Study On The Stranger
“ The Stranger, ” by Albert Camus, is a novel about an absurd hero. Meursault is an absurd hero because he lives life as an existential philosopher. An existential philosopher is person who believes that life has no significance, is unable to apologize, and is apathetic to everything. Meursault believes that life is nonmeaningful and is unable to apologize anything. In “ The Stranger, ” Albert Camus demonstrates how life is absurd and meaningless for the chief character, Meursault, because he focuses on physical facets, does non care about things, and knows that nil is ageless.
Meursault merely pays attending to the physical facets of life, and non the emotional facets. At Maman ‘s vigil, he focuses merely on the description of his milieus and ne’er on his emotions. He describes the furniture as “ cross-shaped sawbucks ” and the coffin as “ walnut-stained boards ” ( Camus 6 ) . The hearse used to transport the coffin is “ stained, calendered, and oblong, ” reminding Meursault “ of a pencil box ” ( 14 ) . While walking to the topographic point of Maman ‘s entombment, he notices the Sun and that “ it was acquiring hotter by the minute ” ( 15 ) . Another clip where he focuses on the physical is when Raymond Sintes beats his girlfriend. After Raymond beats her, Marie Cardona is excessively disquieted and bothered by what she merely saw, so she can non eat ; nevertheless, Meursault truly does non care and “ ate about everything ” ( 37 ) . Later in the novel, Meursault shows no emotion when he murders an Arab adult male. He blames his actions on “ the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my brow ” and the sea transporting “ up a midst, ardent breath ” ( 59 ) . Since he has no emotional fond regards, he lives irrationally. He does non believe that he needs to hold emotional fond regards because life is nonmeaningful. Meursault ‘s deficiency of emotion throughout the novel is because he lives his life as an existential philosopher.
Meursault ‘s deficiency of emotion is due chiefly to the fact that he merely does non care. When Maman died, he truly did non care when it had happened. “ Maman died today. Or yesterday possibly, I do n’t cognize ” ( Camus 3 ) . Raymond asks Meursault to compose a missive to his girlfriend, to which Meursault “ tried my best to delight Raymond because I did n’t hold any ground non to delight him ” ( 32 ) . As Raymond subsequently beats his girlfriend, Meursault refuses to name the constabulary merely because he does non wish them and does non care plenty to cover with people he does non wish. Later, when Marie asks him if he loves her, he responds, “ I told her it did n’t intend anything but that I did n’t believe so ” ( 35 ) . When she asks if he will get married him, he says he will to delight her. At work, Meursault ‘s foreman offers him a occupation in Paris. Meursault believes that “ one life was every bit good as another, ” so he does non care where he populate and works ( 41 ) . Every individual ‘s life is basically equal to everyone else ‘s. At his test for the slaying of the Arab, Meursault is asked if he is regretful for what he has done. He responds, “ more than sorry I felt sort of annoyed ” ( 70 ) . Meursault does non care because he believes life to be nonmeaningful. In add-on, his deficiency of attention leads him to be irrational in his determinations, such as when he murdered the Arab. By non caring and populating life as an existential philosopher, Meursault realizes that he excessively must decease.
Meursault comes to the realisation that everything must decease finally. He realizes that even he must decease and he can non alter this fact of life. Due to this fact, he believes “ life is n’t deserving life ” ( Camus 114 ) . The universe can go on without humanity, but humanity can non go on without the universe. This leads him to the decision that “ since we ‘re all traveling to decease, it ‘s obvious that when and how do n’t count ” ( 114 ) . If he were to decease now, it would non do any difference than if he were to decease subsequently in life because he “ would still be the one death ” ( 114 ) . Nothing in the universe is enduring or ageless ; everything must decease. Since nil is ageless, Meursault decides that life is nonmeaningful and makes irrational determinations. By doing this realisation, Meursault becomes a truer existential philosopher and an even bigger absurd hero.
Meursault ne’er shows his emotions and does non care because he knows that all must decease. Since he lives life like this, he is an absurd hero and an existential philosopher. Therefore, Albert Camus demonstrates life ‘s absurdness and nonsense through the chief character, Meursault, in “ The Stranger. ”
Work Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. Print.
