The Stranger, By Albert Camus

Albert Camus’ The Stranger revolves around an ordinary man, Mersault, living in French Algiers in the 1940s. Narrated in first person point of view through Mersault’s eyes, the novel is about his life and his physical and emotional relationships around him. Beginning with the death of Mersault’s mother, the novel offers an existential point of view on life and is an exemplar of Camus’ philosophy of the absurd. Mersault’s character is initially nihilist and this novel is a narrative of how Mersault finds meaning in his life. This passage takes place towards the end of Part I where Mersault comes home to old Salamano whose dog is lost. Mersault decides to be kind and talks to him even though he was, “getting on my [his] nerves a little” (Camus
Old Salamano tells Mersault that “people in the neighborhood thought badly of me for having sent Maman to the home” (45). This demonstrates to both him and the reader that he is no longer an invisible man and that he is part of an actual community. Whereas Mersault narrates the story as if he is always alone, watching people with a view from nowhere, it is not like that. People can see him too and this is partly the reason why Mersault and even the reader, “hadn’t realized that people thought badly of me [him]” (45). This characterizes Mersault as ignorant of traditional social expectations, once again establishing him as a nihilist. This is ironic since Mersault always follows social norms; however, the reader now realizes that he does not follow social norms because he desires to be an ideal part of society but rather, so he can be invisible and get by without taking attention. This is also ironic since his nihilistic attitude is starting to backfire. He is using an indifferent attitude to eliminate attention but that same attitude is actually gaining attention. For Mersault, putting his mother in a home, “seemed like a natural thing” (45). For him, the use of the word “natural” means “reasonable” whereas for other people in his society, “natural” probably means “sincere”. Thus, Mersault is once more characterized as unconventional. This shows that it is not that Mersault has no morals or principles,
The passive tone, simple diction and simple sentence structure allows the reader to see the world through Mersault’s eyes: initially as boring, monotonous and meaningless. Mersault is ironically characterized as ignorant of social norms when we never challenges what society throws his way; this trait even puts him in danger. This encounter emphasizes the irony of how a man is crushed by the loss of his dog but a son does not wince at his mother’s death. It demonstrates the difference between physical intimacy and emotional intimacy and how emotions are violent. Mersault’s indifferent, nonchalant tone shows how he is not able to interpret meaning behind his life and his narrative is a blur of the social and natural world. Mersault is perceptive of what is around him but ultimately finds no meaning in his world. The reader becomes frustrated with Mersault’s indifference and tries to interpret events but Mersault does not. The reader then realizes that meaning will be created only when Mersault decides to do so, as it is not