Essay Database

PERSONAL MOTIVE vs. SOCIETAL INFLUENCES Bourgeois society enslaves one such that any attempt to transcend the induced limitations results in self-destruction. In The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault's lack of a local cause, motivation, and personal means of justification for his crime offers the possibility of such an outside force pulling him towards the direction of wrongdoing. Raskolnikov of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment contrasts himself with Meursault in that he continually wrangles with himself …

…a disturbed, impoverished, and lonely Raskolnikov lives under the will and call of a society that even causes him to eat his soup "mechanically" (Dostoevsky, 65). Dostoevsky has personally experienced this bitter tsarist society in Russia just as Camus heavily involved himself in opposing corrupt activities in Algeria, thus creating two incredible criticisms that serve more than just to create an intricate plot, but also to generate an accurate portrayal of the society of the times.