Essay/Term paper: "the stranger": analysis

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Albert Camus

"The Stranger": Analysis


Author: Albert Camus

Pierre Palmer English II. Period #5 Date: 10/4/9

copyright, by Pierre Palmer

I. Biographical Insights

A. Albert Camus' cultures consist of being a novelist, literature and short
story writer of many books. He wrote an essay on the state of Muslims in
Algeria, causing him to lose his job and he moved to Paris. Albert Camus also
joined the French resistance against the Nazis and became an editor of "Combat",
an underground newspaper. He was dissatisfied with the editorial of the Board
and left the underground newspaper. B. Albert Camus, son of a working-class
family, was born in Algeria in 1913, in an extreme poverty area. He spent the
early years of his life in North Africa, where he worked at various jobs in the
weather bureau, in an automobile-accessory firm, in a shipping company to help
pay for his courses at the University of Algiers. Albert Camus then started
journalism as a career. He finished early schooling, majoring in philosophy
with a goal to teach. He was married to Simone in 1934 and divorced in 1936. C.
The factor that influenced Albert Camus was his parents, who were a working
class family. He was determined to make a better life for himself by getting an
education and preparing himself to go to college. The fact that he lived in
North Africa, he wrote lots of fiction books, dealing with moral problems of
universal importance. 1. I think Albert's prospective in life was to just be
able to write books for people that actually would deal with the reality and
difficulty of people facing everyday life. Also, the difficulty of people
facing life without the comfort of believing in God or just having moral
standards. 2. He most likely to weave into his writing the ideal of setting
moral standards and placing the comfort that an individual would need to have in
facing difficulty in his life. He would also set a goal by facing any problems
that may exist in every day living and by placing God into your life, no matter
what the situation might look like, bad or good, you will always come through it.


II. Characters

A. The plot concerns a man, an apparently ordinary man, who, without any real
compelling reason, commits a murder, and his apparently insensitive reaction to
it. This isn't because he is without feelings, but because he is beginning to
realize that life isn't everything that he had previously thought it to be. This
series of events starts with he death of his mother, and although he loved her,
he finds he does not experience much genuine regret at her death, and refuses to
pretend he does, just for the sake of appearances. So one thing leads to another,
and this man, Meursault, reaches the point where he only seems truly content
when he is close to nature. The irony is that the actual act of murder was
apparently brought on by the oppressive, irresistible force of another of
nature's forces and it caused him to be executed. B. The changes that takes
place in Meursault personality is when his mother dies and he realizes that he
has no one that is close to him that he could talk to, even though his mother
was in a senior citizen home. When his mother died, everyone asked him how did
he feel. He said that he felt the same way like the other day. Inside of him,
he really felt like crying, but he just didn't show it. I think that was one
of the many things he had to face in his life and the fact that he had other
problems that made him frustrated that he had to deal with. C. The two
characters that played a part in Meursault life are Marie and Raymond. Marie
played the role as being Meursault's girlfriend. She was a positive influenced
in Meursault's life. She comforted him when he was going through hard times when
his mother died. She was there for him and gave him support. Raymond was
Meursault's best friend. Raymond lived up the hall from Meursault's apartment.
Raymond was a considerate person and I believed the character he played was
positive. Although, his downfall was that he was always causing some type of
trouble, which could have made in character to also be negative in a way. He was
nice to Meursault. D. The conflicts that Meursault experience was he dislike
Arabs and he was faced with the problem. He expressed resentment and anger
against the Arab. The problem was so strong and forceful in him that the only
way he felt that he could deal with it was by taking this person life. He felt
that this was the way he could resolved the situation of hatred that he had for
this person. Also, the fact that he was faced with a murder charge and
imprisonment. III. Representative Passage on Imagery and Figurative Language
" When I went outside, the sun was up. Above the hills that separate
Marengo from the sea, the sky was streaked with red. And wind coming over the
hills that brought the smell of salt with it." A. The sensory details that the
author uses that makes us feel like we are actually at the beach. The sensory
is called the seance of smell because the author said the wind coming over the
hills that brought the smell of the salt with it. B. The simile that the author
use in this paragraph was when he is talking about the sky was streaked with red,
but I think the author is trying to say that the white clouds with the blue sky
looks like the sky is red like blood.

IV. Symbolism / Allusions

" That's all for today, Monsieur Antichrist." " Specking very quickly and
passionately, he told me that he believed in God, that it was his conviction
that no man was so guilty that God would not forgive him, but in order for that
to happened a man must repent and in so doing become like a child whose heart is
open and ready to embrace all". A. The people in this short quote is Monsieur as
the judge is talking to him. The judge don't think Monsieur believe in Jesus
because Monsieur is always talking about how he does not care about anything and
he rather just be in jail where he belongs. B. The quote that I think the author
is trying to carry out through the story is the second quote I wrote down,
because the author is saying that you need to repent and ask for forgiveness to
God. Monsieur lawyer keeps telling him about Jesus and telling Monsieur that he
needs to forget about the wrong things that he did in life and repent to God,
but Monsieur being big headed is not going to listen because he think what he
did is wrong and he should pay the price for what he did. C. The allusion that
Albert Camus is trying to get at, is that people believed in antichrist and
Albert is trying to say that if you do something wrong in life you can always
repent and ask God for forgiveness. V. Representative Passage on Tone and
Author's Philosophy " After a short time silence, he stood up and told me that
he wanted to help me, that I interested him, and that, with God's help, he would
do something for me." A. I think this passage tell us about the author
prospective because he is telling us that if you ask for help and if you want
the help it will happened. So what I am trying to say is that I if you are not
a Christian and you have a friend that believe in Jesus and if you don't believe
in Jesus you have to listen to your friend to understand what is going on so
you can accept Jesus. B. The aspects of his philosophy that I can pick out is
that Albert Camus had to believe in Jesus because I don't think he would write a
book talking about killing and Jesus at the same time, getting some moral
purpose from this book. The thing that I can infer from this passage is that he
is telling Meursault that he needs to listen to what every God has planned for
him in prison or out of prison. VI. Evaluation A. The influence this book had
on my attitude and belief is that you should never feel that you have to kill
anyone because you do not like them for what ever reason it might be. I feel
that you should talk through things before coming up with a conclusion of
causing a fight or killing. This book really did not have a big impact on my
belief because I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savor. B. I think the author
goals in this book was to try to seek through to the non-believers and to seek
the people that is having a hard time in life. The reason why I say this is
because the way he went to jail and got caught and by his lawyer telling him he
need to ask for forgiveness and repent to God. To me, it sounds like Albert is
trying to get people's attention. C. Albert Camus did successfully achieve his
goal because I know for a fact that I would never do anything like killing
somebody because what every you do wrong in the sight of the law you are always
going to get caught and also God knows everything you do. The author achieve
his goal in this book by reaching the readers and to overcome the evil that
society might cause a person to do and to face up the difficult situation no
matter what it is. D. This book is very significant with it topics because it
talks about every thing a person would go through in life. Like one thing
that is really important in life is God and it talk about God in this book that
I read. It make a person think that you cannot do wrong and get away with it.
It make you realize that you have to face up to the situation that is wrong and
deal with it. The book make you think that anger is not the way that a person
should hold in him. Although, a person might look all right on the outside, it
is what on the inside of that person that may cause him to have a difficult
time in life. This book is not much different what I feel people today
experience in society. There are a lot of violent in the world today and lots
of people with resentment and anger towards one another.