The Stranger Character Analysis

Meursault is eventually convicted and sentenced to death because of his inability to conform to the societal expectations of French Algeria in the 1940’s. 3. Characters: Meursault- the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Meursault is a young shipping clerk who has detached himself from the world around him. He is indifferent

Those who don’t know their purpose may feel that their daily lives are ridiculous. Camus’ The Stranger, portrays an inexplicably nonsensical character, Meursault, who winds up in a unanticipated situation. Similar to real life struggles, the character perpetually repeats insignificant actions not accordant to any essence.

Meursault constantly has varying thoughts dancing around his mind, one of which is the environment. The environment is behind all of Meursault’s struggles and problems in his mental world and interferes with his physical world as well, causing him to think that the world is irrational. Holden’s attitude toward the world is particularly similar to Meursault’s because nihilism and absurdism are quite similar. Both believe that the world is irrational and out to get them. The only difference between the two is that Meursault discovers that even though he believes that the world manipulated him and demanded to kill the

Because of Meursault’s lack of emotion during his mother’s burial, the jury was convinced Meursault was a criminal. The jury should not have judged Meursault on his past experiences or actions, rather than the crime he committed. Some could argue Meursault was

What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him.

In the novel, a majority of Meursault 's actions are based upon his attitude that his presence ultimately does not “matter”. “‘But,’ I reminded myself, ‘it’s common knowledge that life isn’t worth living, anyhow.’ And, on a wide view, I could see that it makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threescore and ten—since, in either case, other men and women will continue living, the world will go on as before,” (Camus 70-71). The aforestated quote captures the quintessence of Meursault’s character and illustrates the reason for his disinterest with the injustices around him. With purely factual considerations, it is true that each human life is proportionally negligible.

During the beginning of the novel, Meursault goes to his neighbor Raymond’s house. The visit results into a physical fight due to insults made towards Meursault. Relating to aspects on violence, this scene was made to show simple

After he attacks the chaplain, it is almost as if he is ready to welcome death and understand Maman. Meursault passes the time in prison by observing his surroundings again. He especially thinks during dawn, when the sun is over the horizon,

Meursault is not an emotional person. Meursault often seems not to react to major events that happen to him. For example when his mom dies, he says, “Really, nothing had changed”(24). There is an obvious emotional disconnect. Either he was not close to his mother or her death had little to no effect on him.

At the beginning of the book Meursault showed lack of feeling at Maman’s funeral, drinks coffee and smokes next to his mother’s coffin, which shows disrespect to his mother. Psychological reasons for him showing no remorse is the he is a sociopath. Behaviors of sociopath include antisocial attitudes and behaviors and a lack of a conscience. Sociopaths have very little true feelings towards others and can treat them as an object. The effects of their behavior come across as evil even though that is not their intention.

An Examination of Meursault’s Motive in The Stranger Many people who read The Stranger conclude that Meursault’s murder of the Arab was not deliberate because of his passive and apathetic personality within the novel, especially exhibiting emotional indifference to the people around him. His murder of the Arab at first seems to be completely thoughtless and impulsive. It is reasonable to assume that because of his personality, he would not have or develop a motive. However, that could not be further from the truth. The novel presents many motivations for Meursault throughout the novel.

The battle for existence is what drives Meursault to connect more to the physical world. In The Stranger by Albert Camus, there’s a young, detached man named Meursault living in French Algiers. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault receives a telegram, which informs him of his mother’s death. He acts calm during and after the funeral and frolics around with his girlfriend, Marie. While on the beach with his friends, they are suddenly confronted by Arabs and get into a fight.

A notable political philosopher Stephen Eric Bonner, concerns with the notion of meaning in a meaningless world in the novel “The Stranger”. The hypocritical moralism of the society in reflected in the trial of Meursault where a “divorce” occurs between the objective and subjective reasons for the judgement offered by the Jury. Truth disappears, therein lies the absurdity of existence. Meursault is a stranger to himself and to the society that does not understand him. Bonner shows “The Stranger” as a testament to the absurdity of life than a reaction against it, a modern form of the educational novel.

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.

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.