More handpicked essays just for you.
Absurdism in the stranger by Albert Camus
Absurdism in the outsider by albert camus
Absurdism in the outsider by albert camus
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson times were extremely confusing. Domestically, the civil rights movement was in full effect and the war in Vietnam was raging overseas. Another major implication on these two mens presidencies was the Cold War and the fight for democracy to rule over communism around the world. Thus, many of the stances these two presidents had on Vietnam involved being aggressive in the war and not letting communism defeat the “free” world. Their decisions were both aggressive and extremely stubborn when the scope of the war began to take shape.
Right away the death of Meursault’s mother joined with other very random occurrences seem to be everyday occurrences. Once again I noticed the similarities of the two main characters of the book, acting as if all the events in their lives seem to be normal. Meursault views life so simply, despite its irregularity. This can be seen in the quote in which he talks about life, “I said that people never change their lives, that in any case on life was as good as another and that I was not dissatisfied with mine her at all”. He really exerts no emotion towards anything in this life.
Through the use of diction, Meursault perceives life is meaningless, which leads him to have the absence of strong bonding with acquaintance around him. He indicates that he lacks empathy from personal and social level. Meursault is a simple man who lives his life in a stickler type and changes annoy him. As the novel introduces Meursault mother being dead, he shows lack of concern and a burden to visit his mother for the last time. “Maman died today...
Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin is a personal narrative about the solidarity he was taunted by while visiting a hidden village in the Swiss Alps. His story is relatable to audiences who feel confined in their own skin. I chose Baldwin because his story is one of many, but it is an account which survives and depicts the Civil Rights movements. Baldwin shares his story which delves into the dying desire to escape, but never being able to achieve it due to physical characteristics.
In The Stranger, the crucifix appears to represent Christianity, a religion that Monsieur Meursault refuses to believe in or accept. Additionally, it represents rational beliefs that the magistrate attempts to thrust upon Meursault. He wants Meursault to accept God so that his sin will be forgiven. However, Meursault rejects the notion that his life have any significance or rational explanation.
The philosophy that is central to the novel, Absurdism, has elements that are derived from conclusions made on Camus’s own sociopolitical environment and the course of his own life. The political tension and overall chaos of the world in the early 1900s included not one, but two world wars, global economic depression, and the peak of European imperialism and violence. In moments in history in which people felt overwhelmingly helpless to the whims of a chaotic world, some choose to turn to assigning meaning through religion or metaphysical philosophies and analyses that help people explain their situation and thus control it. Camus, like the others that lived during this time, chose to accept the evident pointlessness to the world. Camus projects his own philosophy onto Meursault, and declares, “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world” (Camus and Ward 122), approaching life as how Absurdism facilitates.
In greek mythology there is exists a man named Sisyphus, who was sentenced for eternity by the Gods to rolling a boulder to the top just to have it fall back to the bottom. On the other hand, there is Meursault, a man condemned by the people for his indifference towards his mother's death. Camus, a French novelist bases both “The Myth of Sisyphus” and “The Stranger” on the philosophy called Existentialism, which states that there is no God that exists that gives humans a reason and mankind solely search for meaning throughout their lives. One of the major characteristics of existentialism is absurdity, which says that in a world where there is no deity to determine the purpose of life or what is morally just or unjust, there is essentially no meaning to life.
In the novel, “The Stranger,” by Albert Camus, Meursault represents an immoral character. Most readers would believe him to be psycho or immoral and in most cases they were correct. Meursault is an emotionless silhouette of a man, but it doesn’t mean he was evil. In some ways, I sympathize with Meursault as a character because was misunderstood in many ways. Society judged him and thought he as evil because he had lack of emotion.
The Stranger told a story about a man named Meursault. The book began with his mother’s funeral. Meursault did not cry at the funeral and continued his daily life the next day. He got involved with some questionable individuals, and murdered a man with a gun. Meursault went to jail, and the court found him guilty.
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.
(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.
I believe each person holds their own views on life, while this seems to be a reasonable assumption it stands to argue that people can share common beliefs as a community. An example would be people who follow the same religion; Christianity is a faith who believes marriage is a sacred practice between their god, a man and a woman. Christianity does not favor same sex marriages due to their belief marriage is meant to help encourage reproduction of more church going members. A person, like myself, would agree with certain aspects of the religion but not its entire philosophy. In “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, Meursault’s refusal to accept that he has been sentence to death is what prompts him to seek a repeal of the sentence.
“Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.” (Book 1) This excerpt from The Stranger by Albert Camus was said by Meursault, the main character. Meursault is a very simple minded creature in the aspect of he has no complex feelings, or a thought of true purpose.
A connection with a reader and the characters in a book creates an experience for the reader and brings enjoyment. Normally, it is easy for the reader to develop a connection with the protagonist but with a lack of feelings from the central character, the bond is more difficult to establish and maintain. For example, Meursault, the main character in the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, has an absurdist view of life. He shows a lack of emotion and lives as if life is purposeless with no meaning. Camus shows this behavior with his sentence structure and word choice.
That does not mean anything. It may have been yesterday” (Camus 9). These are the starting line of the Stranger and it has a great impact on Meursault throughout the novel, which symbolizes the beginning, middle, and end of the novel, they are in the manner with his behavior towards life and how he sees the world in a different view than everybody else, Meursault is detached from his mother’s death, he does not show that he is hurt by it at all, he does not care about his personal issues. Instead, he cares about the unchanged world he is living in.
