What does it mean to be human?
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a novel which dives into the unconventional life of the main character Meursault. Meursault is very detached from reality and seemingly doesn't care about anything. Meursault also seems to attribute his actions to his surroundings rather than his own doing. Meursault's character is meant to show the meaninglessness and absurdity of human life. Camus uses irony and a motif of fate to express the absurdity of human nature and the meaninglessness of life.
The extract I am examining is from pages 120-122 and it is a scene where Meursault is angrily expressing his feelings about life to the jail chaplain who is trying to reason with him. Meursault expresses his feelings about fate when he says “what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me”. Here, Meursault brings up a religious motif of God which is connected to the idea of fate. Meursault expresses that his God doesn't matter to him because he believes that the belief in God will not affect the tragic fate of death that everyone faces. Meursualt's diction when he says “the fate they think they elect” shows how he feels trapped in the one true constant in life which is death, and he sees that whatever path in life people take will still result in death. Meursault also says that “a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future”. The imagery of the dark wind and the depth of his future shows how he feels he is sinking into the inevitable fate of death which will sweep over him. The darkness of the wind shows how he sees death as final with nothing promised afterward because the wind will level him into the dark abyss of nothingness. Meursault's view of fate sheds light on why he seems so unfazed about receiving a death sentence because he has come to terms with the inevitability and unpredictability of death.
Camus also uses irony to show how absurd human values are. Meursault thinks “What would it matter if he were accused of murder and then executed because he didn't cry at his mother's funeral”? The irony of this statement is that Meursault was not executed because of the crime he committed, but it was because of a completely unrelated event which was seen as a portrayal of his character. This shows how humans will twist emotion to use it against other people as a deciding factor in an important decision. Meursault also thinks “What did it matter that Raymond was as much my friend as Celeste, who was worth a lot more than him”? The irony in this statement is that he was condemned to death because the individuals he associated with were a portrayal of his character. He sees how humans deem some people good and others evil and how associating with someone considered evil implies that he is evil as well. The repetition of Meursault saying “what did it matter” shows how he views the case against him as absurd.
The absurdity of Meursault's death sentence and the inevitability of death are both factors that show how life really has no meaning at all and morals are just constructs which are used to make meaningless decisions. Meursault sees the irony of life and never worries about his future because he knows the only certain thing in his future is death. Camus uses Meursault to show how the meaning of life is that it has no meaning and worrying about fitting in and pleasing people is pointless because none of that matters when you are dead.
If everything you have ever done is meaningless when you die, and the only constant in life is death, then life itself is meaningless.
No comments:
Post a Comment