“The Stranger” – Albert Camus

The author of "The Stranger" Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French author, journalist, and philosopher who have also won a Nobel Prize in Literature.

This book of his is based on the life of Meursault. Meursault being the protagonist narrates the ups and downs of his life. This story is basically a thriller that shows us the lack of emotion in Meursault's personality which in the end leads to ruin his life. The main characters in this book are Meursault and his mother, his girlfriend Marie Cardona, his neighbor Raymond Sintes, Thomas Perez and The Chaplain.The story starts with the death of Meursault's mother and her funeral in which Meursault shows no affection at all towards his mother. Marie is immensely in love with Meursault and wants to marry him, she then asks him to marry her and he first replies by saying "it didn't mean anything" and then says yes as though it makes no difference to him if he is married or not.

His emotionless character later takes him to a point at which everyone thinks that he is an antichrist and he is thus visited by the priest to try to increase his belief and faith in God. The pope then talks to him about his disbelief in God and he for the first time truly embraces the idea that human existence holds no greater meaning. He abandons all hope for the future and accepts the "gentle indifference of the world." This acceptance makes him feel happy.This story can be easily related to the book 1984 by George Orwell as in 1984 Big Brother tries to control everyone's thoughts and essentially turns them into his slaves.

It doesn't matter to the Big Brother if the people of Oceana live or die. This makes their life have no meaning just like in "the stranger" Meursault thinks that the human existence has no meaning. Secondly, the proles in "1984" are so oppressed by the ministries that they have no feelings or emotions left in them. They are bound to believe what the government tells them and are happy with what the government provides them. On the other hand, Meursault lacks emotion and is basically living like a rock with no feelings. In the book, he also killed a man for no reason and just for the hell of it.

This show that he does not value the importance of life and goes about killing people for no apparent reason. The people in 1984 get married only for reproduction and have no affection towards their partner just like in "the stranger" where Meursault marries Marie just for the heck of it even though he is not attracted to her.Meursault - He is the protagonist and narrator of "The Stranger", to which the title of the novel refers. Meursault can be called as a detached figure who tries to view and describe mostly everything that takes place around him from a rather removed position. His mother and his lover, Marie can easily manipulate him and gets the feeling of him being emotionally indifferent to others including them. "Maman died today.

Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.

" That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday" (Camus 1). Meursault clearly shows his ignorance towards his mother by not remembering the number of days it's been since his mother's death. Through this quote we can clearly see Meursault's absurdist outlook on life and detachment to people, and his passive but quiet alienation from the rest of society.He strongly denies following the moral order of his society which is accepted by everyone. Meursault is put onto trial for stabbing and ruthlessly murdering an Arab man without any reason.

However, the focus of Meursault's murder trial is soon diverged from the murder to his own attitude, personality, values and beliefs. Being an atheist and showing or having no emotion at his mother's funeral challenges the moral of the society in which Meursault's currently living. Therefore, making the society to brand him as an outsider and treat him differently from others too. The ridiculousness of the trial and his reaction to it allows him to finally transcend its symbolic imprisonment and free himself for a life beyond what society could offer him.Marie Cardona - Marie is Meursault's former co-worker and begins to have an affair with him the next day after him mother's death. Marie has the typical characteristics of a young and high spirited person, thus making her gain interest in outdoor activities like tennis and swimming.

Meursault is not at all attracted to Marie and is only marrying her because of her physical beauty. Nevertheless Marie is attracted to Meursault and his peculiarities even though she does not fairly seem to understand him natures. Marie and Meursault share a relationship similar to the relationship of Winston and Julia, two main characters from the book "1984". Both their thoughts and views don't match and none of them are truly affectionate about their partner. Meursault tries to get rid of Maria by expressing his indifference and his hatred towards their marriage.

