A Moral Rebel

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Camus discusses the estrangement of an individual in a benign and indifferent universe, one in which conformity prevails. He not only satirizes the conformity of society, but religion and the legal system as well. Throughout part one of the novel Meursault focuses primarily on the physical world, leaving emotions almost completely out of the picture. This works to develop Meursault’s philosophy that is grounded in the objective, physical world. Later it is revealed that Meursault is not very religious at all, mainly because he refuses to accept the standard beliefs. He questions conformity and subsequently chooses his own path to understanding. In The Encounter with Nothingness it is stated that “Religion to medieval man was not so much a theological system as a solid psychological matrix surrounding the individual’s life from birth to death, sanctifying and enclosing all its ordinary and extraordinary occasions in sacrament and ritual” (4). In refusing the assumptions of religion, Meursault is forced to create his own conception of the world, one that is devoid of ulterior significance. This ultimately leads him astray from what is normal, and causes people of society to look down on him with contempt. In approaching this paper I ask, why is it taboo to not embrace a God but embrace your mind instead? Why can’t we all realize that we are alone and that we must find meaning in our lives because we are alive, not because someone or something wants us to live a certain way? In reading this novel the answer seems simple, because you will be killed for it. But it is more than this, and Meursault attempts to justify the irrationality of blind acceptance.


In the beginning of the book, Meursault’s mothers death briefly interrupts the pleasant flow of his life, a life devoted to appreciating physical sensation. He enjoys eating, drinking, and smoking cigarettes. He loves to watch the sea and the sky. Swimming and making love to pretty girls like Marie are his favorite pastimes, to such an extent that a job promotion in Paris does not appeal to him. When something bores him or distresses him he goes to sleep, as he does on the bus to his mothers funeral and even in jail. He is a detached observer of life. Symbolic of this quality is the Sunday he spends watching life in his neighborhood from his apartment window. He notices the excitement of returning athletes as “They were shouting and singing at the top of their lungs that their team would never die. Sever of them waved to me... and I nodded, as if to say Yes” (). Camus describes in detail the street scenes yet never does Meursault become involved in them. Even with all of the excitement on the street, Meursault barely shows any reaction at all. He seems to be content merely observing and trying to understand for himself. This idea, that people should come to their own conclusions, is common throughout the rest of the book.


Meursault is distant from the messiness of plans, ambitions, desires, hatreds, even love. Maries protestations of love only puzzle him. When she asks him if he wishes to marry her he agrees only because he sees no real reason to refuse. He helps in Raymonds schemes for equally bland reasons, and also because Raymond supplies him with food, drink, and cigarettes. He is even distant from his own trial. It interests him because he has never seen a trial before. This distance, or strangeness, stems from the idea Meursault has, that he is just as common or equal as any other being. Because if he is just as common as anyone else, why should he try to force his own agenda when everyone else’s is just as worthy. This commonness may also help to explain why Meursault never shows emotional attachment to Marie, but uses her more like an outlet for his passions. When she asks if he loves her, his response is blunt as he “told her that it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (5). Directly after that he comments that he wants her again. So while their relationship is sturdy on a physical level, Meursault has no intention of moving it beyond that. When discussing their future, Meursault agrees to marriage simply because he has no reason not to and he doesn’t want to end the physical relationship. When she objects to this by pointing “out that marriage was a serious thing. [He] said ‘No” (4).This helps to show Meursault’s rejection of the value society puts on certain customs and rituals. This relates to his rejection of religion and subsequent creation of separate personal values. He disregards marriage as superfluous and merely for show. Marie simply fits into the situation Meursault wants that he be with someone. This is evident when he is in jail as he tells how he is “tormented by my desire for a woman... I never thought specifically of Marie. But I though so much about a woman, about women” (77). This commonness overlaps to Meursault’s thoughts on his mother. Just as Marie is merely a woman he spent time with, his mother is merely someone who gave birth to him. Anyone could have done it, it just happen to be her. In this way Meursault shows to real connection with his mother. When asked if he loved his mother, he replies “Yes, the same as anyone” (67). This shows his absolute relation to everyone else as fellow mankind, nothing more and nothing less. In seeing that his mother lived and died, just as everyone else does, he shows no special concern for her. In the same way, he gives himself no special attention. This is evident when Meursault’s boss offers him a job promotion in Paris and Meursault seems utterly indifferent. It is because such a change in situations ultimately does not effect anything as Meursault states “That people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all” (41). This represents much of what Meursault stands. He acts as though our actions hold no consequences except in death, and anyone who thinks differently is lying to themselves in order to grasp some meaning in life that is not there.


Meursault seems unconcerned with legal and religious proceedings while staying alert to any physical discomfort. He responds to his body without questioning it, and this often leads him places society forbids but his body requires. When going through his legal proceedings, he is asked for his thoughts on the matter and responds “I had pretty much lost the habit of analyzing myself and that it was hard for me to tell him what he wanted to know... my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings” (65). This is essential in the explanation of his feelings for his mother, in that he might have felt some remorse over her death but was distracted. While he never mentioned himself crying, he notices many people crying at the funeral and understands that people do cry over funerals. Later on when Salamano looses his dog, Meursault makes the connection to his lost mother. Meursault listens as he “Realized he [Salamana] was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning. I wasn’t hungry, so I went to sleep without dinner” (). Rather than dwelling on the death of his mother, it occurs to him that he will be tired if he doesn’t sleep enough, and to prevent the discomfort he goes to sleep.





Just as he refused the temptation for legal redemption during his trial, he refuses the metaphysical redemption offered by the chaplain. He is faithful to his beliefs, limited though they are. He has struggled in prison with the concept of death. Death negates all those beautiful experiences he so enjoys. The confrontation with the inevitability of death and for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. Death, just as life, is meaningless. By not concerning himself with his mother he has destroyed his past. By refusing to plan for committed relationships, like one with Marie, he negates his future. So he lives solely for the moment at hand, and solely for himself and not others. He absolutely refuses to lie about his emotions even though that stand will cost him his life. He knows he is convicted of the Arabs murder because he did not mourn for his mother. Yet he does not pander to this societal expectation. His is a narrow kind of integrity, but one nonetheless. He says yes to life--to his life of sun, sea, sex, food, drink, and all of physical reality. He is an aesthete of every day life.


He is a very ordinary man who said no to a certain kind of lie, and who said yes to the beauty of life. Perhaps in his affirmation of life Meursault is faithful to a transcendent value-- a belief in the significance of human nature. It seems like Meursault was the only authentic character in the book as he never betrayed himself for the sake of others. All the other characters are in response to those around them, deriving personality traits from the status quo. I take the view of Camus on the subject of the meaning of life. To me, life becomes meaningful only when I am reinventing it on my own terms. What greater freedom could a man possibly have than to be placed in a situation where he is able to define himself on his own terms?


The Stranger. Camus, Albert. Vintage International; New York. 188.


The Irrational Man The Encounter with Nothingness.


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