CHAPTER 2 Albert Camus' The Outsider

CHAPTER 2 Albert Camus' The Outsider 37

2. Albert Camus The Outsider 2.1 Introduction The essay, The Myth of Sisyphus (English) Le Mythe de Sisyphe (French) illustrates Camus' notion of the absurd. His rigorous and austere search for moral order finds its expression in his novel, The Outsider (English) L Étranger (French). Written in the year 1942, the novel captures the spirit of the absurd in its true essence. Meursault, the central character of the novel, illustrates man as the nauseated victim of the absurd orthodoxy of habit. Society with its preconceived notions of norms imposes rules that man must follow, failing which he is declared an Outsider or a Stranger. In the Universe, two primary elements govern human action; the celestial Sun and the society. Both impose rules of conduct and humans are expected to behave, react and act according to these sets of rules. We live in a society that expects us to follow a set of rules, forfeiting which we are considered as Outsiders. For example, if we do not cry at our mother's funeral, we will be considered an Outsider. This fact has been well established in Camus novel. Similarly, we wake up when the Sun rises and retire when the Sun sets. In this way, the Sun sets a pattern for us. If we follow the reverse pattern, then we shall be considered vampires and not humans. The absurdity of human life lies in the fact that a huge mass of energy and fire governs and controls our lives and sets a pattern for the entire universe. Without the Sun, life on Earth would perish. The Sun plays a significant role in The Outsider. It symbolically represents Meursault's repressed emotions. The novel portrays him as a man devoid of human emotions, but very much in love with the Sun and the Sea. Meursault works as a clerk in an Algerian office. His life unrolls before our eyes. He attends his mother's funeral, the next day he meets Marie and strikes friendship with Raymond Sintes, a pimp. A dramatic turn changes his whole life. He accidentally kills an 38

Arab for which he is tried and condemned to death. The story is a very simple one, but the world of absurdity is enclosed within the novel. 2.2. Individual Struggle in The Absurd World Meursault is a fine representation of individual struggle in the absurd world. Men are born to die, but the world remains indifferent to the same. Humans die, but the Universe knows no death and is indifferent to our painful confrontation with death. Death is an absurd truth often unaccepted by us. In response to this absurdity, Camus says humans either face resignation or rebellion. One says; my rebellion, my freedom and my passion. The Outsider (1941) is Camus first novel offering the absurd philosophy. The novel falls outside the normal expected rules of society. The Outsider communicates a modern experience; the awareness of radical inconsistency between the social world and the true self. That is why Camus chooses to focus on the innocence and sincerity of his hero in a world he never made; as he sees his conflict with the society as a simple one, of good against evil. The novel opens with the lines: "My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I don't know." (Camus 3) Adele King, writer and critic lucidly defines Camus style as an art that separates man from the story to remind him that it is only fiction. The odd way that Camus starts chapter one is an example of the dramatic style enhancing absurd behavior and absurd ideas; the novel begins as if it were a diary entry or a monologue between Meursault and himself. (Payne 19) Meursault, the protagonist is seen travelling to an old age home where his mother died to attend her funeral. In the beginning, we are introduced to the character of Meursault and there is something typical about him. The strangeness in his behaviour immediately catches the reader's attention. His feelings are not directly indicative but various blanks and silences reveal that his feelings are inconsistent with his behaviour. The absolute lack of emotion in him creates awe in the reader. Meursault displays a strange behaviour 39

when he does not express grief at his mother's funeral. At the same time he displays very natural feelings as he dispels the necessity to create grief that hasn't arisen naturally. But that does not imply that he does not lack emotions entirely. Throughout the novel, he bonds well with most of the people around him and they too take a liking for him. His honesty and accepting nature leads to his downfall. There is also another reason for Meursault's downfall. Society conditions people to wear masks at all times. Meursault refuses to wear this mask and is therefore regarded as an outsider. The novel also reveals people's behaviour as seen from various social perspectives. Recurrent social conditions prevalent in modern society are depicted such as Meursault's boss hesitating to grant him leave even on such an occasion as his mother's death. To this, Meursault replies: "It's not my fault." (Camus 3). The chapter also reveals what a Sunday means for the working class. Meursault says, "I did not visit mother because it took up my whole Sunday." (Camus 5) The general attitude of people towards a person who has lost his parents is also revealed. "Everyone felt very sorry for me and Celeste said: 'You only have one mother.' When I got up to leave, they walked me to the door." (Camus 3) At the old age home, Meursault surprises everyone by his behaviour. "The director was talking to me again, but I was barely listening" (Camus 5). He surprises the mortuary keeper by declining to look at his mother's body. On the day of the funeral, he thinks of enjoying the morning breeze instead of lamenting his mother's death. On the following day, he returns back and goes swimming with Marie. Marie is amazed that Meursault behaves so normal when his mother has died just yesterday. "After we were dressed, she seemed very surprised to see me wearing a black tie and asked if I was in mourning. I told her that Mama had died." (Camus 18). Later they watch a Fernandel movie together and Marie goes back with Meursault to his flat. The following evening after a routine day at the office, Meursault comes across an elderly neighbour, Salamano, who beats his dog mercilessly every day. Later 40

