Camus' Absurdity of Death.

Curtis Braught English A1 HL Would Literature Word Count 951 Camus' Absurdity of Death Key Passage Detailed Study (2c) Albert Camus was one of many philosophers that furthered the recognition of the absurdity of human existence. Camus used many essays, articles and novels to explain existentialism and his ideas on the reason for humans' existence. One of the novels Camus used to portray the idea of existentialism was The Stranger. In The Stranger many different topics can be discussed about. But there is one topic that is discussed the most. The topic that is talked about the most is that of the absurdity of the existence of human beings. Meursault, the main character in The Stranger, is talking to the nurse and she gives an explanation about the suns affects on human beings: "She says, 'If you go to slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go to fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.' She was right. There was no way out." (Camus. 17) One of the beliefs that the existentialist holds is that life is absurd. When the World is broken down and simplified, the human being is a stranger, who lives without any meaning. The human has been placed in this hopeless and vacant stage. The absurdity of living without a purpose or salvation from the external world is through the eyes of an existentialist the key problem to the essence of

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  • Level: GCSE
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People's perception of the protagonists as being indifferent in "The Metamorphosis" by Kafka and "The Outsider" by Camus is what makes Gregor and Meursault heroic. Discuss.

People's perception of the protagonists as being indifferent in The Metamorphosis and The Outsider is what makes Gregor and Meursault heroic. A definition of a hero is "a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who [risks] or [sacrifice their] life.1" Both Gregor and Meursault fit under the category of heroes because of their characteristics and actions. Franz Kafka and Albert Camus fundamentally use the perceived indifference of the protagonists as a method to make them powerful and provocative. It is often easy to misinterpret the heroic qualities of the protagonist as indifference. Being indifferent is when individuals feel that things does not matter one way or another2 or "having no particular interest or concern3." The idea that the protagonists are indifferent is through our eyes and standards. We have our own perceptions of how people should react to particular situations, and when the criteria are not met, we judge the person to be an outcast. However, from the characters' viewpoint, their behavior is considered normal. The protagonists have disparate principles than differ from ours, which makes it hard for us to understand them. Through our judgment of Meursault and Gregor as being indifferent, we are able to learn of their strengths. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor is the hero who undergoes death twice. The first death is

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Existentialism and Nature.

Ian Clubb Yr. 12 Existentialism and Nature 'The Outsider' or 'L'Etranger' was written by the French author Albert Camus and was published in 1942. Albert Camus lived in Algeria, where the location of his story is set. Camus believed in existentialism, a belief that life had no meaning and there was no existence of an afterlife. The protagonist in the Outsider is Meursault, who Camus uses to portray existentialist beliefs. Meursault was a working class man living in Algeria. During that period racial and religious discrimination was a common occurrence. Meursault eventually kills an Arab man during his vacation by the beach, not a particularly heinous crime at that time if you are white and a Christian. However, Meursault gives his motive for the murder as the power of the sun. His attorney and the police offer him a chance to get away with the crime by manipulating the truth and repenting his acts. Being an existentialist and with strong individual moral beliefs he chooses not to repent or lie and takes the full punishment. Throughout the book Meursault responds to nature as if he himself is part of it. At crucial moments in the novel, such as the murder of the Arab, natural imagery is used to reinforce Meursault's personality. (quote) The Outsider begins with the death of Meursault's mother; this is the first sign that Meursault does not fit into society, as an

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The Outsider is a critique to society through the eyes of a person immune to its disapproval. Discuss.

The Outsider is a critique to society through the eyes of a person immune to its disapproval. Discuss. The Outsider, by Albert Camus, shows the reader how the world is seen by a pure existentialist, a person that can only be sure of his own existence and that, in this case, doesn't have any belief for moral concepts. Meursault, the main character in the novel, is totally honest about his feelings and only believes in what he can actually see and touch. So for a person like this, faith is impossible. Due to Meursault being an existentialist, in certain situations that involve moral concepts and societal conventions, he is seen as an 'outsider', because he doesn't react the way one is expected to react in a modern society. His lack of feelings, belief in moral concepts and being indifferent to society later leads him to problems and eventually death. It is discussable, that Camus uses this book to criticize modern society. The society in the novel is the same we have today, so there are certain actions that we expect every person to do in specific situations. But if a person doesn't do the expected action during the appropriate situation, that person is seen as an 'outsider'. In the beginning of the novel, when Meursault finds out about his mothers death and goes to visit her corpse, we have the first example of a situation like this. "I offered the caretaker a cigarette and

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The Absurd Morality of Death

The Absurd Morality of Death Introduction In The Outsider by Albert Camus, death can clearly be seen as a significant image - there being six deaths mentioned in total. In Part One we are shown the natural death of Meursault's mother and Meursault's murder of the Arab, and in Part Two we are presented with the parricide of a brother/son and the subsequent suicide of the perpetrators, another parricide that is to be tried after Meursault's case and the death penalty pronounced on Meursault. Through these depictions of various deaths, Camus shows clearly the conflicting and often arbitrary treatment of death within society, a treatment that reveals a confusion between the motives behind acts and the subsequent response to the completed acts, which ultimately reflects the nature of the absurd prevalent in the novel. Section One: deaths directly linked to Meursault Mrs Meursault's Funeral Death, as an important image, is established in the very first sentence of the book, "Mother died today."1 The simplicity and directness of this statement is shocking for the reader, and leads us to try to understand what sort of man Meursault is - a task that we discover later has been laid as a trap for us. However, even though this first sentence is simple and direct, it is confused in the very next sentence, "Or maybe yesterday, I don't know."2 This confusion over the time of the death

