Women In Albert Camus The Outsider

Social groups are often marginalized or misrepresented in various pieces of literature. In Albert Camus’s novel The Outsider, there are a variety of social groups that are portrayed in a negative light, but the most prominent is the female population. Throughout the book, many women are disregarded, or are seen as unimportant. From Marie to Meursault’s mother to Raymonds mistress, each woman is portrayed as destitute and desperate for love. Thus, Camus uses the character of Meursault to present women as shallow and naive to the audience. Camus portraying women this way, adds to the theme of the novel that these values of love and attachment that women posses are all absurd.

From the outset, Camus presents women as naive as these character’s struggle to find meaning in their lives.
The novel begins with Meursault stating, “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I don’t know.” (Camus, 1) This shows how little he cares for his mother, that he doesn’t even try to find out exactly when she died, so that he could mourn her on her death anniversary. But, he doesn’t even show emotions on her funeral. Most people would cry but Meursault was not, he noticed other people crying. He also noticed small details such as; all the women wearing aprons, and Thomas Perez’ limp. A death of a parent can often cause emotional stress, but to deal with the death, Meursault chooses to focus on little details as opposed to the actual event. It is possible that Camus uses this relationship and Meursault’s attitudes toward his mother to suggest that women are unimportant and their lives are insignificant. This contributes to a major theme of the novel that death is unavoidable and there is nothing one can do to achieve any greater meaning in life. Camus implies that Meursault’s mother’s life is just as insignificant as all other women’s lives and have no lasting impacts after they