Prathit Kadam
Mr. George
AP English Language and Literature
8 January 2013
Mersault’s
Eventual Acceptance
Thesis: Despite the hostility and the
indifference Mersault experiences in society, Mersault’s indifference is come
to a halt as he manages to accept the fate that has bestowed upon him. Mersault
recognizes his indifference to the world after reflecting upon the world’s
hostility towards him and ultimately recognizes his fate, where he comes to
being with himself, despite the ridiculousness and the philosophical nature of
Absurdism in Alfred Camus’s The Stranger.
I.
Before Mersault accepts his indifference
to the external world Camus maps out within The
Stranger he undergoes various situations where the external world tests his
soul.
A. The
first example of where we see Mersault’s curious indifference to the world is
when he deals with Maman’s death.
1. “I
was able to understand Maman better. Evenings in that part of the country must
have been a kind of sad relief. But today, with the sun bearing down, making the
whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhuman and oppressive” (Camus 15).
2. “It
occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now,
that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed” (24).
B. The
direct relationship between Mersault’s indifference and the sun seems to
empower Mersault into an uncontrollable fit of frustration and confusion.
1. “All
that heat was pressing down on me and making it hard for me to go on. And every
time I felt a blast of its hot breath strike my face, I gritted my teeth,
clenched my fists in my trouser pockets, and strained every nerve in order to
overcome the sun and the thick drunkenness it was spilling over me” (57).
2. “The
sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my
forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the
skin. It was this burning, which I couldn't stand anymore, that made me move
forward” (59).
i.
The sun symbolizes Mersault’s attitude
in dealing with the external world. We will come to see how Mersault realizes
his indifference and his attitudes to the external world and see how he
conforms to this.
C. During
the trial, Mersault’s alienation in society causes him to believe that the
external world is fully against him. It is at this point where he realizes his
indifference to the world and attempts to reflect upon it.
1. “I
explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often
got in the way of my feelings” (65).
2. “He didn't understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me” (66).
3. “I
noticed then that everyone was waving and exchanging greetings and talking, as if
they were in a club where people are glad to find themselves among others from the
same world. That is how I explained to myself the strange impression I had of being
odd man out, a kind of intruder” (84).
4. “Maman
used to say that you can always find something to be happy about” (113).
(Key
quotes)
5. “Nothing,
nothing mattered, and I knew why. Throughout the whole absurd life I’d lived, a
dark […] wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real
than the ones I was living” (121).
6. “As
if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that
night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of
the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that
I had been happy and that I was happy again” (122-123).
i.
This last quote thoroughly details out Mersault’s
ultimate recognition of his indifference and how it ultimately sparked his happiness.
Despite knowing of his execution as a response to his crime, Mersault takes realization
into account by accepting his indifference in the world.
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