In The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character, Mersault, is confronted with the absurdity of life after killing a man on a beach in Algiers. Mersault spends his days absorbed in living the present moment, giving little importance to the past or the future, until the day his world is shattered by this inexplicable act of violence. Although he continually asserts that one path is the same as another and that nothing in life really matters, Mersault frequently reveals contrary thoughts and actions; in fact, even his decision to commit murder can be seen as an intentional attempt to turn his world upside down. For most of the novel, in fact, it is unclear whether the main character frankly lives according to his proclaimed beliefs or whether he simply convinces himself of them in a doomed attempt to avoid the burden of emotion. When the trial that follows the protagonist's crime finally throws Mersault face to face with his own beliefs, he is forced to re-examine his values. As Mersault gradually comes to accept the harsh realities of life, the reader is also forced to examine the passions that govern his own existence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first oddity a reader may notice in The Fall is the lack of dialogue. Rather than being given insight into the main character's conversations, the audience is treated to an almost divine view of the smallest details of Mersault's life. In the first page of the novel alone, for example, Mersault informs us that the day is hot; that he had lunch at Céleste's, as usual; that he will take the two-hour bus to Marengo to return in the afternoon, and so on. Perhaps the reader is given such in-depth access to Mersault's daily activities because the present is all the main character wants to worry about. This fact is made blatantly clear in the first two lines of the novel: “Mom died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know” (3). Questioned by his boss, Mersault is also forced to reveal that he is not sure of his mother's age. Only someone who places little or no importance on the sequence of events can be so cavalier about the age or date of death of a family member. Later, Mersault declines a job offer in Paris because “people never change their lives, and in any case one life was worth another” (41). The past therefore simply does not matter, while decisions made in the present have no bearing on the future - or so Mersault would have the reader believe. decisions seem based simply on the path of least resistance. When Mersault's friend Raymond asks him to help him write a threatening letter to an ex-girlfriend, the protagonist states that he agreed to help Raymond not because he cares a lot about his friend, but rather because he “had no reason not to please him” (32). It's this same mentality that pushes the protagonist to agree to testify that Raymond's girlfriend was unfaithful, despite knowing full well that there is no real evidence to support his friend's claims. Later still, when Mersault's girlfriend asks him if he wants to marry her, he accepts simply because "it doesn't really matter" (41). Alternatively, it is possible to view Mersault's earlier refusal to move to Paris as opposition to change; and if, as he claims, one life is worth another, then why not go to Paris? After refusing theproposal from his boss, the main character is accused of totally lacking ambition, a supposedly essential characteristic of business. Mersault regrets having upset his boss but remains faithful to his resolution. In this case, it seems that rejection was not the easiest route. Additionally, Mersault eventually revealed that when he agreed to marry his girlfriend, he did not understand the meaning of his marriage words; It is only when he sees the wife of his friend Masson that he understands how his actions will change his life. Furthermore, while Mersault's decisions regarding his friend Raymond's situation certainly seem based on a genuine lack of benevolence, other incidents demonstrate the opposite. . For example, one night, Mersault hears his neighbor Salamano sobbing miserably because his long-time canine companion has disappeared. This causes the protagonist to not only think about his recently deceased mother, but also to feel a lack of appetite for the first time since her funeral. The main character's lack of insight into his own habits surfaces when he is joined by a strange woman during his funeral. lunch at her favorite restaurant, Celeste's. Mersault freely expresses his fascination with the woman's frenetic pace and energetic attitude. In fact, he is so absorbed by her robot attitude that he decides to follow her for a short time. Curiously, Mersault himself shows the same need for constant activity. “I remembered that it was Sunday,” Mersault laments at the beginning of the novel, “and that bothered me: I don’t like Sunday” (21). Even if he never explains his reasons, Sunday is the only day of the week where Mersault remains without structure. The day is spent watching the activity on the street below and thinking that her apartment has become too big since her mother moved out. Much further, when Mersault is incarcerated, the passage of time becomes a constant torment. It is because of these long empty hours of the present that the protagonist realizes that he must devote his thoughts to the past and the future. It seems possible, then, that Mersault's earlier aversion to idleness was the result of his evasion of introspection. Whatever Mersault's sincere motivations, it is his stubborn focus on the present that seems to fuel his apparent disconnect with the world around him. At his mother's funeral, Mersault watches his mother's friends enter the room and laments that he "saw them more clearly than I had ever seen anyone, and no detail of their faces or their clothes escaped me. But I couldn't hear them and I found it hard to believe that they really existed” (9). In a later chapter, when Mersault's friend Raymond advises the protagonist to keep his head up, it takes Mersault a moment to realize that his friend is trying to comfort him about his mother's death; although only two days had passed since the funeral, Mersault did not think of him at all. In the first chapter of the novel, in fact, the protagonist rather focuses his attention on the fact that the day is very hot; it's so hot that it makes Mersault fall asleep on the bus on the way to Marengo. Shortly after, he finds that he declines the guard's offer of food because he is not hungry, but accepts a latte and also takes a cigarette. Drinking coffee and smoking was such a relaxing experience that the main character dozed off again. While Mersault visits his neighbor Raymond, further away, the main character enjoys drinking wine and smoking. This attention to physical sensations continues throughout the novel, quickly creating the impression that needsPhysical needs, for Mersault, have a higher priority than emotional needs. It becomes clear soon after that the protagonist is not only focused on the corporeal; at