Topic > "The Stranger": an investigation into existentialism

Isolation can affect anyone. But how can it affect relationships? The novel The Stranger by Albert Camus is about an isolated character named Meursault. His relationships are strongly affected by his isolation, but he still chose to isolate himself. Isolation can affect relationships because it can cause a person to block emotions, feel indifferent to the situations of others, and prevent a person from experiencing a deep or complex relationship. . Therefore, isolation can negatively affect your relationships. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Can isolation make a person not try or blocks all emotions towards any other person he knows. In the book there are many examples where the main character blocks or doesn't recognize his feelings, love is one of the feelings he doesn't feel/recognize. Love is a feeling that everyone wants and needs. But not recognizing it or blocking it can destroy your relationships with others. This is important in the book because Meursault has a girl who loves him, but he doesn't love her and that doesn't matter. He loves her very much, but he doesn't love her. Marie asked Meursault to marry him, and he said yes but she wonders why he does it: “Marie came that evening and asked me if I would marry her. I said I didn't care; if she liked it, we would get married. Then he asked me again if I loved him. I replied, as before, that his question meant nothing or almost nothing, but I assumed not. “If that's how you feel,” he said, “why marry me?” (Camus 28). Meursault sends Marie mixed messages, saying he wants to marry her, but doesn't love her. He expresses that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, but doesn't love her and slightly dodges the love question. So, this is an example of him not acknowledging or blocking his feelings for Marie. Death is a very important part of all lives and this book. It's a very sad time for everyone, but isolation can also affect a person's feelings about death. In the book, Meursault's mother died from cancer. He sent her to a home because he thought she was not happy with him and for other reasons. He didn't talk to her for a long time and didn't even know about her tumor. He didn't provide for her at all at home. At the moment of his death he didn't feel sad, he didn't feel anything. He acted as if nothing had happened. While he was on trial, the prosecutor asked him about his mother and her funeral: "He went on to ask me if I had felt any pain on that 'sad occasion.' The question struck me as strange; I would have felt very embarrassed if I had had to ask to someone something like that. I replied that, in recent years, I had lost the habit of writing down my feelings, and I almost didn't know what to answer. I could honestly say that I was very fond of my mother, but in reality this didn't mean much ” (Camus 41) Normally, a mother's death is heartbreaking, but he didn't really feel anything about his mother's death, even though he says he loved her. He also expresses that he doesn't really love his mother and just loves her fond. This shows that he does not feel pain or any other feelings towards his mother. Isolation can affect your emotions and make you not recognize or feel any emotions other people. Normally people don't condone domestic violence, but Meursault is actually making it happen for people he doesn't know about. The people I'm talking about are Raymond and his ex-girlfriend. Meursault helped him write a letter that would get her to Raymond and once he didbeaten because she had cheated on him. He already beat her for cheating and there was a good chance he would do it again. Normally the person in Meursault's position would have prevented Raymond from doing so and would have told him to end his relationship with her, but he was influenced by Raymond to do so. He also saw him hit his girlfriend but did not intervene to prevent his friend from making a mistake. The prosecution questioned him on this topic during the trial: "Why - asked the prosecutor - was the letter that led to this tragedy the work of the prisoner?". Raymond replied that this too was due to pure chance. To which the Public Prosecutor replied that in this case "chance" or "mere coincidence" seemed to play a significantly important role. Was it by any chance that I didn't intervene when Raimondo attacked his lover?" (Camus 59). This shows that he didn't care about the situation his friend, Raymond, was in, or even his girlfriend getting beaten up right in front of him. He just watched and any normal person would have told the police or intervened if they had met. This shows that he doesn't care if his friend is doing something illegal and might end up in prison and this says a lot about his character which is greatly affected by his isolation. He doesn't even care about anyone close to his family. At her mother's funeral, her friends were crying and very sad about losing their friend. Normally in this situation the person would have helped calm his friends or grieve their losses together, but he didn't because he didn't care. She didn't even talk to any of her friends or even her best friend. During her trial her mother's best friend was called to the stand: “Well, I was very angry, you know. Too shocked to notice things. My pain has kind of blinded me, I think. The death of my dear friend had been a great shock; in fact I fainted during the funeral. So I hardly noticed the young gentleman." The Prosecutor asked him to tell the court if he had seen me cry. And when Pérez replied: “No” (Camus 57). If he had remained crying with the people close to him mother, Pérez would have noticed, if he had cried he might have noticed it too. This shows that he did not grieve his mother's death at all with his loved ones and normally isolation can affect one's relationships more person. In Meursault's case this made him unable to experience deep and complex relationships. He didn't have a good relationship with his mother and that's why he sent her to a home. Eventually they had nothing left to talk about and he sent her to one retirement home. Usually children and their mothers have a special bond and they always take care of them unless something happens to their relationship and Meursault's relationship with his mother was perfect and he said he loved her. In the Meursault trial, Salamano he explained why he had sent his mother to a shelter: «he said that my mother and I had very little in common and this explained why I had arranged for her to enter the shelter. “You have to understand,” he added. “You have to understand.” But no one seemed to understand. He was told to resign." (Camus 59) Salamano tried to help him but it didn't work because everyone else thought that having nothing to talk about was not a good reason to send her to a hospice and not talk to her. So, home on His relationship with his mother was very casual and is normally not the case between a mother and her child. This is happening because of his isolation. He also doesn't even try to develop a deep relationship with Marie loves, but he says he does no,.