Scott York Thursday, 9 January 2020

L’Étranger Essay Plan

How Does Camus Demonstrate his Views on the Absurdism through the
Natural Elements in his Novel L’Étranger?
- Introduction:
- A very brief overview on who Camus was
• Camus was a French-Algerian journalist, who also wrote other fictional works from
novels to plays, for his work he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957

• It may not be perhaps the works that Camus wrote themselves but the philosophical idea
that he created, the ‘absurd’, the idea that it we waist our lives looking for an order or a
meaning to life.

• “The Absurd can be defined as a metaphysical tension or opposition that results from the
presence of human consciousness—with its ever-pressing demand for order and
meaning in life—in an essentially meaningless and indifferent universe.”

https://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/

Written by David Simpson of DePaul University

• The fact that Camus created a character Meursault to show the philosophical theory of
‘absurdism’ - this can start with his mothers funeral, it was on an incredibly hot day
which creates tension for Meursault, he seems to not be bothered by his mothers death
(this is part of absurdism as the theory believes that death has no meaning also, we live
our lives and then we die, that’s it). What does bother him is weather, it creates a
controlling force that lies it’s hand upon Meursault and directs him as the weather
changes

• The idea of the anti-hero Meursault who’s very name is composed of three elements
‘death’, ‘sea’ and ‘sun’

- Paragraph 1: The sun and death:

• This paragraph will demonstrate how the sun and death go ‘hand in hand’ with each
other

• When death has been evoked, the sun is present for example the two times that the sun
is at it’s strongest is when Meursault’s mother dies and when he kills the Arab

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• “La mort évoque le soleil dans l’enterrement et le soleil suscite la mort dans le
meurtre.” Or translated “The sun is closely linked to death in the novel: death evokes
the sun in the funeral and the sun causes death in murder.” L’image du Soleil dans
L’Etranger de Camus by Lü Jiqun

• Other objects can replace the ‘job’ of the sun too, for example during the vigil,
Meursault asks if some of the lights may be turned off “Je lui ai demandé si on pouvait
éteindre une des lampes. L'éclat de la lumière sur les murs blancs me fatiguait. Il m'a dit
que ce n'était pas possible.”

• There is a deliberate reason for this being impossible. The light is there to annoy
Meursault (as death shouldn’t make difference to him because of the absurd), to be
symbolic that when he is close to death a form of light whether it be natural or artificial
must be present. (just as in the case of the Arab)

- Paragraph 2: The sun, sea and happiness:

• It should be noted that following absurdism doesn’t mean you need to deprive yourself
of what you enjoy. This can be explained by the quote from Camus’ book, A Happy
Death, in it he asks the question “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?”, from a
‘normal’ persons point of view this question would be ludicrous but if you follow the
mindset of absurdism then it’s easy to answer, both are completely pointless. This does
not mean that one is better than the other either, the coffee would allow a short period
of happiness and the suicide would end life. From the view of absurdists, absurdism is a
creation of humans and acts as a bridge to the nihilist principle that that trying to
understand ‘the meaning of life etc ’comes with futility. (we should enjoy life and stop
trying to understand why we have it or it’s functions)

• When Meursault is with Marie, he can feel happiness, it just doesn’t matter to him, it is
wrongly assumed that Meursault cannot feel emotions, and it is also wrongly assumed
that alexithymia plays a role in Meursault’s life. This is proven by the fact that he can
feel happiness when he is with Marie. It’s almost as if two forces can protect Meursault
from the sun, Marie and the sea and this is better explained in the document L’Étranger
de Camus Lü Jiqun

• “Une exception lorsqu’il estime que le soleil lui faisait du bien, en parlant de celui sous
lequel il passe son temps avec sa fiancée Marie: «... et les deux chaleurs de son corps et
du soleil m’ont un peu endormi.»”

• An exception when he considers that the sun was doing him good, speaking of the one
under which he spends his time with his fiancée Marie: "... and the two heats of his
body and the sun put me to sleep a little.»

• The sun here could take two interpretations, it looks as though it offers him a pleasure
of sorts but it could be that the enjoyment from being with Marie and the enjoyment

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from the sea are the factors that make him enjoy the day. Relating to absurdism,
Meursault would never distinguish between which of the factors where giving him the
feeling of happiness as this wouldn’t matter. The part where he says that the sun makes
him feel sleepy could be foreshadowing, a reminder to the reader that the power of the
sun can kill as ‘sleep’ is another word to describe death and in the end it is the sun that
kills Meursault.

- Paragraph 3: The sun as a metaphor for society and absurdism found in society:
• In L’Étranger, the sun could also be seen as a metaphor for society, “Le soleil
omniprésent renvoie en effet à la société. Pour vivre ou survivre, l’homme est forcé de
sortir de son abri pour s’exposer à la foule, à la société, loin d’être disponible pour
choisir une vie qu’il désire”, “The omnipresent sun indeed refers to society. “To live or
survive, man is forced to leave his shelter to expose himself to the crowd, to society, far
from being available to choose a life he desires.”

• “The sun signifies contradiction because it has two completely opposite faces: one
radiant, the other hot. The radiant sun is perfect and it makes you dream. It could
represent the harmonious and ideal life that Meursault wants, while the scorching sun
refers to the disappointing real world that causes him anxiety.”

• “Le soleil signifie la contradiction, car il a deux visages totalement opposés: l’un
radieux, l’autre brûlant. Le soleil radieux est parfait et il fait rêver. Il pourrait
représenter une vie harmonieuse et idéale que désire Meursault, tandis que le soleil
brûlant renvoie au monde réel décevant qui provoque chez lui l’anxiété.” L’Étranger de
Camus Lü Jiqun

• The sun also contains another metaphor for society, we all have dreams that are
encouraged by the sun as it makes us get up, move and have desire. Yet, we are
disappointed as we have to face the constraints of society (as proven in L’Étranger, the
sun can be as light as it is dark), Meursault tried to flee the sun but the sun like society
is too strong for the efforts of one man, in other words the sun has an overbearing sense
of power that no one can escape.

• This could explain the necessity for the creation of a theory like absurdism as we
cannot escape the problems that society brings us, therefore maybe it is better to say
that nothing matters as that would keep us A. ‘happier’ and B. ‘on the straight and
narrow’. This is the case for Meursault, absurdism doesn’t make his life worse in
anyway or cause his discomfort, in fact, he finds peace through knowing that in the end
he will die and that doesn’t matter, although whilst on Earth Meursault shows a lack of
emotion to things that happen to him, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he is an unhappy
person or a person who is incapable of showing emotion, it just means that he employs
the philosophy of absurdism in order to cope with the everyday stresses of life

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• Camus created the character of Meursault to show that one can answer life through
absurdism or rather choose not to answer life through it. Meursault was created to prove
that having desire is not a bad thing however, to use Meursault’s phrase “it doesn’t
matter”…………………… (more to be added)

• ****The previous bullet point would probably help to form a conclusion and
perhaps parts of the bullet point that precedes that also