This study analyzes The Stranger (1942) by Albert Camus alongside The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers through a psychoanalytic lens of Lacan to examine self-fragmentation and connections with the Other. Through an evaluation of Meursault and John Singer as tragic figures the study explains how Lacan's mirror stage and Symbolic Order and Real concepts shape their development. The characters demonstrate internal self-breakup along with an exhausting fight to align their interior turmoil with external social rules. Their detached expressions which mirror the needs of others serve as examples of Lacanian identity theory where people create internal divisions because others observe and judge them. When an individual fights against societal norms the result shows broad existential tension and psychological isolation. The academic research gives new insights into twentieth-century identity conflicts and existential perspectives by applying Lacanian theory.
Thulfiqar Abdulameer Sulaiman Alhmdni (Wed,) studied this question.