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Meursault: The Absurd Hero

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             When Meursault's mother dies his attitude is absurd and his actions are unconscionable to society: "I then wanted a cigarette. But I hesitated because I didn't know if I would smoke in front of mother. I offered the caretaker a cigarette and we smoked" (Camus 14). This quote is interesting because Meursault realizes that smoking in front of his mother's dead body would be inappropriate yet he still decides to smoke. From this I get the impression that Meursault will continue to alienate himself from his relationships. His actions after the funeral seem like nothing bad had happened to him and there was no reason to be upset: "I asked her if she wanted to come to the cinema that evening. She laughed again and said there was a Fernadel film she"d like to see" (Camus 24). To see a comedic film the following day to his mother's death is unbelievable. I feel that Meursault is alienating himself from his mother and his surroundings in order to forget about what had happened the to her. A couple of days after the funeral Meursault says: "I realized that I"d managed to get through another Sunday, that mother was now buried, that I was going to go back to work and that, after all, nothing had changed" (Camus 28). This is an interesting quote because Meursault reveals the fact that he feels nothing had changed even though his mother had just died. His alienation at this point was not only obvious between him and his relationships but also between him and his emotions.
             Camus" characterization of Meursault as an emotionless and unaffectionate man, adds to the effect of revealing existentialism to the novel. During Meursault's trial he reveals that he feels no remorse killing the Arab: "I"d have liked to explain to in a friendly way, almost affectionately, that I"d never really been able to regret anything. I was always preoccupied by what was about to happen, today or tomorrow" (Camus 97). In this quote Meursault reveals that he does not bother thinking about what he has done in the past but rather what is happening at the time.


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1. Meursault The Absurd Hero

... but also his surroundings. His peculiar attitude towards the world ends up labeling him as a stranger to society. Meursault cannot be defined as a traditional hero, but rather as a tragically absurd one. His outlook on the irrationality of life, the choices he makes throughout the novel and the realization he makes in the end all promote the idea that Meursault is the absurd hero. Throughout the course of the book, Meursault is developing an existential philosophy, which he ... is not even aware of until the very end. He is often more ... ...

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2. The Stranger

... free" man. Until a person reaches this awareness, life, like death, is absurd, and indeed, generically, life remains absurd, though each individual's life can be valuable and meaningful to him. In a sense, The Stranger is a parable of Camus" philosophy, with emphasis on that which is required for freedom. Meursault, hero of The Stranger, is not a person one would be apt to meet in reality in ... this respect; Meursault does not achieve the awakening of consciousness, so essential ... becomes a miraculous present, rich in beauty, friendship, and love. He feels the "absurd" and simultaneou...

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... of morality that are relative in nature, presenting morality to be an inculcated and absurd idea. Of course, the society in the novel is unable to perceive Meursault's actions as being disconnected from the causal norm and assumes that he commits the crime because of a conventional criminal motive. The prosecutor in court accuses Meursault of ignoring "fundamental rules " of society" (Camus 64), including those of conventional morality, hence ... is also significant in demonstrating how the consequences are fatal when one offends the conventional way thinking, only to encourage readers ...

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4. The Stranger

... taste for watching a banal film, having a drink at the local bar, going to the beach, lying in the sun. He is very much inside the French Algerian colonial scene, living the most ordinary of lives, not at all a social reject and in no way a rebel. Meursault is on the road to becoming the Absurd Hero, one who will accept the non-sense of the world which has condemned him not passively, but ... as a full participant in the brief time left to him ... . While waiting for his appeal, Meursault begins an "absurd reasoning" and starts to consider his death. He knows there is not ... ...

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... when Camus testifies to a real and profound compassion for the vulnerability and loneliness of men separated from there loved ones. Rieux understood the torture of separation and reaffirmed that Rambert was right in putting love before fighting the plague (Plague 163). This is a significant progression from The Stranger where protagonist Meursault only responded to physical sensations and was incapable of feeling any human emotion, especially ... them" (Myth 14-15). Sisyphus' life and torment are transformed into a victory through his concentration on his freedom, his refusal to hope, a...

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