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The Stranger by Albert Camus
Historical Context: The Stranger took place in Algiers, a French Colony in Africa. This was the birthplace of Albert Camus and he was well aware of the situations plaguing the region. Camus worked as a journalist and did pieces on poverty in Algiers. The story takes place in an ambiguous period that one can assume is during Camus’ life, most likely around 1942 when it was published. The major underlying theme of absurdism was a philosophy pioneered by Albert Camus first starting with the Stranger. This ideology states that human existence has no rational meaning and it is therefore absurd to look for any. Camus himself believed in this philosophy and The Stranger was his first book in which he would write to support these beliefs.
Character Development: The main character, Monsieur Meursault, grew after he was arraigned for the murder of an Arab man. He was very much indifferent to the morality many others focused themselves on throughout the story, he simply accepted things for what they were and moved on with his life. The story starts with his mother dying and he does not weep at the funeral and then he goes out on a date later that night. He is also indifferent to writing a fake letter to his neighbor Raymond’s mistress so that she will return to him and he can beat her. After he accidentally shoots an Arab man he is put into jail and he has a long time to think about his life. At first he hopes for some way to prolong his life, though after he is convicted he is visited by a Chaplain. The Chaplain tries to get him to acknowledge the existence of God, which cause Meursault to exclaim in anger that there is no meaning in life. It is at this point that he realizes that we all die inevitably that he finally finds bliss. He is content with his death and his ultimate self-realization is that he exists in a purely physical world and nothing he could have done would have mattered, because the end result would have always been the same.
Connections: In both The Stranger and Invisible Man, the main character’s quest for self-realization and understanding is a major theme. In Invisible Man, the Narrator ends up giving up but he still struggles to understand what impact he should have on the world around him and struggles to find meaning in life. Meursault, on the other hand, comes to terms with the fact that he cannot find meaning in life and accepts where he is at in life.
Conflict: The external conflict is he murder that Meursault commits when he kills the Arab at Massons’ house. He is eventually sentenced to death even though he did not plan to murder this man. The reason he is convicted is not because of the evidence surrounding the murder, rather because of what Meursault did in the preceding days such as not mourn over his mother, go out with Marie later that night, and help out Raymond. The internal conflict with Meursault is how to handle being sentenced to death, and he resolved this by realizing that he could die this way or he could live to be an old man and it would not make a difference.
Setting: The setting is in Algiers, Algeria, a French colony at the time. This setting is removed from France but still has some of the elements of the culture, and because it is the birthplace of Camus he is able to write about a setting he knows. The usefulness of this setting is that it has the city and the secluded areas in nature so that Meursault can interact with people in both environments. This shows Meursault’s indifference to being in different environments that might have made others uncomfortable. The second half of the story takes place in a courthouse and a cell which shows the seclusion that it takes for Meursault to come to his final realization.
Themes: The major theme is absurdism as this was the ideology that the book was written to perpetuate. This is shown through Meursault mainly and the way in which he lives. He does not concern himself with wrong or right, but this does not mean he is a bad person, rather he does not belief there is anyway to derive morality from the world around him. This is in contrast to Camus’ beliefs because, while he was an absurdist, he was also a humanist. This was the central theme in the story, but the physical aspects of the world instead of the spiritual aspects could also be seen as a major theme. Meursault does not view the world in any other sense but the physical and this differentiates him from many other people because he does not act on anything other than this. For instance he does not say he loves the girl he is going to marry, he only feels remorse for killing because he is now stuck in jail, and he does not believe in a higher power.
