Strangers

The Stranger is a philosophical novel written by Albert Camus during World War II. Having experienced the horror of war, Camus developed a sense of discontentment and skepticism towards the Western ideological beliefs, both secular and religious. Living in fear of the senseless atrocities, Camus developed his philosophy of the absurd based on the belief that humanity’s effort to search for meaning conflicts with the reality of an irrational universe. The protagonist of The Stranger, Meursault,…

In the novel The Stranger, the author Albert Camus emphasizes the absurdities of life and he does this by striking the audience with Meursault’s blunt nature and his embodiment of existentialism. The novel explores existentialist ideology which represent the philosophy of life essentially being “pointless” .Since the message of existentialism can have a powerful negative connotation it can be surprising to understand how Meursault can be considered anything close to free especially , considering…

4. Setting and Time: The stranger was published in 1942 and takes place in French Algeria in the 1940’s. The french began invading Algeria in the 1830’s and by the 1940’s, Algiers was considered French territory. Because of this, French and Christian customs played a large role in societal expectations and anyone who did not conform to those values, was considered an outsider. Manifested throughout the book, it is seen that the French have a superior mindset over the Arabs. Raymond Sintes…

or worth. One such novel is The Stranger by Albert Camus. The story describes a young man with a rather indifferent view on the world whose life is permanently altered by one rash decision: murder. After impulsively killing a man on a beach, Meursault is put through a series of tedious trials in which his fate is to be settled. The verdict is unfavorable and Meursault is assumingly put to death though the result of his trial is never made clear. Although The Stranger is a text with relatively…

Once again Meursault in The Stranger provides a striking example. On the one hand, there seems to have been no conscious intention behind his action. Indeed the killing takes place almost as if by accident, with Meursault in a kind of absent-minded daze, distracted by the sun. From…

On the Should of a Stranger The sound of my shovel breaking the ground is the only noise that reaches my ears. The warm tears running down my cheeks, the only thing I feel. I slow down my breathing to match the rhythm of the steady chink of my shovel as it enters the dirt, almost reaching a hypnotic state. Anything to keep my mind off what is happening. Chink. An image of me on my knees beside the road flashes before my eyes, and with it comes a searing pain. My shovel misses its mark and…

stereotypes. When Existentialist Albert Camus published The Stranger,it describes not just the principles of this theology, but how society perceives it. Meursault was viewed as unloving towards his girlfriend, cold and heartless when he did not cry in his mother’s funeral and hopeless when he does not believe in God. However, these horrors can be mediated through existentialism through self enlightenment and acceptance. In The Stranger,…

In the genre of philosophical literature, Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger examines the life of an ordinary man, whose actions portray the concept of Absurdism. The main character, Meursault, feels like an observer of the world and lacks purpose and strives toward nothing more than having the freedom of personal choice. His choices define his personality when he is forced to face death and murder, to which he reacts in a way that shows his perception and understanding of human mortality.…

Albert Camus’ The Stranger reflects his existentialist philosophy. The novel follows Meursault’s point of view as he develops his perception of the world throughout the novel. In the first half of the novel, Meursault is purely subjective to the world around him; he is detached and emotionless. However, as the novel progresses, Meursault is faced with death, which evolves him to become introspective. The novel delineates that the turning point of the existential character, Meursault, is his…

The stranger prompt two The second part of “The Stranger”, translated by Albert Camus, reverses the theme presented in the first part of the novel. This switch in the theme from Meursault being the watcher to the watched emphasizes the impact of the title in understand Meursault’s emergence, or lack-thereof, into societal standards. The title of the novel is the first task for the reader; they must try to identify who the stranger is and why the person has been identified as such. Upon reaching…