Analysis Of The Novel 'The Stranger'

The Article “A Stranger in Strange Lands” written by Lucille P. McCarthy is an examination of the writing process. This article follows a college student through a twenty-one month study to determine how the students writing ability is affected as he transitions from one classroom to another. Focusing on specific writing processes in different types of classrooms,this article hopes to uncover the importance and effect of writing towards a specific audience within a particular genre and to offer a better understanding to how students continue to learn to write throughout college.

“Tell me, is that a nationality, ‘Arab’?” muses Harun, the narrator of Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation (Daoud 138). Daoud’s novel is full of questions and ramblings such as this one that serve as a response to Albert Camus’ The Stranger, which explores the trial of a French Algerian (Meursault) for killing an Arab man. In The Stranger, Camus fails to name the Arab victim and gives him no backstory nor significant reason for the cause of his murder. In The Meursault Investigation, Daoud gives the dead Arab a name: Musa. Much like Musa’s Quranic and Biblical counterpart, Musa is unable to speak for himself and so his brother Harun is left with the task of narrating the story. The Meursault Investigation draws many parallels between Meursault and Harun: both have a complicated relationship with their mother, both have an ambivalence towards their home country and most obviously both murder a ‘stranger’. The parallels in the novel are used to compare and contrast the different qualities of the two men and also cause the reader to change the way they view Meursault in The Stranger. Camus portrays a Meursault that is detached and passive, while Daoud gives an emotional Harun who ends up seeing Meursault from The Stranger as a “mirror held up to [his] soul” (Daoud 131). Through Harun’s identification with Meursault and the various parallels between the novels, Daoud is able to raise questions in the reader as to whether Meursault was as cold hearted and detached as he

Flat characters play a significant role in all novels. For instance, the brother of Raymond’s mistress is a key flat character. The Arab never grows throughout the novel; rather, he remains a stalker, stalking his prey, tempting a fight. Without the role of the Arab, Meursault, would never have gone to prison, and never be tried for murder.

The major theme in the Stranger is “absurdism”. In the Stranger, the main settings are: Meursault’s home, the beach where the Arab was murdered, the courthouse, and eventually jail. The Stranger is taken place in Algeria in the 1940’s. The prosecutor characterizes Meursault as a murderer, as a monster. In page one hundred and two, the prosecutor states: “ For if in the course of what has been a long career I have strongly as today have I felt this painful duty made sacred imperative and by the horror I feel when I look into a man’s face and all I see is a monster.”

The novel The Stranger is a first-person account of the life of M. Meursault from the time of his mother 's death up to a time evidently just before his execution for the murder of an Arab. It was written by Albert Camus in 1942. Meursault however, is not your typical hero of a story; rather an antihero. He is neither good nor bad, and harbors no emotion. He goes through his life with a preconceived notion that human existence has no meaning, besides to enjoy the immediate and physical. Told through the singular viewpoint of Meursault, the entire plot is based on a series of consecutive accidental events that lead to him being tried for murder and facing the death penalty. It is widely accepted that The Stranger is a philosophical book, imposing the existential ideas of Albert Camus upon the reader. On top of that though, the book offers a unique idea to its readers: The idea that the universe and its happenings are uncontrollable, society tries to rationalize people’s actions and the events going on around them. To truly be happy, humans must seize the opportunity to live by their own free will: living on one’s own terms as a human with choice.

In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault the protagonist, becomes drawn into a “senseless” murder that has to face the absurdity of life and because of his actions, Meursault is presented as a danger due to his lack of “morality” to society. Meursault who is not able to take control of his life but respond to what life offers him believes in the simplicity of life. He tries to understand the living through logic and objectivity, which ultimately turns futile, as he himself cannot maintain proper control over his thoughts and emotions. From the interactions between Marie, to the murder of the Arab, and the meeting with the Chaplain, Meursault overcomes his indifferent views to form an opinion about what life really means. The central theme presented by Camus is how the threat of mortality becomes a catalyst for understanding the significance of life.

This easy-going, pleasant hedonism is interrupted permanently by Meursault's murder of the Arab on the beach. Not only is he incarcerated, but also he must examine the reality behind the illusion of his trial and, ultimately, of his life. Introspection has not been his metier. It takes him a while to realize that the judge, the jury, the journalists, even his own lawyer, do not wish him well. Meursault finally realizes that he is going to be convicted, not because he killed an Arab but because he did not mourn his mother's death.

