the Outsider

Melissa Grant English 12 The Outsider: Albert Camus In The Outsider, Albert Camus portrays Meursault, the book’s narrator and main character, as detached, and unemotional. He does not think much about events or their consequences, nor does he express much feeling in relationships or during emotional times. He displays an impassiveness throughout the book in his reactions to the people and events described in the book. After his mother’s death he sheds no tears; …

…from a society so foreign to him, he does not understand it as the society does not understand him. For this reason his actions are just. In the case of the teenagers who murdered the boys, the mildly retarded boy received a reduced sentence and was treated differently than the other boys. Perhaps Meursault should have received the same kind of treatment, on the other hand maybe that’s not what he was looking for!