The Meaning of Truth in The Stranger by Albert Camus
Summary:
Brief description of The Stranger by Albert Camus. Highlights the struggles of the main character, Meursault, and the trouble he gets himself into by being brutally honest with everyone he encounters.
The Stranger
Albert Camus' The Stranger is about a man named Meursault. Camus wrote, "Meursault, for me, is a poor and naked man in love with the sun which leaves no shadows. He is far from being totally deprived of sensitivity for he is animated by a passion, profound because it is tacit, the passion for the absolute and for truth. It is still a negative truth of being and feeling, but a truth without which no conquest of the self or of the world is possible." ... "Meursault is the man who answers but never asks a question, and all his answers so alarm a society which cannot bear to look at the truth." Camus successfully described Meursault as a brutally truthful person with those quotes. Meursault's brutal truth and honesty rubbed some people the wrong way, and it led to his undoing.
Meursault is very straight forward and he gets to the point. He does not think about other peoples feelings, before he says anything. Most people do not like people like that, but he does have friends. Meursault's girlfriend Marie asked him if he loved her and Meursault said, "It didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so." Though Meursault said that, he has silent,
passionate feelings. When he is in jail, he thinks about women, but not just about Marie, but all of women that he has been with.
Camus said that Meursault was a "Poor and naked man." He did not hide anything. With Meursault, what you see is what you get. If you are able to tell your girlfriend that you do not love her, or if you are able to tell her that marriage doesn't mean anything to you, that is one of the most honest people you will ever meet. When Camus said that Meursault was "Poor," that is not necessarily true. He has a home, a job, and he has enough money to live.
Albert Camus' description of Meursault was a good one. Meursault is a straight forward, naked man. He tells it like it is and he does not hide anything. Those can be considered as honorable qualities, but they led to Meursault's ending, which was, the death penalty.
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