Another example of death in The Stranger is Meursault’s killing of the Arab. Meursault does not take the action of killing the Arab man seriously. In his action of killing the Arab, Meursault doesn’t do it because he has any particular animosity towards the Arab, but because Raymond told him to, and he has no reason not to listen to Raymond. In example, When asked if he thinks Raymond should “Let the Arab have it”, Meursault says “I thought that if I said no he’d get himself all worked up and shoot for sure. All I said was ‘He hasn’t said anything yet. It’d be pretty lousy to shoot him like that.’” (56). This shows that Meursault wasn’t really killing the Arab because he cared about the issue that Raymond was animate about; in fact, he didn’t even really want the poor man to die. In the act of killing the Arab, Meursault doesn’t talk about having a motive for his action, but instead blames it on physical stimuli. “All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and, indistinctly, the dazzling spear flying up from the knife in front of me. The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes…My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver.” (59) This shows that Meursault didn’t even really have an emotional or pre-cognized reason for killing the Arab, so the death of the Arab wouldn’t mean all that much to him. Therefore, Camus is again using Meursault’s reaction as an example of his reaction to death.
The last example of death in The Stranger, or L’Etranger is in Meursault’s own execution and death. Before Meursault dies, he talks about his philosophy, and how he thinks the universe works. In this philosophical rant that he trails on, he says that nothing really matters in his life, or in anyone’s life. He begins to understand the actions of his mother towards the end of her life, and says that he understands the actions of the universe, and actually says the universe is like a brother. “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.” (122-123). Meursault’s indifference to his own death once again represents Camus’ philosophy that death is simply an action that needs to be carried out at the end of life. This especially represents Camus’ philosophy since Meursault had been representing the philosophy of Camus in the pages beforehand, which means that Camus most likely holds this attitude towards death, which is what is being broadcast through this book.
In Night, the most important death that occurs in the book, among the many that are referenced, is the death of Elie’s father. Both before and after his father’s death, Elie is extremely attached to his father, emotionally. He takes his relationship with his father so seriously that he says “I had to stay at Buchenwald until April eleventh. I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father’s death, nothing could touch me any more.” (107) This shows that Elie is extremely attached to his father, since his father’s death drives him to apathy towards his life. He takes the death of his father extremely seriously. The importance of his father’s life to him is shown through his continued attempts to keep him alive. In example, the head of Elie’s block tells him “Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone.” Instead of heeding the man’s advice, Elie decides he will keep on trying to save his father by feeding him his rations of soup and bread. This shows that Elie’s view on death is a personal one. He views death as a loss to the living. He very much cares about the fate of the dead, and would very much have them stay alive than die.
The representation of death in the two novels represents the attitude towards death held by the two cultures that the books represent. The Stranger, or L’etranger, in the original French, represents French culture, since Albert Camus, who is really an Algerian, was greatly influenced by the French. Since Algeria was a French colony at the time that The Stranger written, French and Algerian culture in the sense of their philosophy on death is really the same. Night represents Eastern-European Jewish culture, seeing as Elie Wiesel, a Jew born and raised in Eastern Europe, wrote the novel and portrayed other Eastern-European Jews in it.
Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger, and Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night both represented death in two very different ways. Albert Camus, through The Stranger portrayed death as a natural action that had to happen to every person at some time in his or her life, and should not be taken as seriously as it is. Elie Wiesel, through Night, argued that death should be taken seriously, as should the dying.
Fred Hintz 00-1519-045 6-6-07
