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Albert Camus

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Thou Shalt Not Drink Coffee

The world is meaningless; the ground beneath one’s feet and the sky above have no meaning. On a good day, the sun jumps with shining rays and emits cool tones of pinks and reds and the ground below is a sandy and grainy paradise and everything seems delightful. Suddenly, the same view is unattainable. The dark skies and rain drops knocking on the roof prevent a good night’s rest; one is gloomy and melancholic, perhaps one would not feel like this if they appreciated nature more on a good day. Does the lack of bright light and harsh sounds actually cause emotional far and depression? Sure, as a human construct defying natural order. Albert Camus offers an effective perspective: the notion of human emotions and ideas …show more content…
Drinking coffee after Maman’s funeral is awful and immoral but killing an Arab man hardly raises concern. Based on the essence of these simple two rules, society was perplexing. Where do these morals come from? Who truly assigns what is good or bad; what about gray areas? French influence indicates a prominent Roman Catholic presence; thus, likely the contender of providing moral ideas which society held onto instead of accepting the senselessness of the world. In the considering of Roman Catholic morals, two evident examples include the biblical laws of sin and love. The holy code, the Ten Commandments, instructs followers “thou shalt not kill” and “honor thy mother and father”.
France established a moral system which no one questioned nor tried finding misjudgment. Everything was just the way it “should have been”. One man attempts to battle against his accusations, with the help of a professional, but fails. Man or woman cannot change a stubborn idea, especially if the individual is a criminal accused of breaking French moral code. Meursault’s trial progresses from his own lawyer’s disapproval, the judge’s disapproval and eventually society’s utter rejection. Meursault understands French ideas as absurd and struggles with finding why others simply cannot relate to …show more content…
Both characters feel discomfort emitted by the other, misunderstanding creates two superior complexes unwilling to hold an appropriate conversation without spitting abstract judgments. Meursault blames the lawyer for not understanding him for his actions and thoughts are “normal”, ones he estimates everyone has pondered a few times; he finds the lawyer arrogant and demanding. Yet he lacks empathy in understanding the intimidating circumstances with interviewing a man who has brutally murdered another without remorse. The lawyer considers Meursault stubborn and though applies his trial according to the court’s French morals and standards, he too desires justice for the reality of the crime: his client may be morally sentenced to death for brutal murder, but not for drinking coffee after Maman’s death and having sex with a casual date. Though they are blinded by misunderstanding, they both find equally absurd flaws of the judicial system in which the life of an Arab has less worth than of a little old French lady. Even when the falsified conclusion is revealed, the jury evidently is blinded by societal standards also without analyzing the absurdity of the judge’s decision: “My callousness inspired in him a horror nearly greater than that which he felt at the crime of parricide. And also according to him,, a man who is morally guilty of killing

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