Term paper on Albert Camus The Stranger Meursault Is Aloof Detached And Unemotional

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Albert Camus' The Stranger: Meursault Is Aloof, Detached, and Unemotional



In The Stranger, Albert Camus portrays Meursault, the book's narrator

and main character, as aloof, detached, and unemotional. He does not think

much about events or their consequences, nor does he express much feeling in

relationships or during emotional times. He displays an impassiveness

throughout the book in his reactions to the people and events described in the

book. After his mother's death he sheds no tears; seems to show no emotions.

He displays limited feelings for his girlfriend, Marie Cardona, and shows no

remorse at all for killing an Arab. His reactions to life and to people

distances him from his emotions, positive or negative, and from intimate

relationships with others, thus he is called by the book's title, "the

stranger". While this behavior can be seen as a negative trait, there is a

young woman who seems to want to have a relationship with Meursault and a

neighbor who wants friendship. He seems content to be indifferent, possibly

protected from pain by his indifference.

Meursault rarely shows any feeling when in situations which would, for

most people, elicit strong emotions. Throughout the vigil, watching over his

mother's dead body, and at her funeral, he never cries. He is, further,

depicted enjoying a cup of coffee with milk during the vigil, and having a

smoke with a caretaker at the nursing home in which his mother died. The

following day, after his mother's funeral, he goes to the beach and meets a

former colleague named Marie Cardona. They swim, go to a movie, and then spend

the night together. Later in their relationship, Marie asks Meursault if he

wants to marry her. He responds that it doesn't matter to him, and if she

wants to get married, he would agree. She then asks him if he loves her. To

that question he responds that he probably doesn't, and explains that marriage

really isn't such a serious thing and doesn't require love. This reaction is

fairly typical of Meursault as portrayed in the book. He appears to be casual

and indifferent about life events. Nothing seems to be very significant to him.

Later on in the book, after he kills an Arab, not once does he show any

remorse or guilt for what he did. Did he really feel nothing? Camus seems to

indicate that Meursault is almost oblivious and totally unruffled and untouched

by events and people around him. He is unwilling to...

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