In Albert Camus's "The Stranger" ...What are Meursault's values......beliefs?

Question

I have an idea but could use some input-thanks.

Answer 1

I agree with the answerer that called Mersault a robot...thats the impression I got when I read it.

Then again..the style of prose (Stream of Consciousness) doesn't lend itself to indepth thought...but it does lend itself to plenty of discussion and speculation!

I think Camus uses Mersault as archetype of sorts...he's an unattached young adult in a world that he doesn't connect with. A lost youth if you will. The very few things he does connect with are of the material nature...indicating a temporal connection.

At the end he values life, not because he's cherished his, but because its about to be taken from him. In my opinion there's a switch in his brain that has him "wake up", as if from a coma.

This is all babbling on my part though...its been a good 10 years since I've read The Stranger!

Answer 2

Meursault values physical things. He s constantly talking about the world around him and what he sees. He doesn t have any interest in God what so ever. In short you could say he believes praising God or putting so much into him is a destructive and pointless social construct. Only when he is face to face with death does he start to value life.

Answer 3

you can talk about his beliefs, because this is the theme of the book: the search for some beliefs, values.
Mersault is like a robot, he finds it hard to feel things. sees only the objective and the concrete side of the world, this is why he is sentenced to death in the end. not because he is guilty for killing a man, but for not being understood by the others.

Answer 4

The only thing he values is life [at the end of the book], because the only life he believes in is here and now.

Answer 5

yes i think so