In spite of all these difficulties Maria still wants to marry him and be his wife. She is attracted towards him to such an extent that she even tries to help and support him during his arrest and trail.Raymond Sintes - He is basically Meursault's neighbor and plays a role of a pimp in the book. After suspecting that his wife had possibly cheated on him, Raymond becomes really angry and depressed, and finally decides to punish her for her felony.

In order to do so he enlists and asks for Meursault's help. Raymond tries to act with emotion and initiative in distinction to Meursault's calm disconnection. Raymond is mostly hyperactive and turns violent for any small mistake. Because of his violent personality he beats his wife and the two Arabs who were present on the beach.

One of these Arabs was his mistress's brother. Meursault can be easily convinced by anyone and Raymond thus tries to use him by convincing him to help Raymond in all his plans. However, Raymond did help save Meursault life by helping him with his testimony during Meursault's case which gives the idea that Raymond holds at least some capability of being loyal and that he is not totally cruel or mean.Meursault's Mother - The novel begins with the death of Meursault's mother which in turn brings the action to the novel.

Meursault had sent her mother to and old age home three years ago and had never seen her after that until her funeral. Meursault identifies with his mother and believes that she shared many of his attitudes about life, including a love of nature and the capacity to become accustomed to virtually any situation or occurrence. Not to forget, Meursault also talks about how his mother, towards the conclusion of her sacred life, clinched a meaningless universe and had just lived for the absolute moment, just the way he lives his life. A normal person, after this heartbreaking incident, would usually express his grief towards his mother's death but Meursault showed absolutely no sorrow at all and instead started to have an affair with Marie after the day of his mother's funeral.

The Chaplain - The part that I find ironic about this book is that the characterization of this novel is so good that the characters are presented in such a way that it matches the theme of the novel and affect the structure of the novel immensely. For example, the chaplain who is a priest that attends to all the religious needs of condemned men acts like a catalyst increase Meursault's psychological and philosophical progress. Meursault clearly does not like the presence of the chaplain and constantly refuses to meet with him even though he is found guilty of the murder and is sentenced to death. In spite of Meursault's denial, the chaplain meets him anyways, and tries to increase his belief and faith in God.

Meursault is stubborn which is clearly visible in his atheist views which indeed are a threat to the chaplain. After a long argument, Meursault eventually becomes furious and frustrated which leads him to declare that life is meaningless and that all men are bound and made to die. Meursault then prompts his final acceptance of the meaninglessness of the universe because of this argument.Most people tend to believe that life is meaningless and that there is no point in living and trying hard in life because everyone is bound to die. In their opinion, they are right. But I think that life can be fun if you want it to be fun.

Just like in the book "1984" where the people of Oceana are extremely oppressed with the government that they see no point in life and don't want to stand up and rebel against it which in turn causes them to have no fun in life and be slaves for the rest of their life. Whereas Julia knows that she is going to be caught by the cops some day but yet she has fun and enjoys her life till the time she is caught. Similarly in the book "the stranger" Meursault has totally given up on his life and thus sees no point in living. This causes him to not see the value and worth of someone else's life which leads him into killing other people for no apparent reason.

Marie tries to enlighten Meursault but this does not change his views and morals. "She said, "If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church." She was right.

There was no way out" (Camus 27). This was said by the nurse who was treating him for the cold and she tried to state that there is no way possible to get away from a cold but Meursault thinks of it in another way, he thinks how there is no way to escape death and that death is inescapable. He strongly believes that nothing should be done about it and the fact should just be accepted and also we should wait for death instead enjoying our life till the time of death.A quote from the book "the myth of Sisyphus" can also be related to the big question in "the stranger" which is whether life is worth living or not.

"There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in the philosophy. All other questions follow from that." (Camus, the myth of Sisyphus). Thinking and examining the events that happen in our lives and all around us is really important in life.

Doing so give's purpose to our meaningless lives because ultimately, death is the final stage of life that is not to be feared. If a person does not think and examine events in his life then his life is surely meaningless just like the lives of Meursault in "the stranger" and the life of Winston Smith and all the other proles from the book "1984".