The+Stranger

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Major Characters


 * Mr. Meursault || The narrator of the novel who doesn’t seem to care about anything, or more importantly, anyone. People become fascinated by his lack of emotions at his mother’s funeral, and when he murders someone who had no significance towards him, and shows no remorse. ||
 * Maman || Meursault’s mother who lived in a home up until her death. Becomes a major discussion point during Meursault’s trial. ||
 * Marie Cardona || Former typist from Meursault’s office who meets back up with him the day after his mother’s funeral. She cares for Meursault very much even though he does not share the feelings. He uses her. ||
 * Raymond Sintes || A neighbor of Meursault who is known as a pimp hiding under the pretense his is a warehouse guard. He abuses his mistress, and seeks help in Meursault, thus solidifying their “friendship.” ||
 * Monsieur Perez || A caring, old man who was Maman’s companion in the home. He is very emotional during Maman’s funeral, unlike Meursault. Serves as a foil to him. ||
 * Emmanuel || A friend of Meursault from work. Often was his buddy to hang around with at restaurants. ||
 * Salamano || Another neighbor of Meursault’s. Always is walking his dog that he yells at and mistreats but the dog is everything to Salamano, and it shows he does have a heart, even though he has a rough exterior. ||
 * Masson || A friend of Raymond Sintes who owns a beach house. Invites Raymond, Meursault, and Marie there to relax and swim. ||
 * Chaplain || The chaplain who speaks with the prisoners. He tries to make Meursault find God, but is only met with attitude and indifference. ||

Summary:

The narrator, Mr. Meursault is notified of his mother’s passing. Seeming considerably laid back he travels to the funeral by bus, sleeping most of the way. When he arrives, the coffin has already been sealed. The funeral director offers to reopen it for Meursault to say his goodbyes, but he say no. Many people show up to his mother’s funeral crying and mourning, much to his annoyance. Monsieur Perez, a very close friend to Maman, faints while struggling to keep up in the funeral procession, due to the heat and distress. Unaffected by emotions, Meursault is only distraught over the heat, and is overjoyed at the thought of the bus coming soon to take him home.

The next day, Meursault decides to head to the beach. He runs into a former office crush, Marie Cardona. They go to dinner and a comedic movie, and end up spending the night together. He avoids his usual places to eat the next day because he doesn’t want to bother answering questions about his mother’s passing. The next day he goes to lunch with his friend Emmanuel from work. Back at his place, the reader meets a neighbor of Meursault’s named Salamano. Salamano and his dog are inseparable, however, Salamano is known for yelling and beating his dog up. Another neighbor, named Raymond Sintes comes to the door inviting Meursault over for dinner. Secretly known as a pimp, Raymond’s room a complete mess, filled with pictures of naked women. Raymond decides to make Meursault a friend by telling him about his mistress that he thinks cheated on him. He asked Meursault to write a letter to the mistress for him, to which Meursault says that he has no reason not to. While idly spending time with Marie, they hear a huge commotion going on with police officers. It turned out that Raymond and his mistress got into a fight, and the cop slaps Raymond. But he doesn’t care because he got his revenge on her. A distraught Salamano comes in claiming his dog ran away. We begin to see that Salamano truly loves the dog because that is all he has in life since his wife’s been dead. Meursault gets a call from Raymond inviting him and Marie to come to his friend’s beach house on Sunday. He also tips him off about Arabs hanging around that could cause them trouble, one of them being Raymond’s mistress’ brother. While at work, Meursault’s boss offers his a better position, but he turns it down. His boss is perplexed as to his lack of ambition. Later that day, Marie continues to share her feeling for Meursault, who continues to be uninterested in her. When asked if he wants to marry her, Meursault shows no reaction to Marie, who decides to be engaged anyways. Salamano interrupts worried that his dog may be dead. Annoyed, Meursault waits anxiously for Salamano to leave. Before he does though, he tells Meursault that he understands why he put his mother in a home.

Sunday arrives, and the group hangs out on the beach. Raymond, Meursault, and Masson run into the Arabs down by the spring. They get into a fight where Raymond gets many wounds. When they arrive back at the beach house, Meursault decides to stay outside, rather than go explain to the women what happened. He ends up running into the Arabs and pulls Raymond’s gun out of his pocket. With the heat and sun in his eyes, he pulls the trigger. He hesitates, and then shoots it again four more times, killing the brother of the mistress.

While being questioned, Meursault takes the whole thing as a joke. The magistrate was very conflicted with his lack of religion and multiple people, including the prison Chaplain try to get Meursault in touch with God. Marie comes and visits him, trying to lift his spirits, but she is soon cut off because she is not his wife. Many people turn up at the trials to Meursault’s surprise. The trial becomes focused on his lack of emotion, remorse, and grief, especially with his mother. All of the witnesses’ testimony focuses on his apathy towards his mother. Marie is very emotional on the stand, and her testimony only goes toward Meursault lack of feelings. Raymond, however, tries to take most of the blame and defends Meursault. Meursault seems extremely bored with the trial and the questions. The verdict comes back guilty with the sentence being Meursault would be beheaded. He spends the rest of his time thinking. When the time for his execution came, his only hope was for many people to be there “to greet him with cries of hate.”

Literary Elements:

One of the main philosophies behind Camus’s writing comes from his self-developed notion of absurdity. He observes that individual lives and human existence in general have no rational meaning or order. Meursault’s actions in The Stranger have no meaning or significance. There is a detachment in everything Meursault does and says to other human beings. No one can understand as to why he acts that way, which gives a sense of fear to the surrounding people.

People are conflicted with Meursault’s lack of conformity to society and what they believe. It stems deeper that the distance he keeps from society. The townspeople cannot imagine the coldness and apathy that Meursault represents.
 * A lack of understanding often stirs up a sense of fear in people.**

Another important theme goes along with Camus’s absurd rationality is how meaningless life is to Meursault. He does not feel anything at the deaths of the people around him. As the novel goes on, he comes to realize that everybody will die and that is it. He feels more at peace with the revelation and stops caring about how he will die.

Camus uses a lot of symbolism in The Stranger. He uses the sun and heat as excuses for Meursault’s actions. He focuses his attention at the annoying sun during his mother’s funeral instead of mourning her death. When he kills the Arab, he blames in on the sun reflecting from the Arab’s knife. And finally he feels anxious from the heat in the stuffy courtroom, instead of worrying about what will be determined with his fate.

The crucifix represents everything Meursault does not believe in. He shocks those around him by not believing in their core beliefs like God and the afterlife.

Camus also uses a lot of imagery as to how Meursault focuses exclusively on the physical aspect of life rather than the emotional aspects of it. (i.e. his relationship with Marie)