is shocked when he shows no sadness. And when he commits a random act of violence in Algiers, society is baffled. Why would this seemingly law-abiding bachelor do such a thing? And why does he show no remorse even when it could save his life? His refusal to satisfy the feelings of others only increases his guilt in the eyes of the law. Soon Meursault discovers that he is being tried not simply for his crime, but for his lack of emotion - a reaction that condemns him for being an outsider. For Meursault, this is an insult to his reason and a betrayal of his hopes; for Camus it encapsulates the absurdity of life."
I think the little book Gods must really be liking me recently. I have been reading amazingly profound book after book.
This was another book that knocked me sideways (though, I must say, not to the same extent as say Giovanni's Room.)
It was a very interesting read. The idea that someone is tried for not reacting in a conventional manner sits very close to home as someone who has Asperger's and thus doesn't react conventionally myself. However, I think that the people who argue that Meursault isn't a bad person, just someone unconventional, different, being unfairly persecuted by a out of date traditionalist society, must not have read the same book I did. Meursault is undoubtedly a bad person. Even if I do not feel nor express emotions the same way as "normal" people, it doesn't mean that sitting by while a pimp beats his girlfriend, a man abuses his dog, or killing a man in cold blood are acceptable things to do.
I am unsure of what Camus was trying to express ideologically through this book. That all morality is just a social construct and thus false and meaningless? That people are more judged for being unconventional then they are for their actual crimes? The life in itself is inherently meaningless and thus your actions hold no meaning?
One of the main questions that was raised in the book was, what truly defines humanity or makes someone human? During Meursault's trial, he is constantly accused of not showing remorse and therefore as being cold and inhuman. He is most definitely human though, just detached. This raises the question of whether one should be expected to exhibit certain characteristics in certain situations to "keep their humanity". It also raises the question of whether much of our emotion is created by ourselves or the expectations of others to exhibit certain emotions in a given situation. The book is also an indictment on people's efforts to dictate other people's lives. We are constantly told what is right and as a means to justify our own sense of "what it means to be human." As someone who, on many occasions, has been accused of being cold, inhuman, even psychotic, merely for not displaying emotions in the expected way, this was a wonderful question to be mulled over. It also prompted me to be more honest myself. Why should I have to lie, as Meursault refuses to do, about what I do or do not feel.
Camus's writing was also wonderful. Meursault lives very much "in" his body, he experiences the world through his senses rather than his emotions. This creates a brilliantly evocative, unique and absorbing tonal atmosphere. Camus's choice to have all the settings drenched in sun heightened the raw sensual savagery, of humanity being brutally illuminated.
A thoroughly interesting book full of a complex and ambiguous philosophical messages, thoroughly open to interpretation and analysis. Age Rating 16+ Sex, murder, abuse, both domestic and animal.
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