The Stranger
Throughout the novel The Stranger, the main character Meursault never expresses any real emotions or appears to have any real interest as to what goes on around him. Even such as the death of his own mother did not change his way of living, not even his mood. “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that nothing had really changed” (Camus, pg 18). However when faced with a real danger to his life, a public execution, his views changed drastically. He began to look inward and realize his life has a past present and future, he also begins to hope for a better outcome, that something would go wrong in his execution. This hope tortures him inside as it blinds his from accepting his current situation. The night before he was planned to be killed a Chaplain visits him in his cell. Meursault lashes out at him with all the emotions he has kept bottled up inside, and through this is able to have a major breakthrough, and come to terms with life. At the end of his rant he yelps “this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time in years no more real that the ones I was living”. Realizing that he would never find peace sitting in prison for 20 years, he then began to welcome his execution...
Please join StudyMode to read the full document