The Stranger - 3094 Words

Finding Joy in Albert Camus’ The Stranger: A Different Perspective Existentialism is often defined as a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes a few main points, such as the freedom to choose and how the choices you make should be made without the assistance of another person or standard. From the existentialist point of view, you must accept the risk and responsibility of your choices and follow the act and result to wherever it takes the individual. Someone that is put in a certain situation understands it far more than someone looking in on that same situation; one commonly used situation that appears often in existentialist works is†¦show more content†¦As he says: â€Å"I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world,† we can see the blending of reflection and triviality within himself, and therefore a sense of passion, in a more unconventional sens e, but passion nonetheless. The fifth theme involving existentialism within Camus’ novel is individuality. An individual is a single unique member of a collectivity. Meursault lives out his individuality. The strongest display of individuality is at the end of the novel when Meursault wants a large crowd of people to witness his death, and he also wants them to greet him with cries, but those of hate. I had only wished that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate. By being hated Meursault preserves his individuality. If Meursault goes out there begging for forgiveness he would just become a member of a collective group. The final theme is reflection. It refers to the capacity to bring that which we are unaware of into awareness. Meursault leads a pre-reflective life. This means that he goes through his daily events and is so absorbed in each moment that he never reflects on them. Meursault does this until he looks at a reflection of himself for the first time in prison. Meursault looking at himself shows his transition from pre-reflective to reflective. â€Å"And, aShow MoreRelatedThe Stranger1548 Words   |  7 PagesAlbert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that are considered rude and unpleasant, but because it has become common, society accepts it as norms. Camus incorporates atrocious personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate through the creation of the characters. Camus demonstrates the disregarded reason behindRead MoreStranger2325 Words   |  10 PagesDiscussion Questions for The Stranger (1946); translated by Matthew Ward, 1988. Part One Chapter 1. 1. How does Camus set up Meursaults personality -- how does Meursault respond to others conversation, to ordinary social situations, and to the death of his mother? 2. On page 10, Meursault says that at the viewing of his mother, he felt as if the elderly people there were judging him. Offer a conjecture about why he might have had that feeling. (It is worth paying attention to such references toRead MoreThe Stranger Essay1048 Words   |  5 PagesAlbert Camus influential novel, The Stranger, a great work of existentialism, examines the absurdity of life and indifference of the world. This paper provides a summary of the novel, and outlines some of the novels main themes. The novels protagoinist, Meursault, is a distanced and indifferent young man. He does not believe in God, and lives his life with seemingly sensuous abandon. After Meursault is caught up in the life of a local pimp, he rather inexplicably murders a young man on theRead More The Stranger Essay879 Words   |  4 PagesThe Stranger The Stranger exhibits a society that has confined itself with a specific set of social standards that dictate the manner in which people are supposed to act. This ideology determines the level of morality, and how much emphasis should placed on following this certain ethical structure. Albert Camuss main character, Meursault, is depicted as a nonconformist that is unwilling to play societys game. Through Meursaults failure to comply with societys values and conform toRead MoreMetamorphosis And The Stranger1288 Words   |  6 Pagesexistence. The Metamorphosis, written by Kafka in 1915, follows a traveling salesman who struggles with his purpose in life. Similar to that story, Camus’s The Stranger, published in 1942, details the unnecessary undoing of an Algerian man who follows his own morals, not society’s morals. Within Kafka s The Metamorphosis and Camus s The Stranger, the characters isolation in society, illogical thoughts without real reasoning, and freedom to choose reflect the concept of Existentialism by illustratingRead MoreExistentialism In The Stranger1413 Words   |  6 PagesThe novel, The Stranger, written by French author Albert Camus, is a philosophical fiction piece published in 1942. This book used both Existentialism and Absurdism to promote Meursault s problem throughout the book. Both of these are related to Modernism, which was the aftermath of the industrial revolution. â€Å"Modernism is a phil osophical movement that along with cultural trends and changes arose wide-scale and far reaching transformations in western society during the late 19th and early 20th century†(KoofersRead MoreEssay The Stranger754 Words   |  4 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Albert Camus’ The Stranger, is told by narrarator, Meursault . Our speaker seems to be a person detached from feelings, he shows no emotion. Neither the external world in which Meursault lives nor the internal world of his thoughts and attitudes possesses any rational order. He doesn’t have reasons for doing half of the things he does. For these reasons I believe Meursault is determined, but doesn’t know it. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Our protagonist and narraratorRead More The Stranger Essay962 Words   |  4 PagesThe Stranger The Stranger was originally written in French. When Stuart Gilbert translated the novel, he came across a small problem. â€Å"The title of Camus’ classic novel is difficult to render into English because the French word bears the connotations of both ‘stranger’ and ‘foreigner’ at the same time, and each of these concepts is at play in the novel.† (Mairowitz1) Finding the right translation was crucial because the title is symbolic. â€Å"The Stranger symbolizes the theme of theRead More The Stranger Essay1496 Words   |  6 PagesAlbert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and every one’s fate. Camus demonstrates the disregarded reason behind the origins of relationships betweenRead MoreThe Stranger Essay963 Words   |  4 PagesThe Stranger Chris Drusbosky 3/5/12 Professor Krauss In the story â€Å"The Stranger† by Albert Camus, the belief that the themes of loss and retrieval are at the core of Mersault’s mythology, and that they illumine the notion of exile to which he returns so often is widely discussed. I however do not believe that either one of those themes has anything to do with the Mersault and the exile to which he returns to so often, rather I believe that Mersault’s own attitude is the reason for the exile