Albert Camus
The Stranger represents in many ways, Camus' style of Existentialism and his philosophical notion of absurdity. The "absurd" by Camus' definition is what describes humanity's attempts to place rationalization or reasoning to important aspects of the human condition such as the need for government, religion, and a realization of the physical or natural world. All of this is absurd because Camus' idea of Existentialism states that there is absolutely no inherent meaning given to any of these fundamentals whereas humanity is found to have the need to place them in a certain order or rationalize the existence of such. Meursault is the character in Camus' novel, The Stranger who deals with the world in a way that seems confusing at first, but whose personality becomes clearer as we progress deeper into the realm of Existentialism and Camus' notion of absurdity. What is it exactly about Meursault's character that which prevents him from finding meaning given to his life by religion, nature, or government? We see in the novel that Meursault has a different way of looking not only at the world around him, but also how he sees himself in his own mind. This unique view is the key to this novel and the beliefs that Camu
Take for example the events of the day leading up to the murder of the Arab. The descriptions are all sensory details and even when he tries to explain in court why he killed the man, he replies that it was because of the Sun, a mere physical reason as the underlying compulsion to make him kill another man. Neither the external world in which Meursault lives nor the internal world of his attitudes and thoughts have any kind of rational order. His perceptions are almost at random and with no real orderly purpose. Therefore he has no real discernable motive for any of his actions, such as killing the Arab, or his decision to marry Marie. Society nonetheless attempts to impose their own rational explanations for Meursault's irrationality. They must find some thread of evidence that is reason enough for them to see why Meursault did what he did. His personality is seen as being threatening to society because of its complete irrational logic. In Part Two of the novel, the entire court trial can be seen as society in of itself looking for some kind of answer to Meursault's actions. This could be considered the "absurd" situation that Camus wants us to witness. In fact, the entire trial sequence is in direct response to Meursault's growing realizations with his own reflections on the meaninglessness of life, and death. So while society attempts to recreate the steps of a murderer using logic and reasoning and rationale, Meursault becomes a prime example of Camus' absurd situation. s is trying to convey. It is apparent from the very beginning of the novel in Part One, that there are small yet significant perceptive differences in the way that Meurs
Some common words found in the essay are:
Stranger Meursault, Marie Society, Existentialism Camus', Camus Stranger, Absurd Camus, life death, notion absurdity, natural world, absurd situation, absurd camus', meaning life,
Approximate Word count = 1123
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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