...What does Mersault mean by the following: “Mother used to say that you’re never altogether unhappy. And lying there in my prison when the sky turned red and a new day slid into my cell, I’d agree with her. Because I could have just as easily heard footsteps and my heart could have burst.” (The Outsider, p.109). Discuss. In Albert Camus’ The Outsider, the cental protagonist Mersault is able to form a relationship with the reader, pushing them to question their own place in society and look at their lives from a very existential point of view, without seeming to make a direct connection to them. Mersault is very much an outsider (hence the title), unable to accept pre-determined so called socially norms and refuses to conform to anybody else’s standards of right and wrong, or good and bad, than his own. Richard H. Akeroyd remarks that, ‘Mersault may be lazy, indifferent, amoral in his outlook but he is completely honest’ (Akeroyd p33). The above statement (essay question) is a clear demonstration of Mersault’s vague but certain voice carries readers through the novel. Although at the time of this contemplation Mersault faces what many men would consider the lowest possible point of their life, Mersault remains almost subjective in his thoughts and feelings of his own life and where it is headed. Lazere adds, ‘Nor can he understand why anyone should want to judge him’, (Lazere p.33). One of the concepts that seem to have an...
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...approach to life. Paragraph How the characteristics of hard-boiled fiction relate to The Stranger by Albert Camus can be seen easily throughout the entire story. Knowing that this form of writing was widely popular during that time period where dark fiction promoted readers to dive into a world where conventional attitudes and ways of life were being contradicted. This novel achieves the contradictions of a hard-boiled fictional piece and targets masculinity making it play a large role in the reasoning behind events. Firstly the male centeredness along with the hostile and violent environment typical of hard-boiled fiction is portrayed in The Stranger using the characters of Raymond and Mersault himself both showing different versions of male violence within the environment of the story. Raymond, a domestically violent individual who believes women who cross him deserve beatings as a form of punishment, perfectly sets the brutal theme that later leads into Mersault’s crime of murder. “The sun glinted off Raymond’s gun as he handed it to me.”(Camus 56) Raymond provides the hostile and violent environment in the story. The isolation and alienation of characters are present through Mersault’s behavior and attitude towards some of the other characters. “As always, whenever I want to get rid of someone I’m not really listening to, I made it appear as if I agreed.” (Camus 69) The attitude that...
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...Throughout the novel The Outsider, Meursault’s strong dislike of human interaction and emotional detachment from society is easily discernable. Significant events in his life do not influence him and he continues to live his life as though nothing of importance happens. Mersault feels indifferent about his engagement and responds to Marie’s marriage proposal with “I d[on]’t mind, and we could if we wanted to” (44). Exhibiting his crass personality, even his own mother’s death has little to no importance to him. Mersault, struggles to recall the day of his mother’s passing, “mother died today[,] [o]r maybe yesterday, I don’t know” (10). His lack of emotion for his mother is extremely shocking and when one of the undertakers asks him how old...
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...love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion – it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.’ After a pause, he added: ‘I don’t know if you understand what I mean.’” “You make the mistake of thinking you have to choose, that you have to do what you want, that there are conditions for happiness. What matters – all that matters, really – is the will to happiness, a kind of enormous, ever-present consciousness. The rest – women, art, success – is nothing but excuses. A canvas waiting for our embroideries.” Is it possible to die a happy death? This is the central question of Camus's astonishing early novel, published posthumously and greeted as a major literary event. it tells the story of a young Algerian, Mersault, who defies society's rules by committing a murder and escaping punishment, then experimenting with different ways of life and finally dying a happy man. in many ways A Happy Death is a fascinating first sketch for The Outsider, but it can also be seen as a candid self-portrait, drawing on Camus's memories of his youth, travels and early relationships. it is...
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...Nolan’s and the book “The Stranger” by Albert Camus gives great examples of people who live the life of extensialist. Living an extensialist life comes with many consequences. Good or bad it doesn’t really matter. “I guess the joker is as crazy as they say” (Nolan). In the movie the Dark Night a man who works for the joker says how the joker is actually crazy like everyone says. Now in the story the stranger Mersault is crazy when he doesn’t cry or grief because his mother has passed away. They look at both of these characters as crazy. But are they actually crazy? Or are they crazy because society says they are? In a society many people see who is crazy who is not, but in these both stories they really aren’t, the joker just does things as they come and people are the ones who actually cause the crazy ness he just takes the blame for it, well that’s how I see it. In the book Mersault doesn’t cry for his mother’s death because he says they never really had any relationship at all. Society says he’s a jerk and he’s heartless for not doing so but he’s an estensialist and they really don’t show emotions at all. An extensialist does things as they come, they don’t plan things out they just do them. “He has no limits” (Nolan). The joker has no limits, he doesn’t care who he hurts what he destroys as long as he does what he believes. Dying to him is like a game. At one point the game will finish and there will be nothing left just memories. Mersault is the same he had no limits on doing...
