Meursault’s detached personality is first shown when he showed no emotion at his mother’s funeral and how he did not know his mother’s age: “I [Meursault] hadn’t wanted to see mother, hadn’t cried once and I’d left straight after the funeral without paying my respects at her grave.” (86). Meursault does not meet society’s expectation because he was different from the rest of society. He is expected to cry and show his respects but he does the exact opposite. A normal man would be devastated by the loss of his mother and suffer from sadness and despair; however, Meursault does not even care much about the date she passed away. “Mother died today or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (3) Another point is that shortly after the funeral, Meursault is reacquainted with a typist who used to work at the office with him.
Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” Mersault reports his mother’s death in a very straightforward way; he doesn’t seem to have any sort of remorse or grief for his mother. He is emotionally indifferent to the event, and later on we see that indifference is one of his strongest character traits throughout the book. Mersault goes to the funeral home in which his mother lived in to attend the funeral. His indifference is persistent and he is cold to any human interaction and detached.
The Stranger Chapters 1-5 -When Meursault finds out about his mother’s death he doesn’t show any real emotion. It seems to me like he has lost connection with his mother and so she wasn’t a large part of his life to start with. Maybe Meursault is just in shock from the news and it hasn’t really registered in his mind yet, but it seems to me it’s more likely that Meursault is just a detached man. Maybe something has happened to him in the past to make him act this way. For example he never mentions his father; maybe his father died and traumatized him, leaving him in this detached state.
Camus’s first novel is both a brilliantly crafted story and an illustration of his absurdist world view. The novel tells the story of an emotionally and psychologically detached, amoral young man named Meursault. The story starts with “Mother died today.” With him receiving a telegram from his mother’s home informing him of his mother’s death. This first blunt statement gives a somewhat overall view of Mersault’s nature. He acted like it was just another ordinary day with no particular significance.
Thus, he expresses his unconventional thoughts freely because he is indifferent of what others feel about his apathetic honesty. This is demonstrated in response to when Marie asks him when his mother has died. “[He] explain[s] that [his] mother [has] died. ‘When?’ she ask[s], and [he] [says], ‘Yesterday.’ She [makes] no remark, though [he] thought she [shrinks] away a little.” (14) She is disturbed by this honesty because he just dated her last night without grieving his mother; it’s socially unacceptable to not to grief for death of one’s parent, but Meursault believe that her mother death is not his fault and emotionally detach himself form that matter. Nonetheless, this honesty doesn’t complicate situation and she doesn’t mention about his mother again.
Albert Camus is a 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 he was 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
Neither understands having though, passion, feeling, or emotion in life. The Myth of Sisyphus helps explain some of the meaning of some of the events taking place in The Stranger. In The Stranger the main character Meursault takes life for granted in a way of not enjoying it. He seems more satisfied with the usual as if no excitement lives in his life. The death of his mother doesn’t even bother him so show sadness.
He then sits quietly and hopes the two men won’t see the connection between him and his wife, and that is also the reason for him not saying goodbye to his wife. It almost seems like he acquires the point of view the two unidentified men have. The troubles of Doreen and Earl’s relationship are also made clear by this fact, because this clearly shows that if he hasn’t noticed the extra pounds, then he obviously haven’t been looking. Earl has been living his life completely blind and detached, so detached that he has no visible love for his wife. When he finally wakes up and sees his wife for what she really is, he sees her through the eyes of two strangers.
He states at the end of the quote, “perhaps it does not seem to them that we suffer”, which seems to help him forgive his relatives because they don’t know the troubles Kumalo and his wife have suffered. When he first goes to find his sister Gertrude, he is angry at her for shaming his family, “You have shamed us, he says in a low voice, not wishing to make it known to the world. A liquor seller, a prostitute, with a child and you do not know where it is? Your brother a priest? How
The protagonist of The Outsider, Meursault, is estranged because he does not fit into the social norm. At the news of his mother’s demise, Meursault does not feel the agony that normal people do when hearing their parents’ deaths. His lack of emotion is further evinced by his sending his mother to the Senior’s House. In Meursault’s psyche, he feels that his mother is a burden to him. He thinks that the Senior House is a better choice for the both of them as his mother would be happier there.