Preview

The Meaning Of Freewill In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
341 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Meaning Of Freewill In The Stranger, By Albert Camus
Within “The Stranger,” Albert Camus utilizes Meursault to illustrate the meaning of freewill; however, rather than just narrate a story Camus had Meursault constantly dissect his own actions and desires. Thus, by doing so the reader was truly able to envision Camus’ existentialistic message. Meursault is a rather troubled individual. He struggles to fit in, because he is so alienated from the rest of society. He views the world in a rather pessimistic way, because he does not see any meaning in life. Camus uses Meursault to demonstrate that there is only one thing guaranteed in life, and that is death; how you get to that point may differ, but the end result is all the same. Because, of Meursault’s mentality he does not believe in free
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Stranger By Albert Camus: A Cultural Analysis
    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stranger By Albert Camus: A Cultural Analysis

    Most people when trying to understand why things happen, ask the question: why? And most of time the answer to this question never ceases to include an individual's viewpoints, beliefs and feelings. For it is these very things that shape how others see the world. He lives an emotionless, removed man in a world filled of people who value the very things he deems unimportant. The culture of people around him, are ones who need explanations for why things happen or why things don’t happen. However, the main character of Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Monsieur Meursault sees no purpose in the…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Close Reading: The Stranger By Albert Camus
    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Close Reading: The Stranger By Albert Camus

    The opening of “The Stranger” Meursault is informed of his mother’s death. Meursault tells us: “I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn't mean anything.” (page 3); a very strong statement to set the mood of this chapter. When he finished reading the telegram his first thought is: “That doesn't mean anything.” this can give the reader the idea that Meursault is disconnected, cold, and perhaps that he may have never been very close to his mother. Throughout the first chapter Meursault appears cold, and disconnected, perhaps because of his neutrality in his approach to his mother’s death. Another good example of this disconnection that Camus establishes is when Meursault's boss is displeased with him for taking time off “I even said “It's not my fault.” He didn't say anything. Then I thought I shouldn't have said that. After all, I didn't have anything to apologize for." (p.3)…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Meursault: An Absurd Hero
    • 248 Words
    • 1 Page

    Meursault: An Absurd Hero

    Meursault is sentenced to death by guillotine. He awaits everyday waiting for the footsteps of the men to come and execute him. During this time Meursault has done much thinking and begins to think to himself that death is inevitable. This realization of death’s inevitability constitutes Meursault’s triumph over society. Expressing remorse over his crime would implicitly acknowledge the murder as wrong, and Meursault’s punishment as justified. The chaplain tries to come to him and speak to him about God, but he still is unwillingly to accept that there is a God.…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Meursault's Criticism In Albert Camus The Absur
    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Meursault's Criticism In Albert Camus The Absur

    consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate." (Camus 122-3). He felt as if he was ready to live again just like Maman before she had passed away. Meursault is an absurd hero at the end because he accepted death, passing the Absurd Walls and into the absurd freedom, where one can experience life to the fullest.…

    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Stranger By Albert Camus: An Analysis
    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stranger By Albert Camus: An Analysis

    In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the protagonist Meursault is a man who is indifferent to major events in his life which would deserve a "proper" reaction according to society. Also, the decisions he makes in his life are done carelessly and without a second thought about whether what he is doing is good or bad. As a result, Meursault is a stranger to society because of how differently his view on life is based on how he approaches certain aspects of life. Eventually, death is what connects Meursault to the society he was estranged from.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Stranger, By Albert Camus
    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Symbolism In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

    In Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger, Camus shows his inherent absurdist perspective of life through commentary and actions Meursault displays as a result of symbolic use through the heat, sun, and dreams. These symbols dominate Meursaults consciousness controlling him through torment from the inescapable presence the sun and heat governs, causing him to act in ways deemed iniquitous to society. Each symbol opposes its usual description of warmth, comfort, or beauty and instead reflects upon Meursaults awareness of the sensate world to avoid the emotional and social constructs that present him.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Albert Camus Character Analysis
    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Albert Camus Character Analysis

    Many people in society can be considered by outsiders by society. These sorts of characters, along with being found in modern day society, are also found in all forms of media such as Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, Colonel Aureliano Buendia from One Hundred Years of Solitude, and even Doctor Gregory House from acclaimed television series House. These characters provide us with a fascinating viewpoint on how they view society and how they are able to interact with society as a result of this isolation and ostracism from society. Arguably one of the greatest examples of this isolated character challenged by society’s very moral center is the character of Meursault of Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Camus throughout The Stranger…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Keating and Meursault Essay
    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Keating and Meursault Essay

    Both Keating and Meursault distinguish themselves from the masses that seek to chain their spirit. Meursault is an outsider who feels very removed from his surroundings. His reactions are very different from the conventional norms and society judges him negatively. The prosecutor describes him as a man “whose heart is so empty that it forms a chasm which threatens to engulf society” (The Outsider, 98). Meursault shows no emotion at his mother’s funeral. He is indifferent to the idea of marriage to Marie, to the possibility of a job position in Paris, as well as to his verdict of the death penalty. Meursault is judged to be an anti-Christ because he chooses not to believe in God. He refuses to lie or pretend to be something that he is not, simply to please others and to conform.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Albert Camus Meaning
    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Albert Camus Meaning

