How Merusault Changes In The Stranger By Camus Essay, Research Paper

The Stranger

Meursault appears to be a typical, middle-class young man. He works as a clerk, rents an apartment, and enjoys women, the sea, the sun, and smoking. He appears normal ? almost boring. His neighbors seem to trust him and approach him for help and advice. However, he lacks any emotion or passion towards anything in his life. Meursault lives life through the sensations of the here and now, describing these in much detail: the sun, sea, and sky; the feel of a crisp towel; the taste of good food, good wine and cigarettes; the feel of cool water on his skin; and making love to pretty girls like Marie. Yet he is incapable of looking beyond the feeling of the moment. He sees one thing just like any other: an experience, an objective fact, and all leading to the same conclusion. To his experiences, he adds no differential value or meaning. This unattached lifestyle is evident in his reactions to his mother?s death and his relationship with Marie.

?Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don?t know?(1). This, the opening line of The Stranger, foreshadows Meursault?s attitude toward everything else in the first half of the book. Instead of being mournful and depressed about the death of his mother, Meursault drinks coffee, smokes, and naps in a relaxed manner during the wake at the seniors? home. Her death had not affected his life, except for momentarily disrupting his everyday routine and causing him physical discomfort. His socially unacceptable indifference to his mother?s death was a major factor in his conviction in the second half of the book.

Meursault?s absurdity is also evident in his relationship with his mistress, Marie. The day after his mother?s funeral, Meursault runs into Marie at the beach, and they end up spending the afternoon swimming together and watching a comedy film, and have sex later that night. However, Meursault always concentrates on the physical aspects of their time together, such as Marie?s hair, laughter, heart beat, and skin; he never seems to feel any of the emotional depth expected in a romance. When Marie asks Meursault to marry her, he responds with simple apathy. He admits that he does not love her and places no value on marriage, but agrees to marry her if it will make her happy. Meursault gives the impression that he is physically attracted to Marie, but not any more so than he would be to any young, attractive girl.

Throughout the first half of the book, Meursault is not portrayed as a bad or evil person, but simply as someone who is profoundly indifferent, unconnected, and detached. He sort of dispassionately goes with the flow; he relates the incidents in his life without affect or vitality ? as just a random string of events. He goes through the motions of a life that society values. His response to life is an absurd, benign indifference.

However, at the end of the first part of the book, Meursault?s life and character change. After getting mixed up in his neighbor?s affairs, Meursault ends up killing an Arab. He says that the shots he fired where like ?knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness?(59). This is where it all started; everything changed and there was no going back. Meursault never denies or tries to justify his murder; he accepts that he should pay the price for his action. He refuses to make life easier for others by lying and saying he was under stress because of his mother?s death. Meursault was condemned to death because he refused to play society?s game, not because he killed the Arab. The game is, of course, the lie of life- the lie that society lives every day. By not simply agreeing, or not acting the way society expected him to, Meursault was seen as a threat to the structure of society, and therefore there was no other option but to rid society of the immediate threat he created.

The biggest difference in Meursault?s life before and after killing the Arab is his imprisonment and loss of freedom. Being denied women, the sun, the beach, and smokes makes Meursault realize that these things had made him happy. He had never considered this before. He begins to remember and reflect on his life. By becoming aware of his past, he realizes his existence and creates an identity for himself. He begins to attach meaning to instances in his life. He realizes that he was happy.

During his stay in prison, as Meursault becomes aware of his existence, he sees how he and everyone else is bound. Camus uses the prison as a metaphor for life – a life from which the only escape is death. Meursault realizes that one?s existence is only clear when it actually ends and that death is certain and inescapable. He is certain that his indifferent interpretation of death is correct. Meursault believes that life does not matter, because, regardless, it leads to death. ?Since we are all going to die, it?s obvious that when and how don?t matter.?(114)

When the prison priest visits for the last time and asks Meursault to repent, we see Meursault show emotion for the first time. He sees that the priest?s beliefs of a ?real? life yet to come are only a way of escaping the reality of existence. If one can believe that he or she is only passing time in this life, and their real life is yet to come, they do not feel imprisoned by death. Religion creates meaning in the priest?s life, but Meursault knows the truth. He is outraged and proclaims that he was absolutely right in the way he lived his life, and that nothing had meant anything anyway. He says that none of the priest?s certainties are ?worth one hair of a woman?s head? (120). Unlike Meursault, the priest is not aware of his existence and this frustrates Meursault. Looking back, Meursault sees that nothing in his life made any difference. He had lived his life and he was free. His life had been lived the way it was, because of choices he had made, but had he lived another life, the end would have been the same. His whole absurd life had no real importance, and he ?opened himself to the gentle indifference of the universe? (122). The realization that the universe is apathetic to his or any man?s life makes Meursault happy. For the first time in months, Meursault sleeps, no longer fearing his looming execution.

As he hears the sirens approaching at dawn, he feels ready to live his life all over again, and understands why his mother wanted to remarry at the end of her life. Meursault realizes that life is devoid of any meaning, and that one must create one?s own meaning in this absurd, meaningless world. He had been happy with his life and was happy once again. He recognizes that although our?s is an absurd existence, it is the only one we?ve got, so it must be embraced. Meursault hopes that huge crowds greet him at his execution with cries of hate, because this would acknowledge his and their own existences. It would give meaning to their lives.

Meursault, an unemotional, moral, sensory-oriented character at the beginning of the book, turns into an emotional, satisfied man that understands the meaninglessness and absurdity of life right before his death at the end of the book. It is ironic that Meursault learns to appreciate his life after his is effectively over.