The Outsider Essay, Research Paper

The gap lines of the novel, The Foreigner by Albert Camus, set the tone for the book: & # 8220 ; Mother died today. Or possibly yesterday, I don & # 8217 ; t know & # 8221 ; ( pg. 9 ) , it is a drab and cheerless sentence, so are the ideas of a character by the name of Meursault. However, the fortunes that took topographic point, plunged him into a spiral of events. Queerly, his ideas stayed the same, yet his life changed dramatically. Conversely, the narrative & # 8220 ; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty & # 8221 ; by James Thurber, is apparently contrary to the novel The Outsider. In the beginning of the narrative, Lieutenant Burg was stating to the Commander, & # 8220 ; We can & # 8217 ; Ts make it, sir. It & # 8217 ; s botching for a hurricane? The Commander & # 8217 ; s weather answer was, & # 8220 ; & # 61763 ; e & # 8217 ; rhenium traveling through! & # 8221 ; ( pg. 73 ) The narrative promised exhilaration, fast gait and interesting events full of gallantry. There was one little item ; it was a reverie of Walter Mitty whose life was lonely and detering. It was his manner of covering with the world of his suffering life. Even though these narratives do non look to be comparable, by analyzing them a small closer, is revealed that the characters have many things in common. Meursault and Mitty were seeking to get away the real properties of their lives ; yet, they came face to face with them because of the determinations they made throughout their lives, which led them to their ultimate devastation.

Both characters wanted to shy away from society. They disassociated themselves from everybody and interacted with others merely when they needed something. Meursault was a curious adult male who kept to himself. He ne’er sought people, they ever came to him. They were at that place for his pleasance and amusement, merely if it was suited to him. How Meursault felt, and the manner he treated people, is clearly illustrated in his relationship with Marie, who was his sexual object. When he did non hold any more demand for her services, & # 8220 ; ? There was nil left to maintain us together or to remind us of each other. Anyway, from that point on, Marie & # 8217 ; s memory would hold meant nil to me. I wasn & # 8217 ; T interested in her any more if she was dead. I found it rather normal? ( pg. 110 ) . Sometimes, being around people annoyed him, because he could non understand their manner of thought. He showed apathy towards his milieus and the universe around him. He wandered through life with no emotions. Mitty, on the other manus, escaped from his hopeless state of affairs, his shrewish married woman, into a antic fanciful universe he invented. He put all his energy, hopes and frights into his dreams. He ran from his jobs alternatively of confronting them and invented this, about amusing, private universe so he could get away the existent 1. In one of his phantasies, & # 8220 ; Dr. & # 8221 ; Mitty saved the life of a really of import adult male. During the operation, two celebrated specializers could non salvage the adult male, so they turned to Dr. Mitty for aid. & # 8220 ; If you wish, & # 8221 ; he said phlegmatically ( pg. 75 ) . In every dream, Mitty was a hero, yet in world he was a coward. He ne’er challenged his married woman, or defended himself. Meursault and Mitty were urgently seeking to maintain their uniqueness: Meursault by maintaining a simple and unemotional life, Mitty by get awaying into his private universe of epic dreams.

Equally difficult as Meursault and Mitty tried to run off from the

world of life, it was inevitable to come face to face with the one thing they urgently tried to get away. Meursault’s beginning of the terminal came when he killed the Arab on the beach. He was put in gaol and was charged with premeditated slaying. He could non get away the society any more. At one clip, the priest came to Meursault to state him how he should act in society. Meursault did non desire to compromise his manner of believing merely to do society happy. The harder the priest tried, the more irritated Meursault became. “Then, for some ground, something exploded inside me” ( Pg. 115 ) . He started to shout at the priest and grabbed him by the neckband of his cassock. The guards had to draw the priest out from the cell, and after that incident Meursault felt unagitated and a “wondrous peace? flooded into me” ( pg. 116 ) . Likewise, Mitty could non get away the world of life. His married woman was invariably pecking him and ever demanded something, which he normally forgot. “?e was ever acquiring something incorrect? But she would retrieve it” ( pg. 76 – 77 ) . At one point he got plenty bravery to stand up against her, after a long twine of talks, and defended himself. “I was believing, ” said Mitty, “Does it of all time occur to you that I am sometimes believing? ” ( pg. 80 ) . Rebelliousness against his married woman led to serious events. There was no flight for Meursault and Mitty ; they had to confront whatever came their manner ; they had to confront the world of the universe that they lived in.

With every action, or deficiency of, Meursault and Mitty were pressing on to their inevitable decease. Meursault & # 8217 ; s came because he did non desire to conform to society and was confronting decease punishment by the closure by compartment. The events that led to his executing were his deep beliefs & # 8211 ; the compulsion for the truth. This truth was a negative one ; nevertheless it was the truth that he was willing to decease for. Meursault was condemned to decease largely of demoing deficiency of emotion, particularly because he did non shout at his female parent & # 8217 ; s funeral. There is a inquiry that arises. Is it that, & # 8220 ; In our society any adult male who doesn & # 8217 ; t call at his female parent & # 8217 ; s funeral is apt to be condemned to decease & # 8221 ; ( pg. 118, from Afterword ) ? In Mitty & # 8217 ; s instance he eventually stood up and rebelled against his shrewish married woman, which led him in a different way in his reverie. Outburst towards his married woman spun him into the bravest act yet & # 8211 ; he courageously stood in forepart of the & # 8220 ; firing squad. & # 8221 ; It appeared that none of his dreams of all time had closing, none that is, except the last one, & # 8220 ; Then with that swoon, fliting smile playing about his lips, he faced the fire squad ; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, cryptic to the last & # 8221 ; ( pg.81 ) . Is it possible that the dream of executing did non mean the decease of Mitty, but in his existent universe the decease of bondage to his married woman? Possibly he realised that he had to contend non merely in his phantasies but besides in his existent universe. Or, could it be that Mitty wanted to give up, and because he was a coward in the existent universe, he committed self-destruction in his dream alternatively existent life? In both narratives, all the events that led to concluding minute would enable one to believe it was a suicide want. Tragically, Meursault & # 8217 ; s decease was the existent penalty and Mitty & # 8217 ; s, even though it was in his reverie, was existent to him.