    From these choices society begins to judge the person, creating a mindset of that person with only half the information. All this does is make a close-minded world in where people are forced to think the same way, this was a world Camus despised. To counter society’s ideals Camus wrote about multiple outlooks within realistic characters throughout the book. The main character Camus uses to express his hatred for a robotic society is Meursault. Many label Meursault as absurdist, or someone who believes the world to be irrational, meaningless and that conquest for order just brings pain, and his reasoning can be found within the first few lines of the book, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything (Camus 3).” This quote isn’t the only quote throughout the book that would label Meursault as an absurdist, in part two chapter five Meursault goes into an absurdist rant that is both passionate and disconnected, leading us to believe not only the beginning explanation of an absurdist holds true to Meursault but the second part as well. Camus captures the acceptance of this absurdist state through many of Meursault’s acquaintances. One is Celeste, Meursault says of him, “He was asked...if he had noticed that I was ever withdrawn, and all he would admit was that I didn’t speak unless I had…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Disquietude In The Stranger
    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Disquietude In The Stranger

    While readers hope for Meursault to act, when he finally does, it is in a gruesome juxtaposition to the death Meursault would not face to the one he inflicts. In the beginning of the novel when asked if he wants to observe Maman's body, he refuses. But now, as his “eyes [are] blinded behind the curtain of tears and salt… he fired four more times at the motionless body…”(59). Readers hope this act, one of his only acts, might shake him. But once again the indifference and even the selfishness of him “knowing that [he] had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where he’d been happy” (59), causes a sense of uncomfortable regret for Meursault that he is not able to feel himself. It could be said in some way that Camus wanted to make the reader a mirror for what society expected Meursault to feel, but…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "Meursault: Change in Character"
    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages

    "Meursault: Change in Character"

    During the first portion of the book Meursault comes across as someone who does not care about anyone or anything. On the very first page when he is talking about his mother’s death, Camus shows that Meursault does not care in these three sentences, “Maman died today. Or yesterday. I don’t know” (3). Nathan A. Scott makes the remark about this portion of the book, "the lifeless monotone of the speaker [Meursault] intimates that the issue is of no consequence to him" (34). Saying that Meursault’s monotone voice gives the impression he has no emotion towards his mother’s death, and that he feels no sorrow about it. In the first three sentences of the book, it shows Meursault as an uncaring person. Later once again Meursault’s heartless attitude is shown. While Meursault talks about his relationship between himself and Marie, he says, “She [Marie] asked me if I loved her. I told her it did not mean anything but that I did not think so” (Camus 35). In the time he is with Marie, it seems as if he cares about someone until this line of the book he shows that he does not care.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Stranger
    • 2332 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Stranger

    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?…

    • 2332 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Meursault's Exile
    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Meursault's Exile

    In part II of the novel, Meursault, is thinking about his situation and decide that it is time to for once attempt to understand his actuality and what it truly stands for. As Meursault is isolated in this jail cell, he has no choice but to reflect on his past and actions and it seem like the only fair-minded thing for him to do at the moment. In this dark time, Meursault’s eyes began to see. Meursault most certainly does suffer thinking about his execution that is to come, and because of his situation he began to think about his real purpose in society and his place in the world. As very much unwanted, Meursault, had to have his showdown with death and this was the thing that caused him to open his arms to the world. Meursault came to a conclusion that the only way that he can make these last moments of his life happy instead of dreadful, was to to maintain and stick to his beliefs. All throughout his life he was unable to find anything worth making an effort for until this moment. It was different for him because he has finally come to realization of how beautiful life can be if you let it take its natural course. Meursault miraculously used his death sentence as a way to redeem himself and his life. At the end of the novel when he was alone was when his eyes had opened up. His deep…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Post-Fishbowl Reflection
    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Post-Fishbowl Reflection

    I found last class’ fishbowl discussion to be quite helpful, besides one improvement I might add. To have looked a layer deeper into the meaning of Meursault’s epiphany near the end of the novel would have helped us all grasp what Camus’ interpretation is trying to emphasize. After his frustrating meeting with the chaplain, Meursault comes to an important realization. He ponders what the point of life is, and more closely, death. I believe that Monsieur Anti-Christ was in full control of his emotion, including at the time of his death. At this point, Meursault realizes that everyone must die, whether it is when you are twenty, or eighty-five years old, it makes no difference except one. I believe that Monsieur Meursault finds it better to die actively loving life, than to die slowly, aged and listless. This was the only way he was able to accept death.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Stranger Essay
    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stranger Essay

    Another way to look at it is that, throughout the book, Meursault would express his hatred for humanity’s culture of mourning and think of it as crazy. He is adverse towards people who torture themselves over someone else’s death.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More