Abstract：The Outsider is a novel of modernism and it is also Albert Camus’ s first book published in 1942. It represents readers a story in which an indifferent person who abandons secular ethics runs with scissors and try to seek a way out, while finally he chose to revolt the world by means of ignoring.

The protagonist Meursault’s personal behavior in the writing and his dealing with people are displayed by the author in defamiliarization. He has adopted an indifferent attitude toward affection, love and friendship. Even when facing the important choice in his own life, he always shows his dispensable thought. But all these are the resistance of Meursault to absurdity and nihility. He cannot tolerate the hypocritical formalism and religious etiquette that the society is flooding with. People around abandoned him and a series things made him become an indifferent person.

In the first part of the novel, Meursault makes readers feel like he had no dispute with the world. However, after the second part of the trial conviction, he later discovered that the reaction is an alternative method of rebellion. While in the court, the transfer of topics of judges and prosecutors, all layers pressure and unsubstantiated accusations could not rescue the young people from the absurd society. It is better for him to go to death than to grovel hypocritically.

For the first time, Camus proposed the theme of “absurd” in the book The Outsider, and embodied the mapping of “absurd” situations to human nature in the real society.

Key Words: existentialism, absurd, the outsider

摘要：《局外人》是加缪出版于1942年的一部现代主义作品，也是加缪的第一部作品，为读者展现了一个摒弃世俗伦理的人如何在这个荒谬的现实世界中夹缝求生，寻求出路，最后选择以漠视一切的态度反抗的故事。

主人公默尔索在行文中的为人处世和他待人接物的形状都被作者以一种陌生化的手法展现出来，他对亲情、爱情、友情都采以一种漠不关心的态度，甚至在面对自身生活中的选择时也总是表现的可有可无。但这一切都是默尔索对这个荒谬而虚无的世界的反抗，他无法忍受这个社会所充斥的虚伪的形式主义和宗教礼仪，而他偏偏是一个如此真实的，不愿做伪的人，自然而然，在这个世界将他视为局外人的同时，默尔索也将自己与这个世界隔离开来，将他人视为异类。

在小说的第一部分中所展现的默尔索让读者觉得与世无争，然而经过了第二部分的审判核定罪后，在后知后觉地发现这一切都是默尔索另类的反抗方式。然而在法庭上法官和检察官的话题转移，层层紧逼和群众对其不孝的指控终究无法解救这个与社会格格不入的年轻人，与其虚与委蛇不如慷慨赴死。

加缪首次在《局外人》中提出“荒谬”这一主题，并在此体现了“荒谬”境遇对现实社会人性的映射。

关键词：存在主义，荒谬，局外人

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments....i

Abstract....ii

摘要....iii

1 Introduction ………1

1.1 Albert Camus and The Outsider 1

1.2 Characterization of Meursault 2

1.3 Existentialism 2

2 Tragedy of The Outsider 4

2.1 Approaches to the Outsider 4

2.2 Survival State of the Outsider 4

2.3 Life and Death of The Outsider 6

3 Views of Existentialism in The Outsider 7

3.1 Absurd Relationship between Human and the World 7

3.2 Alternative Way of Rebellion 7

3.3 Language Features of Existentialism in The Outsider 8

4 From an Outsider to a Rebel 10

4.1 Differences between the Insider and the Outsider 10

4.2 Meursault: The Advocator of Authenticity 11

4.3 Rebellion of the Outsider12

5 Conclusion ..14

Bibliography 16

1 Introduction

Albert Camus as a philosopher and a writer wrote his masterpiece The Outsider and proposed his philosophical thought “absurd” in this book through a fictional character Meursault and a absurd world with strict so-called moral standard. The novel is consisted of Camus’s unique Existentialism and showed us a stirring depiction of an absurd world in which people judge each other and yield to the rules of public courteously. Camus hope to reflect the humanity of modern society for “Absurd” situation in The Outsider and build his theory around the key words “absurd” and “rebellion”, intending to figure out the problem of life and death.