Essay about The Anti-Christ in Camus’ The Stranger (The...

The Anti-Christ in The Outsider â€Å"Meursault is punished, not for his crime of killing another human being but for refusing to play the game.† This statement is of great relevance to the novel The Outsider, by Albert Camus. Society as a whole enforces its ideas and values, upon all individuals, but particularly on those who differ from the â€Å"norm†. Through Meursault’s view of the world, contrasted with that of both the religious and judicial system this notion is foregrounded. Meursault’s outlook on death and dying is very different to that of the majority of people at the time. He was unemotional and indifferent to the death of his mother, something that was unfathomable and by no means acceptable. â€Å"†¦I didn’t know if I could†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"She then wanted to know if I loved her. I replied as I had done once already, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t.† Meursault does not take either love, or marriage seriously, because he believes that they do not really matter. Marie’s view, however, is diametrically opposed to that of Meursault, as she, like most of society, believed in the religious and judicial systems. She has faith in love and in all probability some form of God. Basically she conforms to society, she obeys it and â€Å"fits in†. While Meursault is by no means an anarchist, he does what he wants, and feels and expresses these feelings as he wishes. Meursault is not punished for failing to love Marie, but through the issue and discussion of love, the audience is able to grasp how vastly he differs from society, and that is what Meursault is essentially punished for. Meursault’s honesty is another aspect that sets him apart from the rest of society. He is honest about every part of his life. While society does not endorse lying, people instinctively do to avoid being noticed as unusual. Meursault however does not care for societies values and does not adhere to them, for this reason he is honest about everything. â€Å"Then he asked me if he could say the I’d controlled my natural feelings that day. I said, â€Å"No, because it’s not true.’ He looked at me in a peculiar way, as ifShow MoreRelated Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Meursault as Christ663 Words   |  3 PagesMeursault as Christ in The Stranger (The Outsider)nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;In one of his later interviews, Camus made the somewhat irritated comment that Meursault is the â€Å"only Christ we deserve.† While this seem to be a pithy, witty comment, we need to figure out how Meursault is like Christ. Christ taught his disciples and had them go and teach others, yet Meursault has no disciples and chooses to say little. Meursault murders while Christ brings a man back from the dead. Most drastically, Christ †died forRead More Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Finding a Rational God through Nature3501 Words   |  15 PagesFinding a Rational God through Nature in Camus The Stranger (The Outsider)    Turning towards nature for fulfillment, The Stranger’s Meursault rejects the ideology of God as a savior and is consequently juxtaposed against Jesus Christ’s martyrdom, Christianity and the infamous crucifixion. To the inexperienced reader, Meursault appears to be an extreme atheist. Later in Albert Camus’ novel, he is revealed as a humanistic soul that’s in touch with the universality of the earth and soil he treadsRead MoreAbsurdity Between Kafka and Camus4307 Words   |  18 PagesThis paper seeks to compare and contrast the philosophical views of two great philosophers, namely Albert Camus and Franz Kafka. The works involved in this argument are Kafkas The Metamorphosis and Camus The Outsider. The chief concern of both writers is to find a kind of solution to the predicament of modern man and his conflict with machines and scientific theories. Death, freedom, truth and identity are themes to be studies here in the sense of absurdity.    Kafka was born in Prague in 1883.Read More Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Meursault as Metaphysical Rebel1996 Words   |  8 PagesMeursault as Metaphysical Rebel in The Stranger (The Outsider)  Ã‚     Ã‚   The Stranger by Albert Camus was published in 1942. The setting of the novel is Algiers where Camus spent his youth in poverty. In many ways the main character, Meursault, is a typical Algerian youth. Like them, and like Camus himself, Meursault was in love with the sun and the sea. His life is devoted to appreciating physical sensations. He seems so devoid of emotion. Something in Meursaults character has appealed primarilyRead More Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): World Without Purpose1757 Words   |  8 PagesWorld Without Purpose in Camus The Stranger (The Outsider)   In The Stranger, Albert Camus misleadingly portrays his existentialistic views of life, death, and the world.   Camus portrays the world as absurd or without purpose Meaursalt, who, as a reflection of Camus, is foreign and indifferent to his own life and death.   Meaursalt eventually senses guilt for his crime, not because of the remorse of taking someone else’s life, but because it means he would lose the little things that he considersRead MoreA Outsider Of The Stranger By Andre Gide And Albert Camus1850 Words   |  8 Pages Andre Gide and Albert Camus seemingly had much in common. Both were French-speaking Nobel Prize winning writers with deep ties to France’s African territories and strong anti-establishment tendencies who sought to cast off the burdens society foisted upon them. Yet their as best evidenced by their respective best-known texts, Gide’s L Immoraliste (The Immoralist) and Camus’ L’Étranger (The Stranger). While both novels center around aloof young men hostile to the norms that society foists upon them