Meursault Isolation

Meursault is the main character in The Stranger, a book written by Albert Camus in 1942. The story takes place in Algeria where Meursault is bothered by heat and sunlight, symbols that show his misery. Meursault’s greatest antagonist is himself. The Stranger is Meursault, and he suffers isolation from himself and the world. He lives life with detachment and lack of emotion. The author was born in Algeria and grew up in extreme poverty which influenced his writing of The Stranger. The mood of the entire book is dark. This essay of The Stranger is to present arguments why the events and circumstances in the life of Meursault have made him emotionally unstable, indifferent from people, and inhuman.
The story begins with the death of Meursault’s mother. He does not get sad at all at his mother’s funeral, also does not take the time to mourn the death of his mother. This is unheard of to be done. This has people shocked that he does not take the time to mourn his …show more content…
He does not stress over his case at all because he thinks that the jury will think that the shooting was not intentional. The court makes a connection between the feelings he had for his mother and the case. He does not see the connection at anytime. The jury is told that he had went off and had fun with a girl the day after his mother’s death. The jury feels that him showing no emotion of his mother’s death and how he could kill a person is inhuman. From all of this, he is judged guilty of murder and he is sentenced the death penalty. After being given the death sentence, a chaplain comes to his aid, Meursault refuses to see him. Prisoners that are given the death sentence rarely refuse to see a chaplain. The chaplain does not believe it. The chaplain tires to pray for Meursault, and Meursault screams at him. The magistrate thinks that Meursault is an “antichrist” because of how cold of a person he is. This shows what an indifferent person he