The Stranger

In-Depth Analysis of Meursault

In The Stranger, Albert Camus created a character named Meursault to show us how important it is to start thinking and examine the events that happen in our lives. Doing so give's purpose to our meaningless lives because ultimately, death is the final stage of life, which is not to be feared.

In The Stranger, Meursault is emotionally indifferent to others, including his mother and his lover, Marie. He does not show passion for anything and shows no passion. After Meursault kills a man for no apparent reason, he is put on trial. It is during his trial and jail time that Meursault's thoughts shift away from the murder itself to his attitudes and beliefs. While in jail, Meursault is able to break through his indifference and make sense out of his life. When he becomes aware that his life will end soon, that is when he truly understands the meaning of life. Even though life is meaningless, we still need to make the best out of what we've got.

Meursault starts off at the beginning of the story by showing the reader how absurd he is. He does not seem to care about anything in his life nor does he know anything about his own mother. "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." (3) It is strange to see a man who does not even care when his mom died. Meursualt continues to show us how indifferent he is. He has no real thoughts, no real care about anything he does in life. Even when he meets a girl, Marie, he still does not know how to love her or what love even means. He does not understand the whole concept of having choices and deciding which one's he wants. ..".Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to."(41)

As the story slowly progress, Meursault also moves forward towards what the meaning of his life is. When Meursault takes Marie to the beach with Raymond, we start to see a glimpse of what Meursault wants. He started observing another couple on the beach, which made him want to have a relationship like theirs. "For the first time maybe, I really thought I was going to get married... Together again, Marie and I swam out ways, and we felt a closeness as we moved in unison and were happy."(50) For the first time, he started to show what he wanted and was looking forward to something different. He was looking forward to a relationship that will change his life. Meursault is slowly removing the indifference that he feels about his life.

While Meursault is still at the beach, he decides to take a walk down to the shores and finds the Arab that Raymond had had a confrontation with earlier. With no apparent reason, Meursault pulls out a gun and shoots five shots at the Arab, killing him instantly. In that moment, Meursault knew that this was going to be the start of a change in his life. He knew that this was going to be the moment where things in life are no longer simple and that he will have to try and figure out how to deal with all this change. "I fired four more times at the motionless body... And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness."(59)

Meursault is then put into prison and a court trial is on its way to convict him. At first, Meursault does not seem very happy about being in jail. As time moves on though, Meursault has accepted that his home is now the jail. ..".I felt that I was at a home in my cell and that my life was coming to a standstill there."(72)