Brooks2

In the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the main character is questioned

of being immoral. Mersault, the main character in question, had a lack of

interest in life and death, but is he really immoral?

At the beginning of the novel Mersault�s mother died. Mersault obviously did

not have a loving relationship with his mother. She had been place in a home for
the aged, so Mersault has only seen her a few times. At her funeral he did

not show any emotion and was criticized harshly for it, but is that really

immoral? Sometimes people do not show their emotions or the loss had not had
an impact on them yet.

After the funeral the reader was introduced the reader to Marie. Marie loves

Mersault and wanted to marry him. He never tells Marie he loves her, but that

does not mean he does not. Mersault just might be afraid to admit he actually

cares for someone.

Mersault�s lack of emotion really shows when he meets the Arab for the third

time. After the Arab stabbed Mersault�s friend Raymond, he knows the Arab is

dangerous. Mersault continued walking back down the beach where the Arab

stabbed Raymond, so Mersault brought his gun. The gun was just to protect

himself from the Arab, who had already stabbed a man. He did not intend to

hurt the Arab, but he did. In self-defense Mersault shot four times and killed the
Arab. Mersault was arrested and put on trial for murder. Was it really murder?

Mersault was just defending himself, but he was put to death for it.

He may be an immoral character for not crying at his own mothers� funeral and
for killing another human, but he was not immoral for not showing emotion and

being honest. I sympathize with Mersault for being treated unfairly. Life is hard
and people deal with it in many different ways. Mersault was not worried about

dying or about living, but he was not immoral for it. Mersault�s character? Was
he mean, was he a murderer? No, he was misunderstood.