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The Stranger Character Analysis- Mersault

Summary:   In The Stranger, Albert Camus created a character named Meursault to help show us how important it is to start thinking and analyzing the events that happen in our lives. Ultimately, death is the final stage of life, not to be feared.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus created a character named Meursault to help show us how important it is to start thinking and analyzing the events that happen in our lives. Meursault is emotionally indifferent to others, including his mother and his lover, Marie. He does not show passion for anything and shows no passion. After Meursault kills a man for no apparent reason, he is put on trial. It is during his trial and jail time that Meursault's thoughts shift away from the murder itself to his attitudes and beliefs. While in jail, Meursault is able to break through his indifference and make sense out of his life. When he becomes aware that his life will end soon, that is when he truly understands the meaning of life. Even though life is meaningless, we still need to make the best out of what we've got.

Meursault starts off at the beginning of the story by showing the reader how absurd he is. He does not seem to care about anything in his life nor does he know anything about his own mother. "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday." It is strange to see how a man does not even care when his mom died. Meursualt continues to show us how indifferent he is. He has no real thoughts, no real care about anything he does in life. Even when he meets a girl, Marie, he still does not know how to love her or what love even means. He does not understand the whole concept of having choices and deciding which one's he wants. ..".Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to."

As the story slowly progress, Meursault also moves forward towards what the meaning of his life is. When Meursault takes Marie to the beach with Raymond, we start to see a glimpse of want in Meursault. He started observing another couple on the beach, which made him want to have a relationship like theirs. "For the first time maybe, I really thought I was going to get married... Together again, Marie and I swam out ways, and we felt a closeness as we moved in unison and were happy." For the first time, he started to show that wanted and was looking forward to something different. He was looking forward to a relationship that will change his life. Meursault is slowly removing the indifference that he feels about his life.

While Meursault is still at the beach, he decides to take a walk down to the shores and finds the Arab that Raymond had had a confrontation with earlier. With no apparent reason, Meursault pulls out a gun and shoots five shots at the Arab, killing him instantly. In that moment, Meursault knew that this was going to be the start of a change in his life. He knew that this was going to be the moment where things in life are no longer simple and that he will have to try and figure out how to deal with all this change. "I fired four more times at the motionless body... And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness."

Meursault is then put into prison and a court trial is on its way to convict him. At first, Meursault does not seem very happy about being in jail. As time moves on though, Meursault has accepted that his home is now the jail. ..".I felt that I was at a home in my cell and that my life was coming to a standstill there." For the first time, he is able to sit there and just think about his actions. He is finally able to recall the past and figure out the significance of it. He realizes that his whole life is about to change and there's no way out. The only thing you can do is accept it and move on. Everything is real to him now and he knows he cannot escape the truth. His cell is his home. There is no more running away and no more dreaming for something that he cannot have. All he has now is to accept the reality and the consequences that go along with his actions.

Meursault continues to stay in jail and continues to move to a new state of mind. He thinks and reflects a lot more on what has happened in his life. By the time of the actual trial, he already knew that he was going to tried guilty and be sentenced to death. Everyone will die eventually and what matters more is how much your life meant rather than how many years you were allowed to live. Meursault realizes that we all are born, we all die, and we all will eventually be forgotten.

Only at this point is Meursault able to achieve happiness. Meursault knows death is unavoidable and that he has no choice. Meursault is has to able to just accept death. Considering death is an important step, you have one significant choice early in life. It is that choice where you pick life or death. Do you give up or do you try to figure out your purpose in life? You only have one life so you should just live it and not waste it. ..".for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world." Meursault realizes that nothing lasts forever and death is just putting an end to life. There shouldn't be anything scary about death because you already know it's going to happen. What you can do is accept it and leave earth happily.

Life is meaningless. We are the ones that perceive there is meaning to life. We know that we are all born and that we will all die. We will eventually be forgotten and just be something in the past. Even though this is the case, the fact that we only have one life makes even a better reason for us to live it to the fullest. Our time on earth is not as important as our revelations during that time. Living a hundred years with no reflection is empty compared to living 30 years with real thoughts and awareness. The world is indifferent and life is meaningless. It is up to us to make the best out of our time.