Meursault is unlike any character I’ve met in my reading... so far.  Despite many dramatic differences, Meursault, from Albert Camus’ The Stranger, is a hero.  The interesting aspect of this character is that he is not even human, if we’re basing the judgment on social standards.  He doesn’t cry after his mother dies, he doesn’t care if he and his girlfriend get married, but the main difference between Meursault and other literary heroes is that he kills a man and doesn’t regret it.  

It seems silly to consider this man a hero if he kills other people.  That would be true if I was looking at him from the perspective of the rest of society.  But I’m not.  Throughout The Stranger, Meursault’s story is told through his own eyes.  It may seem that he is immoral but I think his moral compass is just misaligned; he prioritizes different values than what the rest of society expects.  Even though many people dislike him and disagree with him, Meursault is still able to hold his head high and stand sturdy in his beliefs.  After he is convicted of murder, a chaplain visits him and tries to convince him of the existence of God, claiming that “every man [he has] known in [Meursault’s] position has turned to Him” (117).  Meursault acknowledges this and responds that he “just didn’t have the time to interest [himself] in what didn’t interest [him]” (118).  While he is being tried and convicted for the murder he committed, he is asked if he regrets his actions and he claims that he is more annoyed than regretful.  

Yet Meursault is still a hero because he sticks up for his beliefs and as Camus wrote, “he agrees to die for the truth.”  Isn’t that what heroes are?  Heroes are people who stand up for what they believe in and they are willing to die for an idea.  We see this in media today with men and women in service, who are willing to die for justice and freedom, or in The Joker, who is willing to die to send the message that humans are corruptible animals.  Either way, sticking to our values, no matter what, is something we’d like to believe in.  Because Meursault is willing to die than lie, giving into dogma and therefore conforming to society’s expectations, he is a hero… a very complex hero, but a hero nonetheless.