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The Outsider

The Outsider "A world that can be explained even with bad reason is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and light, man feels alien, a stranger [...]This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity." (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus) Along with the birth of mankind came religion, and with religion came the tendency to invest life with meaning and a sense of order. Since life in it self has close to no impact on the world, people feel the need to give their life a meaning or a purpose, and believe all happens for a reason. Meursault is truly an outsider since he doesn't feel a need to do this. From the very start of the novel we understand that Meursault isn't like others. The way he responds to the death of his mother is by the world questioned, and suggests that Meuraults views on life are quite different from the rest of the world. When confronted by Salamoano on how the local people "thought badly" (p. 48) of him for sending his "mother to a home" (p. 48), and may have believed that it was a result of Meursault not loving his mother. Meursault was shocked and said he "hadn't realized" (p. 48) that people had thought badly of him for doing as he did, it was the natural thing for him to do. Even though he does care for and love his mother in the sense the other people in the

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The Language of Prosecution in Albert Camus's 'The Outsider'

World Literature Essay 2 The Language of Prosecution in Albert Camus's 'The Outsider' Meursault is brought to the Algerian court a murderer. The public prosecutor and his own defense lawyer, who has been appointed to him by the state of Algeria, are brought in front of a public jury and three judges to determine whether Meursault shall be convicted of this crime with or without mitigating circumstances. When the prosecution is able to convince the jury that the murder was premeditated, Meursault is sentenced to a public decapitation. This sentence is largely due to the incompetence of Meursault's own defense lawyer as well as the cunning use of language and subtle comprehension of public sentiment which faces Meursault in the form of the court's public prosecutor. This essay will attempt to examine the prosecution's effective use and understanding of the language of the Algerian courtroom. This essay will also explore the impact of this use of language on Camus's message and protagonist. The defense and prosecution attempt to use an intricacy of courtroom babble in the cross-examination of their witnesses. The first witnesses subject to this are Thomas Perez, the warden and the caretaker from Meursault's mother's home for seniors. These men can only base their accounts on the one day they encountered Meursault, the day of his mother's funeral. These witnesses, called by

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EXISTENTIALISM IN THE OUTSIDER

Camus' exploration of existentialism through Mersault's views and thoughts on life and death, throughout 'The Outsider' The Outsider, written by Albert Camus, revolves around a protagonist - Mersault. The major theme the book explores is existentialism. 'Existentialism is a philosophical movement that views human existence as having a set of underlying themes and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, and awareness of death. It is also an outlook, or a perspective, on life that pursues the question of the meaning of life or the meaning of existence.' There are a lot of references to death in the book - Mersault's mother dies in the beginning, later on, Mersault commits murder killing an Arab man, and near the end he is sentenced to death. Mersault is Camus' symbol for portraying the Absurdity in life, and telling the readers that death is an inevitable part of the life that we are all living. Mersault acts completely irrationally in the book, according to rationality as we know it, at least. He is emotionless and numb. He shows no remorse to his mothers death, nor to the murder he has committed, Camus says, he feels more an annoyance rather than regret, after the Jury asks him to justify his murder. It turns out it was rather a random act of terror. As we read, we too explore the absurd through Camus' writing. Camus utilizes vivid descriptions - that is, imagery

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The main character's relationship with others in Albert Camus 'The Outsider' and Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'.

English IB Ranjit Amar March 2003 Grade 11 The main character's relationship with others in Albert Camus 'The Outsider' and Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' and Albert Camus 'The Outsider' are two novels which present different views of the main protagonist's relationships with others. Kafka mainly focuses on the relationships that exist within a family whereas Camus focuses on relationships that exist in the broader society. In Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' Gregor Samsa, the main protagonist was the primary bread winner in the Samsa household. He was a traveling salesman who was taking care of the family's debt. Gregor was respected and valued in his family; he did not have an active social life because of his work. His only companions were his mother, sister and father; if at all Gregor had any social relationship it was with his family. The day Gregor metamorphosized, his social relationships with his family changed dramatically; he was no longer respected in his family because of his monstrous physical appearance and his inability to work. The metamorphosis of Gregor may be seen as the point at which his relationships began to break up. In 'The Outsider', Meursault, the main protagonist, is a man for the moment and doesn't think about his future. When Meursault loses his mother in the

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Is Meursault an absurd hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality?

Is Meursault an absurd hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? In order to understand Meursault's rebellion we must first understand the nature of his personality as portrayed by Camus. The novel begins with the laconic assertion "Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." His mother's death briefly interrupts the pleasant flow of Meursault's life, a life devoted to appreciating sensation. He loves the feel of a crisp towel in the washroom. He enjoys eating, drinking, and smoking cigarettes. He loves to watch the sea and the sky. Swimming and making love to pretty girls like Marie are his favourite pastimes, so much so that an offer of a job promotion in Paris does not in the least appeal to him. When something bores him or distresses him he simply goes to sleep, as he does on the bus to his mother's funeral and even in jail. He is a detached observer of life. Symbolic of this quality is the Sunday he spends watching the ebb and flow of life in his neighbourhood from his apartment window. Camus describes in detail the street scenes yet never does Meursault become involved in them. Meursault is distant from the messiness of plans, ambitions, desires, hatreds, even love. Marie's protestations of love only puzzle him. When she asks him if he wishes to marry her he agrees only because he sees no real reason to refuse. He helps

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