Raymond asks Meursault if he was not disgusted by the way the old man treats his dog. "I said no." (Camus 26). Then he asks Meursault to eat with him and Meursault is delighted that this would save him from the labour of having to cook: "I thought how I wouldn t have to cook dinner and said yes." (Camus 26). From the above situations, a reader assumes that Meursault lacks human feelings and emotions. If anything he has with him, it is his own feelings and passions. Camus deliberately describes how Meursault spends his Sunday's in a manner pretty different from other people. He spends a Sunday in his room watching the people in the streets below. Describing his protagonist, Camus writes: "For me Meursault is not a piece of human wreckage, but a man who is poor, naked, and in love with the sun which leaves no shadows. Far from lacking in all feelings, he is inspired by a passion which is profound yet unspoken, the passion for the absolute and for the truth. It is still a negative truth, that of being alive and experiencing life, but without it no conquest of oneself or of the world will ever be possible. Meursault was conscious of the nature and value of the attitude he represented." (Ponomareff 119) Women characters such as Meursault's mother and Marie, his girlfriend, play significant roles in his life. The novel begins with the mother's funeral. The events that follow shape the entire story. Meursault does not cry during her funeral, he is condemned for this act and ultimately sent to the gallows. The mother, though absent from the novel, shapes its entire proceedings. Marie through her relationship with Meursault, reveals his character. The Outsider is the opposition between the sincere individual and an uncomprehending society represented in Marie. For Meursault, marriage is not a serious consideration. When Marie asks whether he loves her or not, he replies: "That didn t mean anything, but I didn t think so." (Camus 32). Marie is aware of Meursault's unusual behaviour and feelings towards others. Yet she loves him and wants to marry him because she is in love with his sincerity 41

and his affinity to abide by his own set of rules. She admits that she loves Meursault for his indifference and one day she might even hate him for the same reason. The novel follows a dramatic change over the accidental killing of an Arab by Meursault. His crime is no more than the mechanical result of a series of accidental events, the meeting with Raymond and the planning to deceive his girlfriend with a letter, the decision to go for a swim and finally being brought to judgement for the murder of an Arab. During the trial, he is told by the police that he had shown great callousness at his mother's funeral and his lawyer asks whether he expressed grief on that particular occasion. But Meursault replies that he had lost the habit of delving into his feelings and so could hardly answer. He replied, "I undoubtedly loved Mama but that didn t mean anything. Every normal person sometimes wishes the people they love would die." (Camus 58) His defending lawyer seems deeply perturbed after hearing this. Meursault again arouses irritability in the lawyer by saying: "One of the characteristics of my personality was that physical sensations often got in the way of my emotions." (Camus 59) Later the court is resentful after learning that Meursault had declined to take a last look at his mother's body; that he had smoked, taken coffee and even gone to bed with his girlfriend Marie on the day after the funeral. The prosecutor emphasizes Meursault's callousness. Meursault states a hard truth, I was just like everybody else, exactly like everybody else." (Camus 59) The judge also asks the same question whether he had loved his mother, Meursault answered, "yes like everyone else." (Camus 61). The whole court, including the clerk is startled at this answer. The judges are men of principle. The answers made by Meursault make him guilty in their eyes and so he is condemned to death. Camus wrote: "A long time ago, I summed up The Outsider in a sentence which I realise is extremely paradoxical. In our society, any man who doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death. I simply meant that the hero of the book is condemned because he doesn't play the game. He refuses to lie. Lying is not only 42

