Albert Camus's The Stranger present Meursault as a character who will not "play the games" society has chosen for him and is punished not for his crime of killing another human being but for refusing to meet social expectations. Camus reveals how Meursault is condemned because of his beliefs.
             Meursault's character is one which does not concern himself with expression emotion. Camus uses a first person point of view, giving the reader a personal response to events happening in the plot. Meursault's life is reflected upon on how he himself sees it. Meursault's outlook on death and dying is very different to that of the majority of people at the time. He goes out of his way to avoid showing any emotion. He was unemotional and indifferent to the death of his mother. "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know."(pg3). The only details of the telegram that Meursault discusses are his uncertainty of the day she died. This is in the beginning of the book. Toward the end of the novel, during the testimony of the Director of his mothers home, the director told the jury that Meursault "hadn't cried once and left straight after the funeral without paying his respect at her grave"(89). To most people in society, they would show grief at the passing of their mothers. The caretaker's testimony was like the directors. He had said that Meursault "had not wanted to see his mother that he had smoked and slept at the funeral." Meursault felt something stirring up in the whole room and for the first time he realized that he was guilty. Not guilty of killing a man, but for not "playing societies game" at his mothers funeral. Society expects certain emotions meant to be linked to certain events, like showing grief at his mother's funeral. Meursault did not do this.
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