8/8/2019 Conformity in Camus

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Conformity in Camus' The Stranger (The Outsider)

Camus' novel The Stranger presents the character of Meursault who, after killing an Arab, is sentenced to death. This conflict portrays the stark contrast 

between the morals of society and Meursault's evident lack of them; he is condemned to death, less for the Arab's murder, than for refusing to conform to

society's standards.

Meursault is an anomaly in society; he cannot relate directly to others because he does not live as they do. Meursault is simplistic, even detached; he spea

of his mother's death without regret for her loss, merely stating: "Maman died today." He goes on to mention that perhaps it was yesterday - he is not sur

which. He cannot abide by the same moral confines as the rest of the world because he does not grasp them; he is largely indifferent to events occurring

around him. Meursault's entire being is sensuous, yet unemotional. He derives a certain level of pleasure from eating and drinking, smoking cigarettes,

sitting on his balcony to watch passersby. He likes to wash his hands, especially at work in the morning, when the roller towel is dry. He likes sex. When

Marie leaves, he lies in bed and tries to get the salty smell of her hair from the pillow. Yet all these things are tactile; Meursault derives physical satisfaction

from them, but there is no emotion attached.

This is in direct contrast to society, whose strict guidelines focusing on right and wrong depend on the individual's sense of these concepts. Meursault is

perfectly capable of analyzing the situation, but not of responding to it as society wishes him to. Life or death, and anything in between, makes no

difference to him. The nurse at his mother's funeral had warned him that if he walked too slow, he stood the risk of sunstroke; yet if he walked too fast, th

church would chill him. No matter what he does, Meursault sees the outcome as inevitable, and invariable. He cannot perceive any right or wrong in killing

the Arab. The action in itself was spurred not out of a deep-seated hatred for the man but, as Meursault reveals at the trial, "because of the sun."

The sun at the beach, similar to the sun at his mother's funeral, was beating down on him. Sweat trickled down his face, the scene began to reel as his

vision blurred. The sun represents to Meursault emotions, which he cannot deal with. Likewise, he cannot deal with the intense heat, the light reflected off

the Arab's knife which seems to stab at him. Meursault's finely-tuned senses are being overwhelmed, and the only way to handle the situation is to end it -

so he fires the gun. We see the Arab sinking into the sand, as four more bullets lodge inside and disappear. The spell is broken.

The death of the Arab in itself is not crucial to Meursault's fate. Around that time period in Algiers, Arabs were almost easily dispensed with - they were no

high society. Meursault's true undoing comes from his lack of emotion. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault sits at his mother's funeral, quietly picking

up the most minute details of the scene: wrinkles on the old men's faces, the way the women's stomachs seemed to bulge out from under their apron

strings. Yet their eyes remained a glimmer amid all the wrinkles. Here Meursault was captivated by his mother's friends- their difference sparks his interest

 At his trial, he notices the crowd present, and a young court reporter, whose eyes he sees clearly. Before, Meursault could not see the mourners' eyes

because he felt nothing; now, this man's eyes are the only feature he sees, and they seem to be judging him without betraying any particular emotion. As

Meursault knows, the onlookers present do not understand him; in fact, they are afraid of him. He is an aberration. The prosecutor says, "I look into a

man's face and all I see is a monster."

What Meursault has realized, by the end of the book, is that any meaning he finds in life he must create. Meursault is the absurdist hero, explaining the

philosophy of existentialism: Man's isolation amid an indifferent universe. There is no inherent meaning in life - its entire value lies in living itself. Meursau

feels he has been happy, and longs to live. When he must die, he wants a crowd to greet him "with cries of hate"; they are screaming because they want 

life and the world to have meaning; they need this because that is what their entire existence is built upon. As the magistrate asked of Meursault, "Do youwant my life to be meaningless?" Meursault understands how estranged the individual truly is from society. Until the conclusion, he was a stranger to

himself as well as to the rest of the world. In the end, he opens himself "to the gentle indifference of the world," and "finding it so much like myself, - like

brother really," feels he has been happy, and is again. Society finds this unacceptable, and by refusing to conform to its face-value standards, Meursault 

must die.

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