"Society is a masquerade ball, where everyone hides their true character, and reveals it by hiding." ---Ralph Waldo EmersonSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A society bound to specific social standards berates those who do not conform to those principles. In the process, a supreme truth is revealed that exposes the “rights” and “wrongs” of social ideology. Albert Camus's The Stranger shows Meursault as a passive nonconformist who does not "play the game" that society has chosen for him, and is therefore condemned for an inability to meet society's social expectations. Through irony, Camus reveals how the outcast, Meursault, is condemned because of his nonconformist beliefs. Meursault's nonconformist character is one who doesn't care about expressing emotions. Camus uses first-person point of view, making the reader expect the narrator's personal response to the events within the plot. Ironically, the prose is devoid of such content. Meursault's life is viewed with the utmost objectivity: a reflection of how he himself sees it. He 'catalogues' the events of his life, doing everything he can to avoid conveying any emotion. "Mom died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know" (9). In the context of a telegram, the details he talks about concern only his uncertainty about the date; he mentions nothing of the telegram's effect on him. Furthermore, during his mother's funeral, "she had not cried once and [he] left immediately after the funeral without paying [his] respects at her grave" (86). This is not to say that Meursault lacks emotion, he simply does not consider it essential to express it. However, society expects certain emotions to be tied to specific events, namely a physical representation of grief at his mother's funeral. Meursault cannot accept this social obligation imposed on his life; he is a stranger to the society in which he lives. A further representative of Meursault's tenacity in caring about expressing emotions is his relationship with Marie. When asked about marriage, Meursault casually replies that he would if "she wanted to". Furthermore, when asked if he loves her, he replies "that it didn't mean anything but that [he] probably didn't" (44). As traditionally seen in society, marriage is a bond of love and affection; yet this future is physically marked by indifference and apathy on his part. In retrospect, Meursault serves as a vehicle that dispenses a truth to the environment in which he lives. Contradicting his strong emphasis within society, he reveals that emotion does not need to be represented outwardly, because genuine emotion comes from within and does not need public recognition. But society is immediately threatened by this truth, for which "no triumph over oneself and the world will ever be possible" (119). Ironically, although he is not impassive, Meursault's indifference to physically convey emotion is considered a lack of emotion within his society, highlighting him as a true outsider. Consequently, the lack of concern about showing emotion during events traditionally linked to specific emotional responses functions to provide validation for condemning it. Meursault's nonconformist character is further delineated through the absurdity of his life. Unconcerned, Meursault will make a decision because he sees no reason not to act in a certain way, although he doesn't see the reason either. This indifference holds that the chronology of events in his life are independent of each other, with none necessarily leading to thenext. Ironically, Meursault's reader and society both attempt to create meaning from the events of his life—a futile effort when applied to an absurd existence. “The day after his mother died, this man was swimming in the sea, starting an erratic relationship and laughing at a Fernand movie” (91). The reader attempts to rationalize Meursault's actions as a possible means of alleviating the pain and suffering of his mother's death. On the contrary, in the courtroom, the prosecutor announces that he will unmask "the dark mechanisms of this criminal soul who traces the series of events that led this man to kill, in full awareness of his actions" (97). The prosecutor uses Meursault's previous actions that seemed simply unconventional as evidence of a monstrous personality that does not exist. In reality, neither the reader nor the characters in the novel can justify Meursault's actions. Through Meursault's eyes, his life is absurd and meaningless, therefore lacking the need for reason and justification. With this, Meursault functions as a mirror that reveals to society the futility of using something from the past to justify the present: a sentiment echoed in other works by Camus "It is also idealism, and worse, to end up hanging every action and every truth to a sense of history that is not implicit in events? Would it therefore be realism to assume the future as the law of history? To tell the truth, far from being romantic, I believe in the need for a rule and an order" (The myth of Sisyphus and other essays, 208). Through his actions, Meursault implores society to live in the realm of the present, ignoring the use of the past to explain the present and future, due to his failure to do so, however, society stains Meursault with condemnation due to his non-compliance with society's values ​​and expectations. Camus continues. it distances its protagonist from the society he lives in due to his lack of faith. Society imposes religion on its subjects, making it the raison d'être of human existence. In other words, without submission to faith, life is devoid of meaning and fulfillment: a conception that Meursault will not recognize, thus making him a stranger in his own environment. Ironically, for him religion adds even more meaninglessness to an already absurd life. Faith subverts the few threads of meaning present in Meursault's life, which paradoxically contradicts society's intent regarding its employment. Its secularism manifests itself through examples of conflict. In a tense dialogue between him and the magistrate about the existence of a supreme deity, Meursault answers no. "He told me that it was impossible, that all men believed in God, even those who did not want to face him. This was his belief, and if he ever doubted it, his life would become meaningless" (68). Furthermore, in the final moments of his life, when the priest begs Meursault to submit to God, he explains that he "didn't have much time left" and that he "didn't want to waste it on God" (114). For Meursault, religion suppresses his free spirit. All that remains of an absurd but rewarding life is time too precious to be wasted on such an abstract ideal. As a result, Meursault once again becomes a reflection of the truth, denouncing the practice of organized religion. It presents society with the idea that there is nothing divine or absolute and that many people use faith as a crutch to avoid living and taking responsibility for their lives. Life is absurd: not “controlled, monitored, or rewarded.” To live a full life one must face the absurdity of death leading to nothingness instead of focusing one's energies on an intangible and improbable concept. There,.