The Stranger Essay - Body 4

Once Meursault understands his true feelings he recognizes his opposition to that which is established, something that has been hinted at throughout the novel. He feels the world has become “like a brother” and for the first time he feels the kinship of a familial male relationship. He achieved an understanding of the world that he believes to be true and has connected with that higher power on a personal level of understanding. Ironically, he has come to understand the one thing he previously claimed he could not, the concept of god. To him the world lacks respect for the customs and rules of man, just as he does. He feels the complete awe of the stars, hears the gentle lapping of the waves, and the warm basking glow of the sun. He understands that personal fulfill meant that comes with doing what he feels is right, not what society tells him he should believe to be right. Where before he had been almost like a predator drone for society watching, observing from a distance without thinking and doing only what he is told. However, after this experience he is freed of his controller and is able to think and understand for himself and can determine his own beliefs and feelings separate from the emotional distance he had been programmed with.

The Stranger Essay - Body 3

Meursault’s body had become trapped within the walls of his cold stony cell, but the metal bars could not contain his mind allowing his emotions to leak out. When the priest once again visits him we witness an exorcism of his emotion demons flying out of the box all at once, release the evil and hatred that he has tried so hard to contain. Meursault had achieved the one thing that he believed he never could, salvation, an emotional salvation that frees his soul from the burdens he had placed upon himself. He had refused to see the paster since their first encounter because he discovered something new. He discovered fear. He was afraid of what would come out of his demon’s layer what evils truly lurked there and how that would change him. For the first time the pastor introduced a question that he could not answer, the question of god and eternity. Meursault couldn’t fathom the probability of something that he could not see or observe. He believed that only things that he could touch or see, something concrete were real.  

The Stranger Essay - Paragraph 2

And I felt ready to live it all again too. As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope and for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself – like a brother, really – I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate. (129)

At the end of the novel we see a release of all that he has contained: emotions, sadness and anger the feelings will all trap within us in our everyday lives. Every day we are alive we are hurt we are angered we are annoyed, but society expects us to contain these feelings into a box. This box continues to build up more anger, more hatred, more feelings. Yet, once we allow this lid to be released the flurry of emotions is released with such explosive anger that one can not even imagine contain it. Meursault has removed himself from life to protect himself from the aggravations and feelings of life those that hurt us and destroy us. He has had a lifetime of these memories that have been trapped, contained, chained within looking for a way out a weakness in Meursault’s emotional armor. His armor was the distractions of his life the tasks he must complete and things to do every day. He tries to repress his feelings, hence why he is removed the concept of mourning when his mother dies, its why he fails to understand love, it is why he fails to understand anger and revenge. The members of the court fail to see this emotional absence as a cocoon or a shell to protect himself from emotional damage.