The Stranger is the story of a man who is completely indifferent to life and all that’s around him. Meursalt finds out that his mother dies and doesn’t really seem to care. He’s not happy she’s dead, but he’s not sai either. Marie, his girlfriend, loves him and wants to marry him and he says yes to the proposal but only because he couldn’t think of a reason not to. Meursalt writes a letter for Raymond, which allows Raymond to see a girl who supposedly cheated on him so he can beat her, and Meursalt’s reason behind writing the letter is because he had nothing better to do and knew how to write a letter.
All of this leads up to Meursalt killing a man. The man was after Raymond for beating his sister, and Meursalt, who just happened to have Raymond’s gun on him, comes upon the man at the beach and kills him. He shoots him once. Then he waits a few moments before shooting the body five more times. You know, just because. The only excuse Meursalt gives for the murder is that the sun was glaring and that glare made him take more steps closer to the man, who he ended up killing.
During the trial, the lawyers constantly make comments about how Meursalt didn’t grieve his mother’s death. In fact, they put more emphasis on that than they do on him committing murder. That is what condemns him as monster, more than anything else.
Camus created Meursalt to be a man who did not think about right or wrong. Society puts a strong emphasis on the human race doing what is moral so to make the world a better place. Society believes that we need to be good in order to create a good future, and if we are bad, we will destroy any good future. Camus did not believe in that ideology. His character, Meursalt, does not react in either a moral or immoral way. To him, there is no meaning to life, and people cannot affect life and future through good or bad deeds. Meursalt never did anything inherently bad, nor did he do anything very good, and yet he is loved by a woman, has friends who care about him, has a steady job and commits murder.
The Stranger is a classic novel, Albert Camus a well-known writer. Not everyone enjoys reading the classics, and that’s because most of them are boring and the authors are long-winded, but this one is short and really does have an interesting theme. Find a good translation if you want to read it. The first time I tried to read The Stranger I wasn’t liking it and gave up. I found a copy with a different translator and it read a lot better and a lot easier. Mine is translated by Matthew Ward, so look that one up and go ahead and try reading a classic novel. I swear it won’t hurt you.
Buy the book? The Stranger by Albert Camus
