The Outsider; ‘the Protagonist of the Novel Is Condemned Because He Is a Stranger to the Society in Which He Lives.’
The Outsider by Albert Camus
‘The protagonist of the novel is condemned because he is a stranger to the society in which he lives.’
The Outsider, by Albert Camus, is a philosophical novel set in the mid 1940’s in the newly colonized country of Algeria. The novels plotline is that of a middle aged French Algerian man, Meursault, whose outlook on life is of an emotionally detached absurdist. Throughout the course of the novel it is understood that this outlandish philosophical view separates Meursault for the rest of the social order and identifies him as a threat to the fundamental ideals and morals of the society in which he lives. Meursault is unable to attach any emotions towards the passing of his mother or his murdering of the Arab. Those in the jury and the prosecutor of his trial perceive Meursault’s emotional detachment from these significant events in his life, as a degrading trait and it is this mannerism that condemns him as a stranger to the society in which he lives.
In the novel, The Outsider, there is one fundamental theme that drives the story: Meursault’s philosophical notion of absurdity. It is this single notion that alienates Meursault and condemns him as a stranger to the society in which he lives. The Urban Dictionary defines absurdity as a condition or state in which humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people’s lives have no purpose or meaning. Meursault can be defined as an ‘absurdist’ through his numerous personal tendencies; his inability to see beyond the bare events, his emotional detachment from significant events in his life and his ideology that all life is meaningless and everyone will inevitably die. In the novel it is understood that society sees the hostility of Meursault’s absurdist values as a threat and as so he is condemned before his trial even begins. From the beginning of the novel Meursault’s character is immediately distinguishable. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I
‘The protagonist of the novel is condemned because he is a stranger to the society in which he lives.’
The Outsider, by Albert Camus, is a philosophical novel set in the mid 1940’s in the newly colonized country of Algeria. The novels plotline is that of a middle aged French Algerian man, Meursault, whose outlook on life is of an emotionally detached absurdist. Throughout the course of the novel it is understood that this outlandish philosophical view separates Meursault for the rest of the social order and identifies him as a threat to the fundamental ideals and morals of the society in which he lives. Meursault is unable to attach any emotions towards the passing of his mother or his murdering of the Arab. Those in the jury and the prosecutor of his trial perceive Meursault’s emotional detachment from these significant events in his life, as a degrading trait and it is this mannerism that condemns him as a stranger to the society in which he lives.
In the novel, The Outsider, there is one fundamental theme that drives the story: Meursault’s philosophical notion of absurdity. It is this single notion that alienates Meursault and condemns him as a stranger to the society in which he lives. The Urban Dictionary defines absurdity as a condition or state in which humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people’s lives have no purpose or meaning. Meursault can be defined as an ‘absurdist’ through his numerous personal tendencies; his inability to see beyond the bare events, his emotional detachment from significant events in his life and his ideology that all life is meaningless and everyone will inevitably die. In the novel it is understood that society sees the hostility of Meursault’s absurdist values as a threat and as so he is condemned before his trial even begins. From the beginning of the novel Meursault’s character is immediately distinguishable. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I