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| Edition: | Vintage (Paperback) |
| Author: | |
| Published: | March 1989 |
| Pages: | 144 |
| ISBN 10: | 0679720200 |
| New: | $4.32 (149) |
| Used: | $0.01 (796) |
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The Stranger is Meursault, an alienated, anomic French man who kills a native Arab man in French Algiers. At his trial for murder, the prosecution describes him as a remorseless killer; he is convicted and awaits execution. In prison, Meursault accepts his fate, because it is his only true option; neither suicide, nor faith in God are options once he fully grasps the absurdity of the world in which he lives. The story occurs in Algiers, before the Second World War, a locale from Camus's life.
Solidarity in The Stranger
In The Stranger, Albert Camus characterizes his justification of the absurd through the experiences of a protagonist who simply does not conform to the system. His inherent honesty disturbs the status quo; Meursault's inability to lie cannot seamlessly integrate him within society and in turn threatens the simple fabrics of human mannerisms expected of a structurally ordered society. Consequently, the punishment for his crime is not decided on the basis of murder, but rather for the startling indifference towards his mother's recent death. Even after a conflicting spiritual discussion with a pastor inciting Meursault to consider a possible path towards redemption, the latter still refuses to take upon salvation and symbolizes his ultimatum by embracing the "gentle indifference of the world"; an act which only furthers his solidarity with a society incapable of realizing his seemingly inhumane and misanthropic behavior.
Plot
Notified of his mother's death, Meursault attends her funeral, yet expresses none of the emotion typical and expected in such a circumstance. At her wake, when asked if he wishes to view the body, he declines, and, instead, smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee before the unviewed body. Afterwards, in the next few days, he helps his best friend and neighbour, Raymond Sintès, rid himself of a Moorish girlfriend suspected of infidelity. For Raymond, Meursault agrees to write a break-up letter, because, as an emotionally detached man, he cannot see any reason not to emotionally torture the Arab ex-girlfriend of his fellow Frenchman; he notes only the physical possibility of the situation.
Subsequently, on a beach, they encounter the spurned girlfriend's brother and an Arab friend; they confront Raymond and wound him in a knife fight. Later, walking on the beach alone, Meursault, now armed with a pistol, encounters the Arab friend and shoots him dead; the shooting is partly provoked by the sun's glare. Despite killing the Arab man with the first gun shot, he shoots the cadaver four more times; later, the police easily deduce who committed the murder, and arrest Meursault.
At the trial, because they find Meursault's remorselessness offensive, the prosecuting attorneys concentrate more upon his inability or unwillingness to cry at his mother's funeral, than on his having murdered an Arab man in cold blood. They posit: if Meursault is incapable of remorse, he must be considered a dangerous misanthrope who must be executed with the guillotine. Meursault is convicted, principally for not feeling his mother's death — rather than for murdering an Arab man.
In prison, whilst awaiting the execution of his death sentence by decapitation, Meursault meets with a chaplain, but rejects his proffered opportunity of turning to God. Yet, Meursault grasps the universe's indifference towards mankind:
:As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
