Chandan Saw 22/09/2013 Think about state of the mind, last 7-10 days reading: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald The Outsider, Albert Camus The Fall, Albert Camus Now reading Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre Next lined up - The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus As far as The Outsider is concerned, the most poignant of the scenes was the pronouncement of judgement of decapitation of Meursault in a public square in the name of the French people. We can very well observe throughout the novel that Meursault shows a continuous indifference towards normally expected behaviour from him by the society. And more than the crime, Meursault was judged and sentenced harshly by the jury for the lack of conformity by him with the socially expected behaviour from him. Other poignant parts were when Raymond, Masson, Salamano and Celeste were either not allowed to speak adequately or their views were not accounted for when they wished to say favourably about Meursault. It was very much evident that Meursaults non-conformity with feelings expected by society from him condemned him. Jury and society were prejudiced by his refusal to satisfy the feelings of others. Keeping in view these things in perspective and legal system which is supposed to be blind and emotionless and only supposed to go by the facts of the case and evidences, the judgement appears to be unfair. Looking at above facts, I related the story with the advocacy of abolition of death penalty in a mature and progressive society where penal provisions should be less guided by a motive of vengeance and more by considerations such as reform, repentment etc. Because whatever may be the crime, death penalty may be less justified by the sheer fact of its irreversibility. I have read a few judgements of jury where jury was divided in awarding death penalty and by reading their individual separate judgements its difficult to decide on the justification of death penalty. We also observe that how subjective may be awarding of death penalty. It may very well depend on the constituents of the jury. And this subjectivity raises highly contentious moral questions of putting someone to gallows.... The Outsider raises questions which are worth contemplating.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:04:51 +0000