Is Mersault Really a Bad Person?

Is mersault really a bad person?

Is Meursault a bad person? Meursault was a man who felt no sadness after his mother’s death, and no contrition for killing a person.   Yet some praised him for being an “honest chap”, a “tireless worker” and a “model son”. “Good” would be a standard so subjective that there is no definite answer, different institutions or people would have different perspective and different judgments on whether Meursault is bad or not.

“In our society any man who doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral is liable to be condemned to death.” This paradoxical sentence said by Albert Camus hides within itself a stern logic: anything or anyone that violates the rules of the society shall be punished.   “I ask you for this man’s head” said the prosecutor…and of course Meursault lost his life. The society needs people who conform to social norms, betrayers and rebellions languish in the realms of unlawfulness, and deserves to be punished. According to the social contract, members of the society, wearied by living in an unending state of war and by a freedom rendered useless by their uncertainty of retaining it, they sacrifice a part of that freedom in order to enjoy what remains in security and calm. Commiting a crime, such as killing a man which Meursault did, would be considered as a breach of the social contract, thus the society has every right to punish him. Thus from a societal point of view, Meursault is a bad man. The society, for its security, requires its members to follow the moral values and norms. Thus from the point of view of society and judiciary, Meursault was a bad man as he did not obey the law, he killed another man, thus he is a threat to others in the society.

Furthermore, Meursault did not believe in god. To many others in the society who believe firmly in god, they would not understand, nor forgive his “sin”. “He wanted to talk to me about God again, but I went up to him and made one last attempt to explain to him that I only had...