The novel The Stranger was written in 1942 by an author from Algeria named Albert Camus. This work has been translated into many different languages after its initial success. The story takes place in the French Algiers and is narrated in first person by a man named Meursault. The storyline begins with him speaking about his mother's death. “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything” (Camus 1). He treats the news of her death as if it was news just as casual as the weather. The story shows how he goes about his normal life after her death, and in part two the significance that those events. He seem unfazed by the news
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He gets a new girlfriend named Marie, but their relationship seems more like a companionship, because he does not seem to have feeling towards her. Meursault also makes friends with a supposed pimp named Raymond, he seems like an intimidating man, because of the fact that he and Meursault plotted together to attack a woman. Meursault later vacations on the beach with both of them and another new friend introduced to him by Raymond. He spends a lot of time on the beach and in the sun throughout the book. While he is at the beach for the last time, he is confronted by Arabs that are relate to the woman that he helps attack, and ends up killing one. The second part of the story follows the events of the trial for his crime, the ruling, and eventually the death of Meursault. Albert Camus’ writing, The Stranger, is titled that because it is the best word he could have picked to depict the main …show more content…
He does not conform to societal norms in his country like remorse (he does not seem to have a lot of remorse for killing the Arab or even about his mother’s recent death), religion (during the scene with the magistrate and the crucifix), or show any emotion (this can be seen in his entire relationship with Marie). During the trial, people are shocked to find out that Meursault is nothing like them, and they punish him more for that than they actually do for the crime at hand: killing the Arab. He lives in a society where people want to attach meaning to every little action, and thing, while Meursault does things with exactly the opposite in mind. He does not have a reason for doing anything he does, but he still gets defined as amoral by the jury because of his lack of emotion. His society wants meaning behind his actions, but that is something that he cannot provide, so they see him as a criminal. “Then he looked at me closely and with a little sadness in his face. In a low voice he said, ‘I have never seen a soul as hardened as yours. The criminals who have come before me have always wept at the sight of his image of suffering.’ I was about to say that that was precisely because they were criminals. But then I realized that I was one too. It was an idea I couldn’t get used to” (Camus 44). His nonconforming ways are the reason that he was sent to jail and eventually killed. He is separated from his society emotionally, because of his lack of
He gets a new girlfriend named Marie, but their relationship seems more like a companionship, because he does not seem to have feeling towards her. Meursault also makes friends with a supposed pimp named Raymond, he seems like an intimidating man, because of the fact that he and Meursault plotted together to attack a woman. Meursault later vacations on the beach with both of them and another new friend introduced to him by Raymond. He spends a lot of time on the beach and in the sun throughout the book. While he is at the beach for the last time, he is confronted by Arabs that are relate to the woman that he helps attack, and ends up killing one. The second part of the story follows the events of the trial for his crime, the ruling, and eventually the death of Meursault. Albert Camus’ writing, The Stranger, is titled that because it is the best word he could have picked to depict the main …show more content…
He does not conform to societal norms in his country like remorse (he does not seem to have a lot of remorse for killing the Arab or even about his mother’s recent death), religion (during the scene with the magistrate and the crucifix), or show any emotion (this can be seen in his entire relationship with Marie). During the trial, people are shocked to find out that Meursault is nothing like them, and they punish him more for that than they actually do for the crime at hand: killing the Arab. He lives in a society where people want to attach meaning to every little action, and thing, while Meursault does things with exactly the opposite in mind. He does not have a reason for doing anything he does, but he still gets defined as amoral by the jury because of his lack of emotion. His society wants meaning behind his actions, but that is something that he cannot provide, so they see him as a criminal. “Then he looked at me closely and with a little sadness in his face. In a low voice he said, ‘I have never seen a soul as hardened as yours. The criminals who have come before me have always wept at the sight of his image of suffering.’ I was about to say that that was precisely because they were criminals. But then I realized that I was one too. It was an idea I couldn’t get used to” (Camus 44). His nonconforming ways are the reason that he was sent to jail and eventually killed. He is separated from his society emotionally, because of his lack of