When Marie asks Meursault to marry her, he responds with simple apathy. He admits that he does not love her and places no value on marriage, but agrees to marry her if it will make her happy. Meursault gives the impression that he is physically attracted to Marie, but not any more so than he would be to any young, attractive girl.
Throughout the first half of the book, Meursault is not portrayed as a bad or evil person, but simply as someone who is profoundly indifferent, unconnected, and detached. He sort of dispassionately goes with the flow; he relates the incidents in his life without affect or vitality - as just a random string of events. He goes through the motions of a life that society values. His response to life is an absurd, benign indifference.
However, at the end of the first part of the book, Meursault's life and character change. After getting mixed up in his neighbor's affairs, Meursault ends up killing an Arab. He says that the shots he fired where like "knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness"(59). This is where it all started; everything changed and there was no going back. Meursault never denies or tries to justify his murder; he accepts that he should pay the price for his action. He refuses to make life easier for others by lying and saying he was under stress because of his mother's death. Meursault was condemned to death because he refused to play society's game, not because he killed the Arab. The game is, of course, the lie of life- the lie that society lives every day. By not simply agreeing, or not acting the way society expected him to, Meursault was seen as a threat to the structure of society, and therefore there was no other option but to rid society of the immediate threat he cr!.
eated. .
The biggest difference in Meursault's life before and after killing the Arab is his imprisonment and loss of freedom. Being denied women, the sun, the beach, and smokes makes Meursault realize that these things had made him happy.
A Stranger to Morality Meursault, the novel's hero, a "stranger" to the system of Christian morality insofar as he cannot comprehend it, is certainly not an "outsider", neither consciously choosing to remain "outside" society nor being rejected by it. ... In the final paragraph of The Stranger, Camus does not "sum up" his hero's fate, but leads him into a breathtaking vision of new life in the face of death. ...
The Stranger For Camus, freedom arises in awareness of one's life, the every-moment life, an intense glorious life that needs no redeeming, no regrets, no tears. ... 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 to freedom and to living Camus" philosophy until the very end of the book, yet he has lived his entire life in according with the morality o...
The Tall Stranger The Tall Stranger was written by Louis L"Amour. The Tall Stranger was written in 1957. ... The Tall Stranger is a story about a stubborn man named Rock Bannon who saved eastern breed settlers from Indian attacks and Mort Harper, a fast talking crook. ... The Tall Stranger was a very enjoyable book. ...
The Stranger The novel, "The Stranger", written by Albert Camus is about one man's life. The main character and the author, Meursalt, gives every detail and thought throughout the novel. He portrays himself as a person who doesn't seem to care about much, yet he is a hero. Meursalt shows his her...
The stranger faces the group on a regular basis without becoming integrated within it. He further describes the stranger as an integral part of the economic sphere. ... This mobility and lack of formalized ties to the group allow the stranger to be objective. ... He is not perceived as an individual, but a "stranger of a certain type." ... Simmel struggled with a precise definition of the stranger because at best it is the combination of the stranger's remoteness and nearness with respect to the group he approaches. ...
Despite the somewhat absurd nature of The Metamorphosis, and the realistic nature of The Stranger, similar values are communicated to the reader. ... Meursault (the narrator) in The Stranger only sees and only wants to see the absolute truth in society. ... This is the main turning point as far as existentialism is concerned in The Stranger. ... The Stranger's Meursault is existentialist, finding a need for a meaning to life only when his is about to be taken. ... The Stranger, on the other hand, follows an idea that quietly not conforming will only hurt oneself. ...
In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Meursault undergoes a mental transformation from Part 1 to Part 2. ... Throughout The Stranger, Meursault transforms and begins to develop meaningful memories about the meaning of his life. ... Meursault is much more interested in trivial details about strangers. ... In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Meursault undergoes a mental transformation from Part 1 to Part 2. ...
In Albert Camus" The Stranger, his actions and reactions display him as an immoral man, expressing apathy towards society's formulas for convention. ... Confronted with the court's legal mechanics, Meursault is a stranger to the judicial world, thus disabling him. Meursault is also a stranger to social custom. ...
In the book Integrity by Stephen L. Carter, Carter defines Integrity as requiring three steps: 1) discerning what is right and wrong; 2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; 3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right and wrong. I think that according to...
In his song "The Stranger", Billy Joel uses his lyrical genius to make a universal connection with his "stranger", and by doing this makes a connection with Mersault from Camus" The Stranger. ... [16-18].) is often rejection ("It was then I felt the stranger kick me right between the eyes" [34-35].) ... A similar parallel can be made to Mersault from The Stranger. ... The Arab is the first person in the novel to reveal the "stranger" within themselves to Mersault. This leads to Mersault exposing his "stranger" by murdering the Arab. ...
