Albert Camus - The Outsider
... couple of questions… Is Meursault an absurd anti-hero? Is he a moral monster? Is he a rebel against a conventional morality? There are no direct answers to these questions; you have to make your own opinion but in order to understand Meursault’s rebellion we must first understand the nature of his personality as portrayed by Camus. The novel begins with the laconic statement “ Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I had a telegram from the home: ‘Mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.’ That doesn’t mean anything. It might have been yesterday. His mother’s death briefly interrupts the pleasant flow of his life. Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. This easy-going, pleasant full enjoyment of life is interrupted permanently by Meursault’s murder of the Arab on the beach. It takes him a while to realize that the judge, the jury, the journalists, even his own lawyer, do not wish him well. Meursault finally understands that he is going to be convicted, not because...