Essay On The Stranger Essay Research Paper

Essay On The Stranger Essay, Research Paper

In .The Stranger x, Albert Camus misleadingly portrays his existentialistic views of life, death, and the world. Camus portrays the world as .absurd x or without purpose Meaursalt, who, as a reflection of Camus, is foreign and indifferent to his own life and death. Meaursalt eventually senses guilt for his crime, not because of the remorse of taking someone else s life, but because it means he would lose the little things that he considers important in his life. Meaursalt is a puzzling character, who leaves readers to be uncertain about Camus views of life.

Meaursalt is a simple and ordinary man living in French Morocco. Neither intellectual nor emotional, when his mother died, he did not feel or show any sorrow. He is a character rather distracted by his surrounding, such as people walking by and nature. He would feel much irritation whenever the sun would shine red and bright. On a thoughtless walk on the beach, he ends up killing an Arab (who had a hostile relationship with his friend) for no apparent reason, but because his [Arab] blade light reflected by the sun. In addition, for no good reason he shoots four more times, the body lying on the ground. He is tried in court, during which he feels he is his own spectator. Meaursalt gets convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Before execution, he feels guilt for the first time because he would miss the simple things in life. However, he is never scared to die, because for him death comes eventually. Just before the execution, a chaplain tries to make him believe in God, but Meaursalt angrily defends his atheistic views.

Meaursalt is an uncommon character who prefers simplicity. Readers could find him too simple and even completely apathetic of life. He is an atheist, which means he does not concern himself about the afterlife. He is not immoral or moral, but amoral. There is no good or evil, because it is meaningless for Meaursalt. He has a job, a girlfriend, friends, and the things an average person has. But he is without meaning, which reflects his indifference to emotions, such as the reaction to his mother s death. His thought was that he would go back to work and that nothing would change. When his boss offers him a position in Paris, Meaursalt answers, .People can never change their lives, that in any case one life was good as another I wasn t dissatisfied with mine here at all x (41). When his girlfriend Marie suggests marriage, he says .yes x because marriage would not make any difference in his life.

The sun is a major symbol in the novel. Meaursalt despises the heat of the bright red sun. The sun is Meaursalt s nemesis, because it symbolizes destruction and violence. He describes heat as .inhuman and oppressive x (15). During the murder trial, the prosecutor questions why he shot the victim four additional times. It wasn t because of a grudge against the Arab, but because the knife the Arab held reflected light. As Meaursalt would prefer, by chance he shot the victim. It could be argued that he had no intention to shoot a dead person multiple times. Perhaps, he was aiming at the burning sand.

Camus portrays Meaursalt as a person who finds no meaning in life and doesn t bother to find it either. His actions could enable readers to perceive Meaursalt as a meaningless person. When he sits across some elders in a dim room during his mother s vigil and when he is in trial, both symbolize his judgement. In both cases he is indifferent. He does not understand why the elders mourn. He is even a spectator in his own trial, at times reminding himself that he is a murderer in trial. However, as an atheist, is it normal that he feels no remorse and emotions. Perhaps the scene of the vigil portrays not the mourning of his mother, but Meaursalt. Maybe the mourning symbolizes a plea of a man who is too meaningless in all dimensions to at least appreciate life. Indeed, his mother s casket that stood between Meaursalt and the elders foreshadows Meaursalt s death and his spiritual death.

Camus presents an allegory of an absurd world. He attempted to make readers pity Meaursalt. Perhaps through the simply told life of Meaursalt, Camus suggests that life itself is meaningless. In Camus essay, the Absurd Man, he states that an absurd man .does nothing for the eternal, x but that .he prefers his courage and his reasoning. x Meaursalt is an absurd man, because . he shields from any judgment but his own. A greater life for him cannot mean another life x (Camus. The Absurd Man). Some can forgive Meaursalt, an absurd man, but for some, Camus ambiguous presentation of life may only impose a Meaursalt as a thoughtless and self-centered lost man. Perhaps Camus attempted to show the most extreme, yet the simplest conscience of an absurd man.

Albert Camus is originally from Algeria where he worked as a journalist. Later he moved to Paris during World War II. There he worked for the Combat resistance network and was editor for the ongoing Combat in Paris. He saw the chaos daily and during this time, he wrote his main works on absurdity. This experience is probably what prompted Camus to create Meaursalt. In Paris, he discovered that the bottom line of life is that it is meaningless. It is concluded by the fact that death for him is something that has to take place. This explains the indifference Meaursalt feels, because death was only a matter of ti