Umme Rahman September 16, 2014 English 10I Mr. Garfinkel How does your texts represent key aspects of existentialism? There are many different emotions one may feel when being judged. Some may feel hurt, bothered, while others may not seem to care. In the book “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, the author portrays his character, Meursault as an emotionless and odd person, who seems to never care about life due to his belief in existentialism. Existentialism is an idea some believe about human existence and the meaning of life. Camus adds existentialism beliefs to his character by giving him characteristics of emotionless, letting him get judged by the eyes of society and making him take responsibility of his actions to convey that society will always judge and expect one to live up to life’s expectations. One would say it would be “normal” to have emotions or feelings towards one another, especially their mother. Meursault seems to be the exact opposite. When he finds out about his mother’s death, he focuses on the date his mother died, rather than the news itself. He states “Maman died today or yesterday maybe. I don’t know. I got a telegram from home: Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours” (1). This is the opening of the book and it does tell the readers a lot about Meursault. The …show more content…
When Meursault gets arrested for the murder and put to trial, the trial takes a turn and gets based on Meursault’s oddness in society. When he mentions he does not believe in God, a Chaplin is assigned to him to change his mind. But it does not work, as the Chaplin states “I am on your side. But you have no way of knowing it because your heart is blind” (120). This helps the readers visualize how isolated and odd Meursault feels. The Chaplin is continuing to make him feel like isolated as if he is stranger by characterizing Meursault’s heart as