Outsider Essay
English Essay – Molly Candlish
The purpose of the outsider is to expose the flaws of society. Use social/historical and literary context.
The genre of an Outsider novel is a ‘coming of age’ story which portrays the generic struggles of a protagonist against the social norms and conventions of society. Some people believe that the purpose of ‘The Outsider’ is to expose the flaws of society. However, it can also be considered a novel with many other purposes, such as a Novel of the Absurd that focus’ on the experiences of characters in a situation where they cannot find any inherit purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events. In ‘The Outsider’ Camus creates the character of Meursault as a perfect example of societies tendency to judge and ridicule someone simply because they are not the same as everyone else. The novel ‘Catcher in the Rye’ has the character of Holden as the protagonist, to express the teenage voice of 1950s America, who also breaks away from the conventions of society that America had conformed to.
In a satirical novel, vices, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule with the intent of shaming individuals and society itself into realisation and improvement. At the time ‘The Outsider’ was written, the 1930s’ Algeria had been a French colony for over 100 years. In ‘The Outsider’ Camus exposes the flaws of this society by creating a character that upholds their ideals to an extent that they themselves cannot. Through the use of Meursault’s honest factual, stream of consciousness narration, ‘I hardly ever went to see her anymore…meant giving up my Sunday.’ The reader is made aware that society isn’t used to the social conventions that Meursault lives by through this type of narration, as his honest narration means that a reader can then picture the events in the book in a realistic way, with the fourth wall almost being broken in a way. It is because of this that a reader may be lead to believe that
The purpose of the outsider is to expose the flaws of society. Use social/historical and literary context.
The genre of an Outsider novel is a ‘coming of age’ story which portrays the generic struggles of a protagonist against the social norms and conventions of society. Some people believe that the purpose of ‘The Outsider’ is to expose the flaws of society. However, it can also be considered a novel with many other purposes, such as a Novel of the Absurd that focus’ on the experiences of characters in a situation where they cannot find any inherit purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events. In ‘The Outsider’ Camus creates the character of Meursault as a perfect example of societies tendency to judge and ridicule someone simply because they are not the same as everyone else. The novel ‘Catcher in the Rye’ has the character of Holden as the protagonist, to express the teenage voice of 1950s America, who also breaks away from the conventions of society that America had conformed to.
In a satirical novel, vices, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule with the intent of shaming individuals and society itself into realisation and improvement. At the time ‘The Outsider’ was written, the 1930s’ Algeria had been a French colony for over 100 years. In ‘The Outsider’ Camus exposes the flaws of this society by creating a character that upholds their ideals to an extent that they themselves cannot. Through the use of Meursault’s honest factual, stream of consciousness narration, ‘I hardly ever went to see her anymore…meant giving up my Sunday.’ The reader is made aware that society isn’t used to the social conventions that Meursault lives by through this type of narration, as his honest narration means that a reader can then picture the events in the book in a realistic way, with the fourth wall almost being broken in a way. It is because of this that a reader may be lead to believe that