The Outsider Essay : Influence Of Society
Throughout Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger (Outsider) the author attempts to demonstrate his philosophy of the world with the protagonist, Meursault. The society described in the novel, much like our own, has varies overwhelming influences from the media and the society towards the general public. This statement may seem paradoxical, but it is one of the vital factors in the protagonist, Meursault’s, development and realization of Camus’s philosophy, existentialism. Furthermore, it is this influence from others that separates Meursault from others and truly defines him as an outsider to society.
The novel begins with an interesting event where the antagonist, Meursault’s mother dies. Then as the story goes on Meursalt continues on a romantic appointment with a women the very next day. From these events the readers find them under the impression that Meursault is someone that shows very little emotion and is very detached from the world around him. Later we find out that this is not entirely true. Although it is not stressed often, it is revealed in varies situations that Meursault does have emotions and show them very honestly. The author in some cases even purposely avoids mentioning Meursault’s emotion upon situations as in the first sentence of the book “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” (P1)This gives a very strong impression that he cares little for his mother. However, later in as in the book “I wanted to see mother right away.” This quote explains that Meursault does care fore his mother, but it is written in such a way that it expresses no emotion and gives the impression that Meursault does not experience much feeling. These leading words and the fact that Meursault follows a different set of believes on
what he should do confuses us. Meursault remains true to his emotions throughout this book and worries little about what others think of him. This is one of the main factors which separates him from...
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