certain times, especially in times of stress, he becomes its slave. This is first evidenced during his trip to his mother's grave, when the main character states that "the brightness of the sky was unbearable" (16) and that "all of it – the sun, the smell of leather and horse manure from the hearse, the smell of varnish and incense, and my fatigue after a sleepless night, prevented me from seeing or thinking clearly" (17), the same pattern is found during this pivotal day which irrevocably changes Mersault's life. When Mersault agrees to go to the beach at Raymond's invitation, he unknowingly triggers the events that will lead to the upheaval of his worldview. At the beach, Mersault and Raymond meet relatives of Raymond's ex-girlfriend, the same ex-girlfriend to whom Mersault agreed to write an insulting letter, which prompted a visit from the young girl and the subsequent blows at the hands of Raymond. Relatives, of course, were offended by his abuse and have haunted Raymond ever since. The reader learns that the Arabs even follow the group to the beach, and when Mersault's faction confronts them for the first time there, Raymond ends up getting cut with a knife. The group returns to their cabin, but Mersault decides to go back down to the beach solo. So far in the novel, Mersault has carefully tailored a specific impression of his character. He presents himself as a man alive for the moment; one who takes pleasure in the basic bodily functions of eating, drinking, sleeping and sex. He makes decisions based on the path of least resistance, without thinking about the past or the future. But is this image also reality, or simply what Mersault would have us believe? This question, in turn, can be answered with a final question: when Mersault kills the Arab, is he simply following his normal pattern of physical domination? Or are his reasons deeper? The morning of the shoot, the protagonist has difficulty waking up. As soon as he arrives outside, Mersault laments that “the day, already radiant with sunshine, hit me like a slap” (47). The reader now knows that this portends a tragic turn of events, and it almost seems as if the main character is aware of this as well, since Mersault admits that "it occurred to me that I just had to turn around and that this would happen.” this will be the end. But the whole beach, pulsating with the sun, weighed on my back” (58). Illustrating the circumstances, Mersault states that following the onslaught of fiery brightness in his surroundings, his “everything was tense and I tightened my hand around the revolver. The trigger gave” (59). In this sense, the reader is led to believe that Mersault's decision to shoot is based on physics. The shot was not so much an intentional firing of the weapon, but rather an instinctive reaction to physical stimuli: his eye is suddenly pierced with light, he jumps, and his finger pulls the trigger. On the other hand, Mersault develops an acute awareness of time, perhaps for the first time in the novel: “It was the same sun, the same light which still shone on the same sand as before. For two hours the day had stopped; for two hours he had been anchored in a sea of ​​molten lead” (58). Furthermore, just before the moment that alters his world, Mersault reacts in a way that is not purely physical. While knowing that the advance towards the Arab will do nothing to get him out of the “cymbals of the sun crashing on my forehead” (59), Mersault still chooses to take one more step, and that is what notmonumental which brings the Arab closer. the knife whose brilliance overwhelms Mersault's vision. The most essential lines, however, come directly after Mersault pulls the trigger for the first time; special emphasis should be placed on the opening phrase: "I shook off the sweat and the sun." I knew that I had broken the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I had been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace” (59). Mersault finally purges himself of physical affects; only after getting rid of the sweat and the sun did he choose to shoot four times more. This is the first time that Mersault deliberately reversed material influence. Furthermore, by recognizing that the bullets left no mark on the body but destroyed the peace of the day, the audience sees a complete reversal of Mersault's previous views: a choice having no physical impact, but having a emotional impact. The fact remains that it is a fairly profound effect. In the second part of the novel, which begins with Mersault already arrested for killing the Arab, Mersault seems to have regained his supposed serenity. Questioned by his lawyer, Mersault answered honestly that his mother's death had not greatly spoiled his happiness. The lawyer leaves in frustration, and the main character shows his loss of sense of the future when he expresses: "I wanted things between us to be good, not so that he would defend me better but, if I can express myself like this. in a way, in a natural way... But in reality, it didn't do much good, and I abandoned the idea out of laziness” (66). While being lectured by a magistrate on the need to merit God's forgiveness, Mersault exposes his relapse into physical distraction by revealing that "I had a lot of difficulty following his reasoning, firstly because I "I was hot and there were big flies in his office that kept falling on my face" (68). When the magistrate harangues Mersault to admit that he believes in God, Mersault reveals his decline to the path of least resistance when he agrees with the magistrate only because "every time I want to get rid of someone I don't really listen to, I make it seem like I agreed” (69). Mersault's renewed detachment from the world around him is evident when he has to remember that he has killed a man. Little by little, however, the protagonist recognizes the change. After spending a few months in prison and having to find ways to fill the time, he came across a solution: "Eventually, once I learned to remember things, I wasn't bored at all... I then realized that a man who had only lived one day could easily live a hundred years in prison” (78). The past has finally acquired meaning; the future finds its rightful place when Mersault admits that “Only the words “yesterday” and “tomorrow” still had meaning for me” (80). He regrets not having bothered to read more stories about the executions: if it had been about an escape from the inevitable, he might have gained some hope for the future. Whereas before, the main character did not have the capacity to examine his own actions... he admits in his first interview with his lawyer that he "had almost lost the habit of analyzing himself" (65) - Mersault finds this ability again when he notices a journalist present at his trial: “All I saw in his somewhat unbalanced speech. His face was his two very bright eyes, which examined me closely without betraying any definable emotion. And I had the strange feeling of being observed by myself” (85). Mersault also admits to worrying about the impression he makes on others when he.