The “Kübler-Ross five stages of grief” are, in my experience, the psychological anecdote most familiar to the layman. In it, the picture of how the average human typically responds to a life-changing tragedy is painted. The model presents us with a difficult and emotional road from denial to acceptance – the kind of journey one would certainly expect to undertake if a sudden and tragic death were to befall one's beloved mother. Such a tragedy is exactly what happens to the protagonist in the film. first sentence of the existential work entitled “L'Étranger”, by the Algerian author Albert Camus. Meursault (as his name would be), however, is for some reason incomprehensible to his fellow Franco-Algerians, seemingly untouched by this catastrophe of catastrophes and goes on with his life without shedding even a tear. He is apparently an emotionless exception to the Five Phases and appears to have jumped, seamlessly, directly from the occurrence of tragedy to final acceptance. This is frighteningly disturbing to his peers for a number of reasons, namely that it represents an apparent hole in his ability to "feel," a quality they believe to be so central to their lives that its lack might make him somehow less human of them. Through the use of first-person narrative, however, Camus makes it quite clear that Meursault is indeed human – profoundly so in fact. While Meursault is forced to wait in the harsh, glaring light of the morgue for others who might want to see his mother's body, he displays a conscientious contempt for "la politesse" that accompanies such a formal situation; he gives in to the desire to light a cigarette in front of his deceased mother. He initially hesitates, but then quickly shakes off the potential... middle of paper... py death, these are questions for a dawn beyond that of the guillotine." Meursault is shown, though curious and sometimes perplexed in these final moments for what he truly is: Human. Nothing more, nothing less. He experiences, just like the rest of us, a profound and deeply cutting loss. He fights, just like the rest of us, to maintain peace even in denial. He gives in, just like the rest of us, to melancholy and depression. Just like the rest of us, he pleads and contracts when all hope is gone. He lashes out, just like the rest of us, even against those who wish to help. in the end, just as we all hope to find, peace and contentment. Whether intentional or not, Camus's "etranger" follows the classic "Five Stages of Grief" perfectly as he journeys from the tragic loss of his mother to his decisive end. and bloody on the guillotine.