saying what isn't true. It is also, in fact especially, saying more than is true and, in the case of the human heart, saying more than one feels. We all do it, every day, to make life simpler. But Meursault, contrary to appearances, doesn't want to make life simpler. He says what he is, he refuses to hide his feelings and society immediately feels threatened. For example, he is asked to say that he regrets his crime, in time-honoured fashion. He replies that he feels more annoyance about it than true regret. And it is this nuance that condemns him." (Carrol 27) The hero doesn t play the game means that he refuses to lie. Lying is not only saying which is not true, it is also showing more than is true as far as the human heart is concerned. To simplify life, one lies, just like Goneril and Regan had done to please their father, King Lear for the sake of wealth and power. Meursault doesn t want to simplify life, he refuses to disguise his feelings and immediately the society feels threatened just like Lear showed his anger towards Cordelia. Far from being true, he lacks all sensibility, a deep compassion animates him, a passion for the absolute and the truth for which he has to pay a heavy price. Critics like Thomas Hanna, who have accepted Camus' point of view, relegate Meursault's "indifference" to the metaphysical level. They see him as no more than a victim of circumstances and of an immoral society. They believe that there is no explanation for the murder and that any attempt to find an explanation is as existentially absurd as any attempt to explain the meaning and purpose of existence itself. It is as absurd as society's attempts to impose conventional moral standards on any independent soul. Camus' three themes appear in succession; hope, rebellion and the passion to live. Meursault finally understands the moral implications of his crime. He doesn't recognise that he has violated anything deeper than a superficial social rule. He realises that he has been caught up in an unsuitable process and tries to escape his fate but in vain. Suddenly he turns towards a philosophical world and his rebellion takes shape against 43

society. He becomes aware of the ultimate reality that all are condemned to die one day and his turn too would come like the others. Sooner or later, death is inevitable as Camus mentions in The Myth of Sisyphus that death is the only reality. Meursault accepts the absurdity of the world in which men must die. Death is the ultimate tragedy of life; man thinks he has plenty of time, but suddenly the reality pounces on him. 2.3. Meursault as the Absurd Hero The Outsider exemplifies Camus' notion of the absurd hero. Just prior to writing the novel, Camus gave to the world a definitive meaning of an absurd hero in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus in Camus' words is the absurd hero. He toils hard with futile labour yet is uncomplaining. Camus says: "He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the Gods, his hatred of death and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted towards accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this Earth." (Camus 116) The absurd hero differs from the literary hero in many respects. Lexically a hero or a heroine is the main character of a literary work, fights all adversity and sacrifices his or her personal benefits for the sake of others. A hero performs outstanding feats and possesses noble qualities. He is regarded as a role model for others to emulate. The absurd hero on the other hand deviates from the normal standard definition. He flaunts societal norms and often draws flak for his actions. His actions are absurd and that's what sets him apart from the rest. Yet he is heroic in the Camusian sense because he is fully conscious of life's absurdity and embraces it happily. In this sense Meursault is an absurd hero. He justifies the absurdity of the universe by performing such an absurd act. He is at one with the universe because, like him, so many absurd things occur in the universe. 44

2.4. Conclusion The notion of the Outsider is as old as human civilisation. He is heroic and distinct. What sets him apart from the rest are his perceptions of reality that are different from the society he lives in. He identifies himself and his position in the universe differently from the way society does and so rejects a value system which is already established. From Christ to Socrates, history holds accounts of exemplary men who have acted according to their individual values and have turned a blind eye towards the accepted norms of society. They have been true heroes often punished with death for bravely moving against the tide. Such men are often regarded as prophets or great men. In the modern age, they are regarded as criminals or outcasts. Camus, being the spokesperson of his era, sketched The Outsider on the lines of a common man who, like his predecessor, perceives life differently from what his society does. But is unable to replace the system with the values he thinks are worth pursuing. He is lost in a world without values. Camus presents the modern Outsider in his portrayal of Meursault. He is an unambitious man, who does not show a flair for emotions. He remains secluded in his apartment far away from others, is keen to observation and shows a huge appetite for the physical senses. He hardly cares for the opinion others have of him. Only when he accidentally commits a crime that he discovers his true self and his position in the society. He spends long hours observing people and is intrigued by their behaviour. Meursault vehemently refuses to display false emotions. He does not feel the necessity to play the game. Also, he does not hanker after material pleasure and his wealth comprises of basking in the sun, swimming and enjoying physical love with his girlfriend. The meaning and purpose of life for the modern Outsider varies largely from the people surrounding him and so he is alienated from them. Due to work pressure, monotonous 45

