An Intersection of Morality and Fear

Hi friends! This blog post references the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus. A lot of people in our class took 20^th Century Novel last year, and will be able to understand what I’m going to be talking about when I discuss the novel (which we read in that class). You should be able to understand the post without having read The Stranger, though, so stick around!

                  Let’s get basis of The Stranger out of the way here. The main character and our (very) good friend, Meursault has a very bleak outlook on life and as a result tends to be a little “insensitive.” On a day at the beach with one of his friends, he quite irrationally commits a murder by shooting an Arab man 5 times. Without any remorse or fear he is indicted and tried for premeditated murder and sentenced to death as the jury finds him an abomination to society for being so cold. We see in the second half of the novel how Meursault wrestles with existentialism and freedom. Albert Camus wrote The Stranger as an existentialist novel to discuss the significance of perceived morality and emotion in society. According to the citizens within The Stranger, to act against the norm is punishable by death. I guess you could call The Stranger a protest novel of sorts (?) though not as loaded as Native Son.

                  For those of you who have read Meursault’s story, hopefully reading the jail cell scenes in Native Son reminded you of some events in The Stranger. Bigger Thomas has his own episode of existentialist struggles. Some key differences between Bigger and Meursault stem primarily from their philosophy of life and what had commanded their actions. Meursault killed out of rage from the sun (the rage of a thousand suns actually lmao) and Bigger killed from panic and terror. Fundamentally, these two emotional motives are completely different and provide a base that will skew these two character’s stories in opposite directions with ultimately the same tragic ending.

                  Bigger Thomas is consumed by fear for what he has done to Mary. Nothing would please Bigger more than to escape to his life before he killed Mary, but, at the same time, he would lose out on the individuality he claimed by committing an unforgivable crime. He seems to find himself by killing Mary, but he also finds an uncontrollable need to escape. He knows that being caught would mean certain death, but he thinks also about the press coverage and the media attention he would receive. He seeks to relish his actions, a similar desire felt by Meursault before he is executed.

                  (On that note, actually, it seems like Bigger’s fear is present since the very moment he steps into the Dalton’s residence, whereas Meursault doesn’t fully feel the ramifications of his actions until he is sentenced to death. Both seem to be on extreme ends of the spectrum (Bigger less so than Meursault, but still). Tell me what you might think about that it seems like Bigger’s fear fades and Meursault’s hits him like a truck.)

                  Bigger is brought to jail and talks with his lawyer who slowly begins to understand his actions as he explains his fear of being in such an imposing white world. Meursault’s lawyer is alienated completely as Meursault has a blank personality and virtually no emotions and kind of acts like a robot and wont explain himself so his lawyer hates him.

                  Throughout their jail sentences they both meet with a priest who they both totally flip out on out of fear or hate. There is no god, they say, how could there be if this is what life is like! Upon being sentenced to death, Bigger is like “Yeah, I'll take it.” and Meursault freaks out hardcore. Bigger has had plenty of time to talk with Jan, Max, the Daltons, and his family. Meursault, on the other hand, doesn’t really have friends. His girlfriend visited him, but he ignored her the whole time, which is kind of a bummer for both of them tbh.

                  Anyways, it seems like these novels have a lot of similarities, but in each similarity, the role is reversed in a way. Can you think of other stories about people who murder people and then go to jail and get executed? I’m sure there are quite a few.