grew up. The protagonist Meursault is a man who enjoys physical sensations and pleasures and does not care for the social or emotional aspects of life. He is like this because of his belief that there is no meaning to life and that it is absurd to try to find one. In the story‚ Meursault is on trial for murder because he kills an Arab and at this part of the story you can see that Meursault is an actual threat to society‚ weather he means to be or not. Throughout The Stranger‚ Meursault’s attention
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responsible for crushing that individual’s essence. Those who refuse to conform to such a society are judged negatively and consequently‚ feel alienated. Both Keating and Meursault are strangers in a society that wants to dictate their expected behaviour and actions. Society seeks to imprison their individual freedom. Meursault is indifferent and passive to this conventional life that is not worth living. He refuses to be anything but himself‚ regardless of the price he must pay. In contrast‚
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influence of the author’s life on the work. Meursault killed the Arab because of the sun‚ because he felt like it. Therefore‚ had it been any other person‚ be it French or Arab‚ he would have still done it at that particular time and moment. It was because of this inferiority of the Arabs that‚ at Meursault’s trial‚ he was not condemned
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The Stranger by Albert Camus In the novel The Stranger‚ Albert Camus give his expression to his philosophy of the absurd. A first person account on the life of Meursault from the death of his mother to his execution for the murder of an arab. The central theme of the novel is that the significance of human life is understood only in light of mortality‚ or the fact of death. Showing Meursault’s consciousness change through the course of events‚ camus shows how facing the possibility of death does not
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1) How does Meursault explain to the lawyer how his “physical needs” relate to his “feelings”? How is this significant to our understanding of Meursault? Throughout the entire novel‚ Meursault constantly suppresses his emotions by directing his focus towards his physical annoyances‚ whether he is tired‚ has a headache‚ or is irritated by someone else. He explained to the lawyer that‚ “[his] physical needs often got in the way of [his] emotions”. For example‚ Meursault justifies his absence of sadness
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Discussion Questions for The Stranger (1946); translated by Matthew Ward‚ 1988. Part One Chapter 1. 1. How does Camus set up Meursault’s personality -- how does Meursault respond to others’ conversation‚ to ordinary social situations‚ and to the death of his mother? 2. On page 10‚ Meursault says that at the viewing of his mother‚ he felt as if the elderly people there were judging him. Offer a conjecture about why he might have had that feeling. (It is worth paying attention to such references to
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fully understood. Meursault can’t change past behavior and actions‚ making him responsible for the way society thinks about his behavior. Meursault’s indifference to societies perception on what they think a normal behavior should be‚ and human relationship causes him to known as the actual “stranger” with people he comes across with. In the novel the stranger‚ society views Meursault as emotionally disabled and a detached killer; however the reader quickly realizes that Meursault refuses to abide
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the implacable ritual‚ a wild run for it that would give whatever chance for hope there was” (109). He is reaching existential freedom because he will soon accept it all and find freedom in his state of mind instead of state of physically being. Meursault reaches existential freedom when he says‚ “As if that blind rage had washed me clean‚ rid me of hope; for the first time‚ in that night alive with signs and stars‚ I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so
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purpose through his meaningless. That is being the absurd hero accepting the world as it is‚ meaningless and still finding happiness through that. Meursault‚ the protagonist of The Stranger written by Albert Camus is the epitome of the absurd hero. The absurd hero is defined as a person that has knowledge of decay‚ fulfillment of happiness‚ and rebuke
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In The Stranger by Albert Camus is a novel with multiple themes. This is probably one of the most theme rich novels I have ever read and I only touched on a few of the key themes presented in the novel. The themes are mortality‚ isolation‚ nature‚ religion‚ women‚ passivity‚ and society’s social class. The Stranger opens with an announcement of death; Salamano’s old dog is in a state of decay; the protagonist murders‚ and is then sentenced to execution. The centrality of death‚ as a concept‚ is
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