routine life, stress, the modern man lives a secluded life. This seclusion increases his mental and emotional alienation from others. Meursault leads a lonely life in his apartment. He has no regular visitors except Marie, his girlfriend. And he likes to spend his Sundays simply watching people below throughout the day. The rule of the universe that every action has an equal and opposite reaction holds untrue for him. He exhibits no genius, has neither mission to fulfill nor any remarkable feelings to bestow. He detaches himself from any metaphysical reason to live and so enjoys full freedom in the conduct of his actions. Since he does not believe in God or afterlife, all his acts become absurd. Shooting the Arab is purely an absurd act of Meursault. In this way he confirms to the definition of an Outsider. Just like Christ was crucified and Socrates was poisoned for affirming himself and his beliefs, Meursault is put under the guillotine for not conforming to society's norms. In this way, Camus makes him a Christ figure. His quest for truth only affirms the fact that the universe is silent to his truthfulness and that there is no such thing as good or bad. Acts of goodness are not always rewarded with good results and vice-versa. Camus says that in the end he discovers that he is not just an Outsider to his society; he is, and will always be, an outsider to himself as well. And because he is an Outsider to himself, he is an Outsider in the universe as well. (Camus 6) What characterizes Meursault throughout the novel is his desire to represent a truthful personality. He doesn't want to lie and so the society perceives him as a stranger. Camus portrays a human being who shocks society by simply refusing to play the game. In the true sense, it is society which is a stranger to people who do not lie or fake. The people reading the novel for the first time are themselves strangers to the notion of the absurd and vainly try to judge Meursault according to the typical standards set so far. For the readers too, Mersault is "a stranger". Lewis Warsh says Camus believed that the anti-hero must be in continual revolt against the absurdity of the world. Meursault s outburst against the chaplain is his first 46

show of outward rebellion against the forces in society (as symbolized by the chaplain) that control human beings. Until this point, he has acted passively in relation to these forces. His striking out against the chaplain parallels his act of violence against the Arab. In the earlier instance, he is controlled by the forces of nature. In the second instance, he is controlled by the man-made conventions that rule the world. For Camus, both nature and society are ultimately indifferent to the plight of the individual. (Warsh 101) And so overwhelmed by their alienation, isolation and strangeness, the protagonists are left in a "living-dead" state. (Al-Sarayreh 124) Since the absurd is a living condition, Meursault is an example to mankind, teaching us ways to cope with the absurd. Camus presented to the world The Outsider at the same time as The Myth of Sisyphus. By doing so he wanted to make the world aware of the absurd condition that prevails in the universe. Meursault is presented to man as a lesson, a lesson to face the absurd situations in life with a perseverance to continue to find the beauty in nature and a perseverance to live day to day without having the need of hope. (Payne 40) Payne further mentions that man should not search for a transcendent meaning in life but rather look for contentment every day. Each day lived must be a day to remember. Adele King adds; like Meursault, man too must reach "a tranquil homeland where death itself is a happy silence." (King 56). 47

REFERENCES Al-Sarayreh, Dafer Yousef. Absurdity, Alienation, and Death: Existential Affinities in The Fiction of William Faulkner, Albert Camus, And Naguib Mahfouz. College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University, 1998. Camus, Albert. The Outsider. Penguin UK, 2013. Camus, Albert, and Justin O'Brien. Le Mythe de Sisyphe. The Myth of Sisyphus. Translated... by Justin O'Brien. Hamish Hamilton, 1955. Carroll, David. Albert Camus the Algerian: Colonialism, Terrorism, Justice. Columbia University Press, 2007. Hanna, Thomas. The Thought and Art of Albert Camus. Chicago: Regnery, 1958. Print. Hudson, Anne. The Plight of The Modern Outsider. N.p., n.d. Web. King, Adele. Camus. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1964. Print. Payne, Melissa. Discussion of the Absurd in Albert Camus' Novels Essays and Journals. University of Tennessee - Knoxville, n.d. Web. <http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj>. Ponomareff, Constantin V. In the Shadow of the Holocaust & Other Essays. Vol. 29. Rodopi, 1998. Warsh, Lewis. Albert Camus s The Stranger. Woodbury, NY: Barrons Educational Series, 1986. Print. 48