Albert Camus: The Outsider

[PipPirrip]

I've just finished “The Outsider” and very much impressed by it. But in the end I was undecided if the protagonist was autistic or sociopathic. To a degree the character was intellectually aware of his emotional dis-junction from society, which suggests a sociopath, but he seemed unaware of the seriousness of his crime, which suggests he is autistic. I couldn't decide given that I don't know what the attitude towards Africans was in Algeria during the 50's – is a callousness towards Africans the norm in his society? I am hoping Salio might be able to comment on this.

Anyway, after reading the novel I read the foreword and in that an interview with Camus describes how the protagonist was making an intellectual and philosophical decision to reject social norms. So he is not autistic – he is a martyr to a philosophy that rejects social norms. He chooses to die for a belief that he shouldn't need to conform to a social norm.

Fine, that's a point a view, but as the author, does he get to explain what he meant to say? If he were a critic, I wouldn't agree with his reading. I don't think that is what is described, but do I have to give his opinion more weight because that is what he intended?

 

[nwee]

Camus and his works of Fiction

This is a short essay on three works of fiction by Albert Camus -The Outsider, The Fall and The plague. I thought I'd write this surmise because upon reading these three books, Camus became my favourite author.

The Outsider, a novel about a young man, who leads his life the way he deems fit, but becomes the target of various interpretations due to not being a part of the "accepted norm". Meursault kills a man at the heat of the moment (literally), but finds that he is unable to prove to society that he is not one of a criminal mind set, because others have judged him, and that their prejudice means that he is doomed. At the hearing of his case, witnesses testify that the accused is a hard hearted man with no values. Matters that aggrevate the case for the accused are that he didn't want to see the remains of his mother, that he didn't shed a tear, that he smoked while sitting through a night before the casket, that he spent a day at the poolside with his girlfriend right after the funeral etc. The author has done an excellent job showing that once society is convinced that one is guilty, there is almost no chance of being acquited. In Meursault's case he had none, becuase he is dead straight in his dealings, and what the society things about him doen not dictate his life. He lives and dies that way as he chases away the chaplain who comes to "save his soul". The whole narration written in the first person portrays the nonchalant, non-emotional and truthful nature of Meursault.

The monologue, The Fall, I would rate as my favourite. Although a monologue Camus' creativity is such that the reader never feels bored, as the narrator reveals his hypocrisy. The narrator reveals how he hates himself, the hypocritical farce which passes as humanity and almost wishes he could be someone else. It is a first class testament of guilt consciousness. As the narrator falls ill as narration unfolds, it kind of infers that he is suffering due to his hypocrisy and the Lie that is his life -

But when you don’t like your own life, when you know that you must change lives, you don’t have any choice, do you? What can one do to become another ? Impossible.

Introspection at Best !!! Brilliant !!!

How does each one of us react in times of Calamity ? While some of us try to save ourselves through isolation from others, it brings out the best in others, making it them realise who they are. The Plague portays touchingly & hauntingly how the human mind could react to such a calamity as a plague for which there is no cure. When one things the knowledge that Camus has had on the various ways that the human mind could react to such a calamity, the reader simply can't help feeling awe, being impressed with the mastery of the author.

I in my limited reading experiences haven't come across any author of fiction who analyses the human psyche to the degree of Camus. I feel that the world was robbed of great intellect when he died at the age of 46.

I hope that many readers who have read Camus would open up avenues, which I haven't traversed "reading" camus.