The Stranger, Albert Camuss first novel, is a brilliantly crafted story and a portrayal of Camus absurdist world view
by
kevintieubro (student)
World Literature- The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Stranger, Albert Camus’s first novel, is a brilliantly crafted story and a portrayal of Camus’ absurdist world view. Camus’ absurdist philosophy implies that existence and ethical orders have no rational or usual meaning. The novel tells the story of an emotionally detached, indifferent man named Meursault. Camus creates an absurd world by immersing the reader into the perspective of Meursault where he shares his views of life and the world. It is Meursault, the protagonist of The Stranger, who composes the novel, who shapes and fabricates this absurd world. The Stranger exhibits a society that has confined itself with a specific set of social standards that dictate the manner in which people are supposed to act. Albert Camus's main character, Meursault, is depicted as a rebel in a way that he is unwilling to play society's game. Through Meursault's failure to comply with society's values and conform to the norm, he is rejected and also condemned to death by society. He does not cry at his mother’s funeral, does not believe in God, and kills a man he barely knows without any apparent motive. For his offense and his different outlook on life that differentiates him from the society around him, Meursault is deemed a threat to society’s moral standard and sentenced to death. When he comes to accept the cruel, cold indifference of the world, and death he finds peace with himself and with the society that persecutes him. Camus creates an Absurd world through Meursault and outlines concepts of detachment, alienation and society, through the use of structure, perspective, motif of death and stream of consciousness.
To construct an absurd world, Camus creates a contrast between the two faces of Meursault by structuring the book into parts. As Meursault goes through change and epiphany, realizing that life is meaningless, he shapes an absurd world. The first part describes Meursault as an indifferent character where his actions influence society, the second part as a changed and intellectual man, as he realizes the distance between himself and society. This separation is helpful in understanding the changing nature of Meursault and how he stands out against society and how he views the world. Part I of the novel consists of Meursault's comments and observations on the events going on around him as seen in his extremely detailed description of Monsieur Perez, a friend of Maman “I realized that it was Monsieur Perez. He was wearing a soft felt hat with a round crown and a wide brim (he took it off as the casket was coming through the gate, a suit with trousers that were corkscrewed down around his ankles, and a black tie with a knot that was too small for the big white collar of his shirt. His lips were trembling below a nose dotted with blackheads. Strange, floppy, thick-rimmed ears stuck out through his fine, white hair, and I was struck by their blood-red color next to the pallor of his face” (Camus 14, 15). Another example includes his description of the room that contained his mother, “It was a very bright, whitewashed room with skylight for a roof” (Camus 6), which is an extremely detailed observation to the point where one may picture and imagine themselves being in that room. Part II consist of Meursault's comments and observation on his life in which he attempts to understand existence and what it stands for by looking at how society views him and the distance he unknowingly set apart against society as seen in the line “Then I remembered what the nurse at Maman’s funeral said. No, there was no way out, and no one can imagine what nights in prison are like” illustrates the idea that one cannot escape death, that no one knows what death feels like and that everyone goes through death as the nurse had said. He is conscious of every aspect of his experience, both past and present. In Part I, the reader sees that Meursault is devoid of emotion and lacks the sort of emotion that makes a person vulnerable. In the first line of the novel “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours. That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday,” (Camus 3) immediately exhibits that Maman’s death didn’t matter, that it wasn’t significant to him and adding “Maybe it was yesterday” reinforces the thought that he lacked emotions for the death of his mom as he did not know exactly when she had died. However, in Part II, he has little choice but to reflect on his past because in his jail cell, that is the only thing he can do. For the first time in his life, he thinks about his relationship with society. The final encounter with the chaplain forces him to clear his ideas on life and death. He is faithful to his beliefs, though they are limited. The confrontation with death causes Meursault to open up his heart to the indifference of the universe. The only thing that could make his death happy is to maintain his beliefs and set a standard for those to come. These beliefs and standards are what him outline him to be indifferent, abnormal, mysterious resulting in detachment from society. Thus, one can see that death erases everything, life becomes meaningless and this is how life and the world are absurd.
