James Kim Mrs. Natalia Grade: 9 2018.05.24 Character Analysis of Meursault in The Stranger One of the significant characters in Albert Camus’ short story, The Stranger is Meursault. Detachment and lack of emotion are the main traits of Meursault’s personality. Meursault is a character who is detached and unemotional as he is insensitive of everything that happens around him. Indeed, he disassembles the world around him as an ‘outsider’. This is shown in his mother’s death, phycological view of life and death, and prominent symbols in The Stranger which allows the readers to understand the circumstances where he finds himself at, where he belongs in and Meursault’s lack of emotions. These deep themes are closely connected to the development of Meursault’s indifference, alienation, oddity, and uniqueness. One of the important theme in The Stranger is Meursault’s emotional indifference to his mother’s death. For the majority of people, the death of the mother signifies sadness. However, Meursault keeps himself aloof and has a view from a different standpoint about his mother’s death. Meursault said, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I …show more content…
First, the sun becomes one of the most important symbols in The Stranger. “The whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back. But. He would have left, but the sun was too intense. The sun [makes him] move toward the spring (and therefore, toward the Arab).” Sun sets the stage got the climax of Meursault’s murder of the Arab. Sun is depicted as a distraction to Meursault and causes him to do things he would not normally do, causing him to commit a serious crime which will cause him death penalty. Another significant symbol in The Stranger is ‘outsider’. Meursault is a person who does not belong to the society. Meursault is a character who is detached and unemotional as he is insensitive of everything as an