Essay on The Relationship between Camus’ Outsider’s Central Character Meursault and Suskind’s Perfume’s Grenouille

Nowadays, the theme of alienation is developed in many literary works. Moreover, the readers can find true examples of those people around who are outsiders to our society. Of course, there are many various reasons of their alien behavior but the most important thing is that such outsiders have no human soul. They think only about themselves and do not feel concern about the feelings of other people. Their relation to life and death is abnormal because they ignore religion and morality. As a rule, they are criminals who violate the established rules of our society.

Two famous writers Albert Camus and Patrick Suskind describe such personalities in their literary works. Although their literary works are related to different periods of time, they have very much in common. For example, the main characters whose names are Meursault and Grenouille are represented as “outsiders”. The behavior of these young men is abnormal, their life concepts differ from the concepts of other people. They are represented as “outsiders” to human society. (p.23)

My goal in this essay is to emphasize the difference of alienation in these two characters and to prove the fact that such people have no future in our human society. In order to achieve this goal, I’ll try to represent my thoughts in the following aspects.

ASPECT 1

Meursault, the main character of the novel The Outsider written by Albert Camus, is a young man whose behavior makes him an outsider to human society. He is arrested and put on trial for the crime. Meursault killed an Arab man. However, the young man is sentenced to death not for that crime but for his atheism and social indifference. In the court, he explained that “he had only a little time left and he didn’t want to it on God”. (p.114)

ASPECT 2

It is known that Meursault is an ordinary person who leads an ordinary life working in one of the offices in Algiers. He is not married and does not have children. However, he has lost his mother who lived in a house for old people. It is clear, that Meursault’s character is revealed in this situation. The author wants his readers to understand the major principles of Meursault’s life. He does not love his mother: “Maman died today or yesterday maybe, I do not know”. (p.1)

Moreover, his behavior during the funerals is inadequate. It is known that a mother is the dearest person in the life of any men or women. The main character of the novel The Outsider doesn’t show his true feeling to his mother. It means that he is a cruel person who thinks only about himself. He can “smoke and drink coffee with milk before the coffin of his mother” and doesn’t express any emotions of grief. (p.1) It means that he is an outsider to the human society where there are some moral standards which should be followed by all the members. He has “no place in the society whose most fundamental rules he ignores”. (p.102)

Grinouille doesn’t know his mother and it is difficult to comment his relation to her. She dies because of Grinouille’s birth. It is known that she left the baby in the pile of rotting fish but the boy was saved and his mother was executive. Of course, she determines the fate of the young man. He is born without his mother’s death and he is grown up without love. However, he is “one of the most gifted and abominable personages”, because he has “a gift”. (p.1)



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