Many people often base their opinions on a person by judging their whole life in general and their attitude towards life without caring who that person really is deep down. 'herself. This unfair reasoning can happen in the courtroom when people are on trial and the judge and jury must delve into the defendant's life and determine if they are a danger to society. Sometimes the judge and jury are too concerned about the defendant's past to become too biased and hand down an unfair conviction and sentence. In his novel The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the courtroom as a symbol to represent the society that judges the main character, Meursalt, unfairly, to illustrate how society forms opinions based on his past. Meursalt faces a jury and a tough prosecutor when he goes on trial, and they all try to form opinions about Meursalt based on what he did before killing the Arab. The director of the funeral home testified that Meursalt showed no emotion in the face of his mother's death, that he "did not cry once and that [Meursalt] left right after the funeral without paying her last respects on his grave. (89). Society creates an imaginary rule that one must cry and show penance at funerals to be considered a normal human being. It is not fair that Meursalt is judged for his lack of feeling at the funeral, as it is his own choice to show remorse and express his feelings as he pleases; his lack of feelings doesn't mean he isn't heartbroken over the loss of his mother. As the trial progresses, the prosecutor makes a statement about everything Meursalt did one day after his death ... middle of paper ...... to maintain the balance of society. In The Stranger, Camus uses the courtroom to symbolize society as a whole to prove that society forms opinions based on its past. The court's attempts to find a rational explanation for Meursalt's crime show society's attempt to find reasonable explanations for all events in life. The court, however, judges Meursalt unfairly due to society's norms that everyone must show their emotions during specific events. Furthermore, the court is concerned with maintaining the balance of society and will not allow those who do not comply to go free. While it is essential for courts to uphold the rules of society, there is no need to allow those rules to interfere when judging a person for their crime committed rather than their past..