Author
Camus, Albert
Timeline
Camus, Albert was a French author, philosopher and journalist. He was born on 7th November 1913 in French Algeria. He died on 4th January 1960 in Villeblevin, France.
Synopsis
A French inhabitant of Algeria named Meursault fails to display or cry at the funeral of his mother. In such a situation instead of displaying the common emotions, he exhibits no empathy, feels detached and disinterested, expresses no feelings, accepts her fate calmly, drinks coffee and smokes before her coffin. Meursault befriends an
unsavory neighbor, Raymond and offers help to take revenge on his girlfriend. She slaps Raymond after he beats her and accuses her of infidelity. Raymond is then encountered on the beach by the girl’s Arab brother and friend, in which Raymond gets stabbed.
Raymond shoots the brother on the beach not out of revenge but due to the terrible heat and the sun’s annoying brightness on the knife the Arab carried. Meursault is arrested, put into jail and tried for murder for his truthful convictions and not falsehoods. His indifferent attitude to his mother’s death is something the prosecutor fails to understand and is termed as ‘Monsieur Antichrist’ for his atheism. Finally he is convicted for the murder though he does not consider himself criminal. However his inability to show remorse and emotions seem to be the true offense. With indifference he finally approaches death, with the belief that his existence would be less absurd after death and he would be aligned with the universe, more closely.