The Stranger Essays

12th Grade

The Stranger

The search for purpose has been an infamous struggle for people throughout history. When traveling on the journey of self-enlightenment, many people face obstacles that hinder their ability to determine who they really are. People may ostensibly...

12th Grade

The Stranger

In "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, the main character, Meursault, is seen to be a very passive and reserved individual. He appears to show indifference in situations where others would have shown emotion. These characteristics of Meursault, and...

11th Grade

The Stranger

Thinking about the sun will likely produce similar thoughts in any person: heat, energy, light, life. Albert Camus though, in his novel The Stranger, utilizes the sun to serve a much more abstract purpose. Meursault, the narrator, naturally finds...

College

The Stranger

The philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus confront the meaninglessness of existence in unique fashions. Nietzsche’s The Gay Science utilizes short paragraphs discussing particular existentialist themes such as the death of god and...

10th Grade

The Stranger

“Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.” This is the explanation of...

12th Grade

The Stranger

A key tenet of existentialism is that as humans, we are all surrounded by absurdity. The very world we live in is absurd, and our actions are the only thing that we have complete control over. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov...

12th Grade

The Stranger

The intrinsic human ability to recognize order has often been a foundation of proof that a higher purpose exists. Many people believe that sequences and patterns in the universe are evidence that human life was intended to have meaning. However,...

12th Grade

The Stranger

The Sun reveals itself as a symbol and a motif in the book as early as Maman’s funeral, it continues to be a sort of mood setter for Meursault, it sometimes makes him feel calm and peaceful, while sometimes it annoys and torments him, it presents...