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...Nature’s Overwhelming Power over Mersault (Rewrite) For most people, the environment can have an effect on your mood and your actions. However, for Mersault, the main character from Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the effect that nature has on him is so tremendous that it influences him to act irrationally, inappropriately, and illegally. Camus uses literary techniques and devices, when describing Mersault’s killing of the Arab, to highlight the extraordinary effect that his physical stimuli have on him. It is important to understand the effect that Mersault’s setting has on him because it alludes to Mersault’s irrational and absurd character. One way that Camus uses literary techniques and devices to emphasize the astonishing effect that nature...
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...character’s status as an outcast to prove how un-adaptable cultures are. In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Meursault’s creed is why is he shunned and not accepted by society. (What is that creed? What does society value?) • The common values of a society do not necessarily dictate how all its citizens will act. In The Stranger, Camus creates a society in Northern Africa where people live according to both their material and emotional needs. Meursault, however, illustrates a point of view that seems devoid of emotional need. Thus, he does not live in accord with the virtues of the same society that gives him his life and possessions. His decision to kill a man—a choice devoid of sufficient reason—is the pivotal point between his acceptance within his society and the malice he faces for violating the human right to life. Ultimately, Camus shows how the popular resentment of this murder is based on society’s ideals of justice, love, and a life of purpose—all virtues that Meursault does not have. (Very nice but mention Camus’s first name and introduce Meursault as a character.) THE THESIS STATEMENT: • Albert Camus portrays his existential themes of the irrationality of the universe and the meaninglessness of human existence in The Stranger through society’s [insert adjective—hypocritical?] reactions to Meursault’s actions and apparent lack of all human emotion. (nice) • Camus uses acts of violence—the senseless murder on the beach and the unprovoked attack...
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...Existentialism can be defined as a philosophical and literary tendency that typically displays a dismal of abstract theories that seek to disguise the untidiness of actual human lives and emphasizes the subjective realties of individual existence, individual freedom, and individual choice. Runaway by Kanye West is a great example of this philosophical theory and many connections can be made to his work and the work of Soren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus. These four artists apply existentialist themes in their literature and even their private lives. The two themes that I found preeminent in these artists work are isolation and death. The four artists have a very philosophical cohesion between them. They all have a sense of isolationism in their works which makes their creations so unique. In Runaway by Kanye West, a phoenix falls to earth like a meteor and doesn’t know where she has ended up. The phoenix attempts to fit in with our society but she doesn’t know how to act in front of all these people so she is isolated. When the phoenix is at Kanye West’s dinner party, she sees a turkey that is about to be served for dinner and she is shocked and shrieks obnoxiously in front of all the guests and they look at her very differently and isolate her. In Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa is portrayed as a bug and people look at him very differently. Gregor is isolated in his home and can’t leave because he doesn’t want his parents to look bad. “During the day...
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...After unfortunate events, Mersault, the main character of Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger ends up shooting an Arab man. This leads to him being arrested and spending most of his next summer in a prison cell. Throughout the book Mersault has always been a rather individual character, who doesn’t care a lot about the people surrounding him and doesn’t have a deeply platonic relationship with anyone. He has friends and people around him, but doesn’t really care a lot about his appearance to them or his responsibilities or consequences. In the beginning of the book Mersault’s mother dies of old age, and he is judged for not talking care of her and rather putting her in a nursing home, and furthermore, not knowing her exact age. This however, only comes out later, when he is being prosecuted for murdering the Arab man, when it turns out, that instead of being the observer, Mersault is now the one being observed. He changed after his time in prison by losing his sense of empowerment and being unable to live in the moment and not thing about his future, this lets him realize that he is no longer the observer but rather the one being observed and judged by society. Throughout the whole book Mersault has always been portrayed as the observer of society. The man, who silently sits on his balcony, having a smoke, and watches the pedestrians walk through their life. But after being imprisoned, Mersault doesn’t feel his sense of empowerment anymore due to being in prison and forgetting how...
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...Finding Joy in Albert Camus’ The Stranger: A Different Perspective Existentialism is often defined as a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes a few main points, such as the freedom to choose and how the choices you make should be made without the assistance of another person or standard. From the existentialist point of view, you must accept the risk and responsibility of your choices and follow the act and result to wherever it takes the individual. Someone that is put in a certain situation understands it far more than someone looking in on that same situation; one commonly used situation that appears often in existentialist works is that of death. The existentialist should learn to accept death when the time has to come and should know that the most important questions in life are simply inaccessible to reason or science. Acting on your own experiences is essential in arriving at the truth and "man is condemned to be free” (Sartre). As a result of the diversity associated with this term it is impossible to define precisely. As is evident through the root of the word, exist, there is an emphasis on fixed individual existence and freedom of choice. Certain aspects of existentialism are shown in Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Existentialists attempt to direct our attention to ourselves as individuals. They force us to think about our relation to such topics as the existence...
