LitAide

Meursault is the chief protagonist of the Albert Camus's The Stranger. He is bit taciturn and passive about the life's events. Neither life's joyous moments like marriage proposals nor devastating events like mother's death lead to either breakdown or ecstatic for him. In other words, when he gets the news of his mother's death, he doesn't lost his nerves and just want to finish the funeral ceremonies and return to his work. He keeps thinking about his boss's opinion about him taking a leave on this serious business. Marie's proposal to him too produces no jubilant response from him. In fact, marriage is not important to him. He responds to her that he could marry if it gives her happiness. Such is his queer personality. Till he murder of the Arab, he is just a silent spectator moving on his life without any future wishes. We don't find him nurturing any dream nor he has any ambitions. In spite of the novel narrated in the first person by Meursault...

I recently read this novel by Albert Camus, a Nobel laureate for Literature. The novel tells the story of a young man named Meursault, a queer fellow whose detachment from the outside world paves the way for his undoing. The story narrated in the first person by Meursault gives the readers the complete picture of his psyche of which others are ignorant. Yet we are still unsure about his rationale behind the shooting the Arab against whom he doesn't have any personal enmity. Another bewildering fact is his shooting him four times. We don't know if this cruel act is done unintentionally due to the extreme heat of the day. These questions still remain. His indifference or we can say pragmatism, especially in dealing with the events after her mother's demise carves his destiny later. Before her death, she lived in an Old Age Home. Although Meursault had a job and enough space to keep her with him but as he is a young man, it is difficult to hold a conversation with her. It is ...

The short story of "The Guest" is about a French schoolmaster and his dilemma of either handing over an Arab prisoner to Police or to help him get away from the clutches of punishment. The story focuses on the theme of existentialism. The story can be seen as a picture which reflects the dilemma of Camus of himself. Just like the schoolmaster, Camus remained unsympathetic towards the French, his own people's cause. He wanted to be non-aligned between the tussle of French and Algerian forces. The story focuses on a schoolmaster named Daru of a school built upon an inhabited plateau. The place is unpopulated due to harsh weather conditions. In the beginning, it was difficult to live alone in a harsh place but eventually, he became habitual to his solitude. He was content with his modest life with an adequate supply of rations reaching him routinely. His problem began when Balducci, a gendarme (policeman) arrived at his place with an Arab prisoner with him. Balducci told...