truly defined him as a writer. The novel starts and ends at Meursault, the absurd antihero. He starts the novel by attending his mother’s funeral where the sun and the exhaustion has a deeper damaging affect on him than his mother’s demise. Throughout the entire novel, the sun remains a big factor that affects Meursault.

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Some choices are good but others result in consequences that need to be accepted. This is called free will. Everyone has the power to make decisions but the outcome that results in any decision, good or bad, must be accepted. In The Stranger, Meursault choice to shoot a man landed him in prison. He also chose to not defend himself in the trial and was rendered a soulless monster who was sentenced to death.

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He spoke his mind openly and did not care what others thought of it or the consequences that it could bring. For example, when asked to say that he regrets killing the Arab, Meursault responds by saying that he feels more annoyance than regret. In the end, however, Meursault ends up paying the ultimate price for not playing the game of doing what is socially expected of

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