The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Stranger by Albert Camus has been on my must read list for some time now and I finally got to it. It is a quick read but I still am uncovering meaning from this short story. The story is one of Meursault’s struggle with his own mortality.

Meursault is withdrawn from the world around him. He does not react to emotional situations in a way that a typical person does. He finds no reason to speak unless absolutely necessary. He doesn’t fuss and he doesn’t make excess noise. Meursault lives by what comes easy. A good example is his writing of the letter for Raymond. He does not protest or think it is wrong but simply says he will do it because he “didn’t have a reason not to”. This is the personality of Meursault and no other character in the story understands. Society sees him as a monster for challenging the moral standard.

He has no grief, he admits all he did and no one can understand his lack of emotion. He doesn’t cry at Maman’s funeral and people say his behavior is disgusting. In his trial he is crucified over and over for his emotions towards Maman and in the end is more so condemned for his treatment of Maman than of killing a man.

He begins speaking of what death means towards the end of the book and brings up a lot of points about what life and death means. Death is inevitable and he speaks of this idea in a coming-to-terms kind of way. The fact that whether he is to die today or tomorrow or in 30 years is all the same. His life will be forgotten, he will have no memory of anything, all the people he knows will be gone or simply move on, and nothing will have really mattered. These are his thoughts as he awaits his end in prison.

"I reminded myself, 'it's common knowledge that life isn't worth living, anyhow.' And, on a wide view, I could see that it makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threescore and ten-- since, in either case, other men will continue living, the world will go on as before. Also, whether I died now or forty years hence, this business of dying had to be got through, inevitably.”

The Stranger is a short but deep and thought provoking book. Read it through the narrator's mind and put yourself into the world the way he sees it.

Memorable Quotes

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.”

“There is not love of life without despair about life.”

“Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.”

“I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.”