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.

"Human beings can't live with such a creature," his sister says. "If he were really Gregor...he'd have gone away on his own accord. Then we wouldn't have any bother."  

Although readers may think that Gregor’s indifference towards himself and his family is the cause of his death, it is in fact the opposite. He knows that the only way he would be able to disappear from his family’s life is to commit suicide for his family is unable to get rid of him themselves.  In sacrificing himself, he feels that he is doing the ultimate service to his family by freeing them of a heavy burden.  So Gregor wills himself to die at last, "his conviction that he would have to disappear [is], if possible, even firmer than his sister’s." After his death, the family has a new energy that is filled with hope and relieve: “A confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions.” This is the only time we have ever seen the family happy, they are carefree and whole. Gregor dies for his family: this demonstrates a part of the definition of a hero that Kafka was trying to set by showing that Gregor dies for the nobility of his main purpose in life, his family. Only through Gregor’s death is his family capable of realizing that Gregor’s duty as their sole provider did not help them; it was in truth the reason that they do not know themselves. The only chance of happiness for Gregor’s family is to be freed from Gregor.

Meursault, in the The Outsider, ultimately becomes a hero because of his absolute refusal to lie and people’s perceptions of his complete indifference to everything except physical sensations. From the first sentence in the novel, we deem Meursault’s reaction toward his mother’s death as indifference as he does not even know the exact date of his mother’s death nor grieves for her.  “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”  At his mother’s funeral, his only thought is of that the “glare from the sky is unbearable” and the day after, he starts a physically active relationship with Marie.  “The prosecutor who [is] leafing through a file [ask Marie] bluntly when [Meursault and Marie’s] liaison begun. She [mentions] the date. The prosecutor [remarks] indifferently that it [appears] to be the day after mother’s death.” We assume that Meursault experiences many stimulating physical sensations when “[Marie comes] back to [his] place” that day. Many spectators may view Meursault as a person who is indifferent to everything, in actuality, he is very in tune with his physical feelings and has a specific moral code in which he lives by. His physical sensations are the result of his actions.  An example is when he kills the Arab; the heat from the sun causes him to pull the trigger of the gun.

“All I could feel were the cymbals the sun was clashing against my forehand… the sea swept ashore a great breath of fire….My whole being went tense and I tightened my grip on the gun.  The trigger gave…”

Even though Meursault kills the Arab, he is still a hero because the reader is always made aware of the reason of his choice. He is a man who believes in only telling the complete truth.  He does not match his words and feelings to simply meet the expectations of others. Meursault is so far removed from the typical human conditions of life that he has his own system in which he values and abides by. Every human’s action becomes justifiable when the person is able to wholly understand them; this is what Meursault is able to do.  He sees no reason to pretend that he feels guilty for killing the Arab in court or pretend to grieve for his dead mother, because in his world, he does not need a reason to justify his actions. He is condemned to death merely because the world does not understand him. As a result, we sympathize for him and recognize him as a tragic hero.  Although we might assume that Meursault is indifferent to his own death, he accepts it because he knows that in the end, everyone dies.  His relentless insistence on telling the absolute truth is the reason that he is condemned to death, and is what he dies representing. He dies as a hero by rebelling against the order of society. Thus in the end, Meursault realizes his victory and states his last wish: "For the final consummation and for me to feel less lonely, my last wish was that there should be a crowd of spectators at my execution and that they should greet me with cries of hatred." He hopes that his death would make the people who he lives among angry at him, for rejecting the rules by which they themselves have to obey. Camus integrates his idea of heroism in The Outsider through Meursault, where the hero is a man who is relentless in giving up his way of life to satisfy others even if it means dying for it.

The two protagonists, Gregor and Meursault, become heroes through people’s belief that they are indifferent.  The perception that they are indifferent is only based on people’s ideas of what is considered acceptable behavior and emotional response towards a certain events.  Gregor did not die from indifference to life, but as an act of sacrifice that would allow his family to continue with their lives happily.  Both his deaths are essential to revitalize the spirits of the Samsa family, his willingness to place his family ahead of himself makes him a hero.  Meursault, on the other hand, is a tragic hero condemned to death because no one understands his values. People’s acuity on the traits of the protagonists in The Metamorphosis and The Outsiders make them valiant.

Jane Kwong

English A1 HL

June 2003

Word Count: 1487

World Literature Assignment #1: Perceived Indifference of Gregor

and Mersault, in The Metamorphosis and The Outsider, makes them heroic.

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