The Stanger essay
Meursault is not at first a seeker of meaning, nor is he aware of his own mortality. He simply idles through life, ignoring the meaning and responsibility of life. Through out the novel, Meusault’s indifference, emotionless, faithless fully exemplified the meaningless of life. In Camus’s the stranger, he uses characterization to portray Meursault’s perception of life to convey the message that life is meaningless. After his mother’s death, he is not even sad. “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman has buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed.’’ (24) Meursault is isolated from his mother both before and after her death; this is why "nothing has changed." “I felt like telling her it was not my fault, but I stopped myself because I remembered that I had already said that to my boss. It didn’t mean anything. Besides, you always feel a little guilty” (20). At Meursault’s opinion, Maman’s death is not important at all, it is even a guilt to take a day off just because he needs to attend the funeral. Meursault is so unattached and no pain over his mother’s death that others’ expressions of sadness annoy him more than they affect him. At one time, Meursault gets an invitation to move to Paris by his boss, but he declines. Meursault says that "people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine at all." (41) Mersault is content with what he got. He has his work and his home: it's all he needs. His life is no meaning for him; he does not even want a better change. The fact that he believes is that all lives are the same can only be possible of each meaning is the same, and since everybody has no meaning. Mersault is characterized by an indifference to change. Although he likes to be with Maria together, but he does not think that marriage is matter to him. “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her(41).” With characteristic emotional indifference and detachment, Meursault answers Marie’s question with brutal honesty. His honesty shows that his ignorance of human emotion, and perhaps even more than that, he thinks that there is no meaning to have a traditional relationship with Marie rather than sexual interest in Marie. Camus integrates the meaningless in The Stranger in the very last chapter, when the chaplain comes to talk to Mersault before he is executed. “But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t much matter whether you die at thirty or at seventy, since in