The Stranger

Author's biography: Albert Camus was born November 7^th 1913. He published “The Stranger” in 1942.  The theme of his novel is very much related to existentialism even though he did not consider himself an existentialist. His views were most commonly related to absurdism and individual freedom. Camus was very devoted to his efforts for human rights and protested constantly during the mid 20^th century.

Summary: The Stranger begins with Meursault going to pay his respects to his dead mother. When he arrives there though he ends up feeling little remorse for her and does not seem to care or even show emotion at her funeral. When he arrives back in Algiers he goes for a public swim in the beach and meets up with an ex co-worker, Marie Cardona. He and Maria then proceed to have intimate relationships that night. The day after he has dinner with his neighbor Raymond- who is rumored to be a pimp. Raymond then proceeds to tell him how he cheated on his mistress because he caught her cheating on him, but he now wants her back so that he can make her suffer even more. He needs Meusault’s help though in writing the letter that would bring her back to him. While all this is happening though Maria asks Meursault if he loves her and if he wants to get married, he very passively agrees and they get engaged. Later Raymond becomes mad enough that he is going to try and kill his mistress with his gun, Meursault convinces him to not and takes the gun away from him. With that gun though Meursault kills the mistress brother and goes to jail. While he is in jail he shows indifference toward the whole thing and later decides that there is no such thing as an afterlife but all that is left for him is death.

Mersault's existentialistic views and alienation: Mersault alienates himself from society. No one knows exactly why he is like this. At his mother's funeral, he is unable to express grief. Not only is he unable to express grief, he acts as if he did not share a relationship with his mother -- soon after the funeral, he sleeps with a women that he just meets. His lack of grief disgusts others at the funeral. His inability to connect with others also gets him into trouble, especially with the law When he is put on trial for murdering the Arab, Mersault does not even bother to explain the situation or defend himself. He simply accepts the punishment and moves on with life. His inability to connect with others also hurts the people around him -- such as Marie. She waits for him when he is sent to prison. Mersault is unable to have have an intimate relationship with Marie due to his personality.

Elements of existentialism/alienation in The Stranger: In the story The Stranger, the main character – Meursault – believes that having emotions for others is not something that he has.  He feels that everyone else’s lives do not matter, as he sees his own mothers death and reacts very little toward it – where he does not even cry or feel sad about the whole experience and death. When he is in jail he comes to the realization that there is no after life and that everything in life is completely meaningless and that the universe is indifferent to him therefore he should be indifferent to the universe. There is also a sense of alienation in this novel as the story progresses the townspeople become more and more worried about why Meursault does not care about his mother’s death. The town soon starts to isolate him and not interact with him because they thought that something was wrong with him.