Page "Anomie" Paragraph 12

In Albert Camus's existentialist novel The Stranger, the bored, alienated protagonist Meursault struggles to construct an individual system of values as he responds to the disappearance of the old.

He exists largely in a state of anomie, as seen from the apathy evinced in the opening lines: (" Today mother died.

Or maybe yesterday, I don't know ").

When Mersault is prosecuted for shooting an Arab man during a fight, the prosecuting attorneys seem more interested in the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral than the murder of the Arab, because they find his lack of remorse offensive.

The novel ends with Meursault recognizing the universe's indifference toward humankind.

In the first half of the novel Meursault is clearly an unreflecting, unapologetic individual.

Ultimately, Camus presents the world as essentially meaningless and therefore, the only way to arrive at any meaning or purpose is to make it oneself.