The Stranger Research Paper

The Stranger Essay

If people were to accept that absurdism exists then that would mean that life is irrational and has no arrangements of any sort. This would mean that everything mankind has done so far to progress itself through society and religion means absolutely nothing because both are used to control chaos from happening in the first place. Consequently, if a person is known to be an absurdist, people would generally think that means someone who lives a life without any meaning. However, this is not true because a life can be lived out rationally or irrationally and be meaningful at the same time because it is a choice. The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, takes place in Algeria in the mid 1940's. Around this time period,
He is unfairly judged by society because he exhibits no emotions of any kind at his mother's funeral. In a community where the principle belief that emotional displays are the necessary and correct response to traumatic events such as in Meursault's case (his mother's death) means that there is a standard that is applied to all people. But because the protagonist is shown to be a rebel he does not obey the expected behavior of mourning that society wants him to show. Society asks “has [Meursault] uttered a word of regret for his most odious crimes? Not one word, gentlemen. Not once in the course of these proceedings did this man show the least contrition (Camus 126).” Meursault finally understands that he is in a paradoxical situation where he is judged for showing the lack of feelings rather than his murdering of the Arab man. In the courtroom, the jury represents society’s ethics in which Meursault is being judge while the spectators in the courtroom represent society who are there to pass views on him. He eventually is put on the death penalty because of his nonconformist attitude. Another example that shows the protagonist to be a social misfit is that Meursault believes all men are equal in a sense that no one can ever escape death even if they were a Christian or not. He explains that “every man alive was privileged; there [are] only one class of men, the privileged class. All alike would be condemn to die one day; his turn, too, would come like the others (Camus 152).” He even goes on to say that Old Salamano’s dog was worth just as much as Old Salamano's wife in view of the fact that like all humans, dogs will eventually die as well. So the life of a human can’t be more special than that of a dog since both organisms are made equal by death. The protagonist is an absolute rebel because he is passive, detached, and emotionless