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...THE STRANGER PART I CHAPTER 1: REACTION TO TONE AND OPENNING BY CAMUS The opening to Camus’ The Stranger, has, ever since the novel’s publication, been a recurring aspect and reference in existential literature. The novel opens to the death of the protagonist, Meursault’s, mother. Her death plays a major role which recurs through the plot, but in the essence of the opening to The Stranger, it already introduces readers to the indifference of the protagonist and the initial tone at which the story is told. From the first paragraph, Camus lets the reader already establish an initial tone; through which he establishes thru many ways. Primarily in the texts structural level, Camus established the tone with the use of short, declarative sentences with no emotion. The narration is done in a matter of fact way creating the detached tone which resonates throughout the whole chapter. The detached tone allows no medium for which emotion is to pass. No matter the event the text maintains this structure of declarative, short clauses bearing no emotion- thus adhering to the tone of detachment. Secondly, Camus also uses digression as a method of establishing the detached tone. Digression serves as a method for Meursault to go to his own world: one he could call his own, with his own norms and beliefs. The motif which recurs as a medium for Meursault’s digression is the weather. This is witnessed initially in the bus trip as he dozes off from glaring at the sky (Pg4). This occurs just pages...
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...Major Themes and Symbols by Scott Charles This chapter is a free excerpt from Quicklet on Albert Camus' The Stranger. * * There are five main themes in The Stranger: 1. Alienation. Camus establishes Meursault as an outsider early on in the narrative. The first few pages of the book show Meursault at his mother’s funeral. Meursault watches people and events with no particular connection -- he is distant, feels out of place, feels nervous as he thinks people are staring at him. He does not exhibit any particular sadness at his mother’s death. As the story develops we notice how he comprehends facts but not feelings. He spends more time fixated on trivial physical characteristics than he does on emotional content. He is polite, and passive, but lacks empathy. He is like this throughout the narrative; his character doesn’t really evolve. 2. Time and circumstance. Camus uses some subtle literary tricks to get the reader to imagine that random events strung together are fateful. Meursault’s mother dies, he sees a movie with his girlfriend, he’s walking up a flight of stairs and a neighbor invites him to dinner, a man’s dog goes missing. In between unrelated events like these Camus weaves a simple story about a man who makes the fatal mistake of getting involved with a small-time gangster and ends up murdering someone almost by accident. Camus’ narrative brings the random events full circle as Meursault is convicted for being cold-hearted. In other...
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...continuously a boulder up a hill, only for it to inevitably fall right back down every single time he reaches the top. While these two scenarios may seem to be completely unrelated, they are in fact only separated by one distinct difference: consciousness towards their situation. In “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Albert Camus asks us the fundamental question of whether or not life is worth living once man discovers that life is absurd. Camus defines absurdity as a futile search for the meaning of our existence. It seems to me, that there are only two ways of handling life once one has come to the realization that life is absurd: We can act like the man stuck in a monotonous daily routine, believing that there is no reason for living, bringing him one step closer to suicide, or we can act like Sisyphus, a man Camus describes as an absurd hero, a man who despite being condemned to an absurd task, redeems himself by making the choice to revolt rather than kill himself. (http://thecynicalgirl.com/the-myth-of-sisyphus/ ). I believe that to survive in this absurd and meaningless world, one must act like Sisyphus, one must own their fate, stay determined, and never ask the question of “why?” Camus states in the “Myth of Sisyphus” that he is intrigued by Sisyphus’ ability to continue with his absurd task. He says, “It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured...
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...In the article, the author put the reader in an impossible situation to analyze about the important role of ads in a social. He puts us in a world without advertising which I think will be boring! If we live in advertising world, we know who we are because the advertising will reflect who we are because what we see, look in the ads will make us want to become like that or buy that products, for example, you want to become success, beauty, confident … because what you see in the ads is all about that characters, you will buy a cookie, a pizza… because you see it everyday, you want to taste how it feel, you want to try that dress to look like that celebrities, so advertising help our world more develop, modern. According to the author, we live in a develop world because of advertising, Our world coexist with the presence of the advertising, if there’s no advertise we will live in a medieval times. In the article, the author say that he likes to live on an island in Croatian where there is no modern technology exists there but he still wants and lives in an advertise world because if not his “interior life would be impoverished in no significant way.” In the article, he mention, “advertising is energetic,” we can understand that the development of a country or the economic by look at the commercial culture. We all know, ads regarded as the life-blood of modern business, when society and economic growth up quickly at the same time supply of people will increasing, it required...
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...His morals led him to his own execution. In the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus the main character, Meursault, was charged for murder for killing the Arab. His meaning of life including his indifferent attitude at his Mother’s funeral was used against him which led him to his own execution. The final event reveals that the individual is the one who makes meaning of their own life as can be seen through Meursault's interaction with authority, his attitude towards Marie, and his attitude towards his own death as a means of summarizing the major message of the book. Meursault is uncaring for his actions towards the authority strengthening the theme. Going through the case, Meursault did not seek the Chaplain’s empathy to convince them he was innocent, rather he did the opposite. The chaplain asked if Meursault believed in God because his belief was that, “... all men believed in God… and if he were ever to doubt it, his life would be meaningless. ‘Do want my life to meaningless?’ he shouted… It didn't have anything to do with me, and I told him so” (69). His response reveals that no one should be able to control another person’s life and beliefs; even if it was the authorities or a greater power. If he chose to change his belief and...
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