The Stranger 2 Essay Research Paper

The Stranger 2 Essay, Research Paper Albert Camus The Stranger is about the life of a very complex character named Meursault. Meursault is a very stolid person who is not given to shows of emotions. He remains this way through most of the book, but towards the end, he starts to become more feeling. He is what would be considered an existentialist a person who relies on their own experience and reason, does not defy authority, and has no feelings. Meursault Metamorphosis from an unfeeling and uncaring person in part one, is evidence through his change in attitude towards authority his efforts to develop meaningful relationships, and his newly discovered ability to think, to imagine, and to remember the post and relate it to the present. Meursault s attitude in part one changes

dramatically in part two with his feelings and attitude towards authority and others. In the opening scene of the book, the reader finds that Maman died today. Or Yesterday Maybe, I don t know. These are the fist hints about Meursault s character; they show him to be almost unfeeling. He feels the need to apologize for things that are out of his control, and to thank people for things that they had nothing to do with. He apologizes to his boss when he asks for two days off work to go to the vigil and funeral and he does not want to pay his last respects. To please the Director he agrees to everything the director says even when he told Meursault that his mother wanted a religious burial with a priest he said nothing, knowing his mother was not of the religious type, and tries to

justify his reasoning for putting her in the home. When the officer confronts Raymond after beating on his Arab mistress, Meursault stays his distance and tells Marie that he doesn t like the police . He does these things to avoid authority and stay out of their way. In part, two his attitude towards authority begins to change and his avoidance of authority diminishes. He defies authority when he repeatedly disagrees with the magistrate and chaplain as they try to make him believe in God, and question him about his mother and the reason he paused between the second and third shot. He also shows changes within the relationships he wants to or make with authority figures such as the cell guard, the reporter, his lawyer, and the jury. From part one to part two Meursault s feelings

and attitude towards authority and others seems to change for the better even though he still shows some features of a protagonist. Meursault believes romance is romance is fallacy, doesn t understand what it is and thinks that it is meaningless in chapter one, then in chapter two his efforts to develop meaningful relationships portrays his transformation from uncaring to the ability to love. Throughout the book whenever questions of his mother around he tried to avoid or not answer them for examples the instance with the caretaker Meursault told him he did not want to see his mother, for the burial he did not want to pay his last respects. When he was arrested and being questioned by the magistrate, he avoided questions about his mother by saying, what does this have to do with

my case , and even in court he hesitates to answer the question did he love his mother. These images portray Meursault s lack of love to relationships even with his own Mother. When Marie his mistress, asks him if he loves her, he replies that he does not think it means anything, but I don t think so, later on she asks him again and his reply is still the same. Soon after she asks him if he wants to marry her and being very nonchalant about; instead of saying a definite yes or no, he says that it is up to her, if you want us to be married, then he will go along with it. Once again showing his lack of love and his misunderstanding of what a relationship should be. To be even more blunt when he kills the Arab, he describes the feeling as only knocking four quick times at the door