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The Stranger By Albert Camus Research Paper

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The novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, is an absurdist piece in which the main character, Meursault, goes through a series of tragic events which result in his death. Meursault is an emotionless man who fears nothing and has no worries. He has a morbid, careless personality. A comparison can be made from Meursault’s personality to the philosophy of absurdism. The philosophy of absurdism says that life is meaningless, death is inevitable, and life is essentially absurd, meaning unreasonable or illogical. Camus applies his own twist to this philosophy by saying that while life is absurd, his readers should continue to live it. Some of the common themes shown in absurdist works are human loneliness, the inability to communicate, the powerlessness of individuals, the meaninglessness of life and the conflict between the desire to live and the fact of death (Aronson). These themes are also …show more content…

Camus reflects the philosophy of absurdism in Meursault’s personality through Meursault’s emotionlessness, Meursault’s relaxed moral views, and Meursault’s reflection on his impending death.
Two important themes that demonstrate the philosophy of absurdism are the inability to communicate and human loneliness. Inability to communicate means that one feel as is one can’t properly communicate with the rest of society. Human loneliness means that one feels as if one is incapable of connecting and interacting with the rest of society. All of themes are evident with Meursault’s emotionless nature. Meursault lives his life as if none of the actions he commits or the events that happen to him will matter in the end. This is shown when Meursault’s mom dies. When this occurs, Meursault doesn’t appear to be sad or even care about his mother's passing, which is the main subject of his trial. Meursault was unable to communicate how he really felt about his mother's death which meant that he continued

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Absurdity is an overarching theme in all of Camus, but nowhere is it explicated more so than in the chapter ‘Absurd Reasoning’. Whatever your path in life we are all bound to come across the Absurd at some point. It is simply inevitable as at some point we each question the reasons for doing things as we do, for acting in certain ways, for being. The stage-sets collapse.

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In his novel The Stranger, Albert Camus creates an emotionally incapable, narcissistic, and, at times, sociopathic character named Meursault to explore and expose his philosophies of Existentialism and Absurdism. Throughout the story Meursault follows a philosophical arc that, while somewhat extreme - from unemotional and passive to detached and reckless to self-reflective - both criticizes the dependent nature of human existence and shows the journey through the absurd that is our world. In the onset of The Stranger, following his mother’s death, Meursault acts with close to utter indifference and detachment. While the rest of “maman’s”(9) loved ones express their overwhelming grief, Meursault remains unphased and, at times, annoyed at their

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