Meursault is psychologically detached from the world around him. Things that would seem to be very significant for most people, such as a marriage or a parent’s death, do not matter to him. He shot a guy 4 times even though the guy had died after one shot. Even though he killed a guy for no reason, I do not think Meursault deserved to be executed. Instead I believe he needs help with his thinking and emotions because his mindset thinks that killing someone doesn't matter due to the fact that everyone dies.

Both Meursault’s lawyer and the prosecutor create explanations for Meursault’s crime that are based on reason and logic. The prosecutor even claims to have figured out the intent behind Meursault’s actions saying, “I have retraced for you the course of events which led this man to kill with full knowledge of his actions”(100). However, rationalizing behavior only serves to deny the alarming idea that the world is completely random. Therefore, Meursault’s trial shows absurdity and society’s futile attempt to impose rationality on every aspect of the universe.

Meursault was introduced as a young man whom recently found out his mother, Maman, died. He was not the most emotional person, but he dealt with his feelings the best he knew how. Meursault lived his life on the verge of truth and honesty. He was honest within every aspect of life, from women to freedom. He was never certain about anything in life ,but one thing he was sure of, death was inevitable. After murdering an Arab, he was on trial in front of many people being interrogated with many questions about why he did what he did, but also to evaluate his psyche about the situation. Unlike others, Meursault did not hide from the truth and that is what others could not cope with. Living his life the way others were afraid to, Meursault was the outcast in his society.

His encounter with the Arab shows how the presence of other people in his life makes absolutely no impression on him. Taking the Arab’s life was something he did as a natural reaction, he pulled the trigger thinking it was justified where as any normal human being would think other wise. Once on trial, Meursault constantly observed the people in the courtroom as if he had no idea of how the rest of society lived. Every thing he saw was new to him and it brought him a feeling of excitement, as if he was enjoying being on trial. Fear only came after his verdict. He didn’t even consider his fate early on in the trial because he was in awe of the rest of society; their behaviors and actions were all new to him. In chapter three part two Meursault explained this by saying:

To begin, Meursault was sent to jail for shooting an Arab man while at the beach with a few friends and Marie. Upon entering the jail, Meursault was stripped of his favorite pleasures such as smoking cigarettes, having sex, and walking along the beach. After befriending a prison guard, Meursault began to understand his punishment was his loss of free will. After a short withdraw period from thinking like a free man to thinking like a prisoner, (Camus, The Stranger, 77) Meursault’s perspective on prison begins to shift, if “…[he] had gotten used to not smoking”, it was no longer a “punishment” for him (Camus, The Stranger, 78). Meursault realizes he can adapt to any situation because he “often thought if [he] had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do…[he] would have gotten used to it” (Camus, The Stanger, 77). He starts to deplete himself of boredom by entertaining mind, reliving enjoyable memories, fantasizing about sex with women, and mentally redecorating his apartment. This allowed Meursault to not think about time and adjust to his new way of life in jail as if he was living in that dead tree trunk. After spending a “pleasant” year in jail, Meursault’s case was settled and he was sentenced to death. Since Meursault was an atheist, he denied seeing the Chaplin three times. He did not wish to talk to the Chaplin because “All [he] could think about was escaping the machinery of justice…” (Camus, The Stranger, 108). Shortly before his death date, Meursault had the chance to speak with the Chaplin. Meursault told the Chaplin that earth was not

Meursault is not adventurous and ambitious. Meursault is a person who lacks any ambition to accomplish anything in life. When he is offered a position in a new office to be opened by his boss in Paris, Meursault replies that it is all the same to him. In addition when Marie asks Meursault if he wants to marry her, he says that it does not make any meaning that he has no feelings for her. He lives a non-adventurous life and does not care about others. Heroes are adventurous, but Meursault is

Meursault is the protagonist of “The Stranger”. Meursault committed murder. He shot an Arabian man a series of five times; first firing one of the bullets and pausing, he shot four more continuous shots. He knew the first shot did the Arab in, but continue with irrational thought.

Instead, Meursault is someone who whimpers away from society’s eyes so he can make his own choices. He does make his own choices by shooting the man several times. At that moment, it was not fate that pushed him to make his choice, but his own rational thinking that would tell him to do such an act, and follow this path that he created