Meursault vs MLK Jr essays

Meursault vs MLK Jr essays Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who was deeply committed to bringing justice to the Negroes of America. He expressed this commitment in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. This letter tells us a lot about the way in which King saw the world and the power relationships within it. It painted the picture of a determined man who saw his place in the grand scheme of things and knew how to use his power to achieve his goals. The character Meursault from the Albert Camus novel The Stranger also manipulates power to his advantage. Meursault on the other hand seems to be completely indifferent to what is going on around him. These two men have opposite personalities and yet they both come to the same end... power. How is this possible and what does this say about the typical power theory? To answer this question I will examine the ways in which both King and Meursault understand love, justice, religion and law. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail King expresses his love for the church, his love for freedom and his love for America. He follows the words of Jesus, who said, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and persecute you (479.) This approach to ones enemies is an interesting one. Rather than gaining power in the relationship by pushing others down it aims to gain power by lifting them up. Say person X hates person Y. Kings approach was that Y should return that hate with love. The desired result was that X would not be able to hate someone who loves him/her without feeling guilty and instead give the love back thus making the two equal. Meursault definitely does not share Kings opinion on love. Whereas King goes by the principle that love will be returned with love and leave nothing but equality Meursault does not see the importance in the whole thing. Marie obviously loves him but he does not love her (5...