The Stranger By Albert Camus Essay

The Stranger by Albert Camus is without a doubt one of the most iconic French novels to be released. The story begins with main character Meursault being introduced as someone with emotional indifference and lack of care for daily life. From there, readers get to see different sides of his character through interactions with various characters. Like most literary pieces, these small characters help contribute to the major character’s development. One of these characters in the book is one of his neighbors named Raymond. Raymond plays a major role in shaping the story’s plot and main character’s life. Meursault’s submissive and unconscious personality are revealed through Raymond and his heinous acts. Raymond Sintés is introduced in chapter
three as a short man with broad shoulders and a nose like a boxer’s. Not to mention the fact the he also dresses very sharp and flamboyantly. He is also introduced with a significantly large bandage on his right arm which he claims is the result of a fight with a disrespectful man. The combination of the boxer’s nose, overall stature, and track record of fighting can lead to the assumption that he could have been a boxer in his earlier years. This comes into play when we learn about how he hits and beats women. His abusive personality is the most significant trait about Raymond and it can be easily linked to his job as a pimp and his past as a fighter. Aside from his abusive side, Raymond enjoys taking advantage of people; in this case, it’s Meursault. He also loves to express his masculinity by acting tough and violent, getting into fights and physical altercations, having explicit decor in his room, and drinking massive amounts of alcohol. His odd personality is likely the reason why he isn’t very popular and lacks friends. Meursault’s first interaction with Raymond is the evening where he invites him into his apartment to share some blood sausage and wine.
He himself tells us one of his main motives as to why he does what he does. “I don’t have any reason not to” is a quote that can summarize all of Meursault’s actions. Although Raymond already had the negative reputation, he still accepted his invitation as he didn’t have a reason not to. This interaction continues for a while as Raymond begins to tell Meursault a long story about his girl and how she cheated on him. This transitions to Raymond asking him to write a vicious letter to the woman and once again, he does it as he has no reason not to. From this, we get get a better understanding of his motives. Another interaction between the two occurs shortly after the letter is written. After a brief date with Marie, Meursault returns to his apartment and overhears Raymond aggressively beating a woman. A policeman comes and the situation comes to an end but Raymond visits Meursault a couple hours once the incident died down. He expresses his joy in getting revenge against the girl that had cheated on him and Meursault simply agreed with him as he noticed that it made him happy. They go for a walk and that’s when he tells him that he’s truly happy and as a result, Meursault admits the happiness caused a rare nice moment. This shows how he is completely oblivious to the events unfolding as he now thinks that it is appropriate to bond over the
beating of women. A third and final interaction with Raymond ends up poorly for Meursault. When the two go for a walk along the beach to get some fresh air, they cross paths with the Arabs that they had issues with earlier. Raymond, being the influencer he is, hands Meursault a gun and tells him to shoot one of the Arabs if both of them move in or draw knives. They all end up turning away from each other, but Meursault, influenced by Raymond’s behavior, turns around and tries to start something with the Arab. This results in him shooting one of the Arabs and his eventual imprisonment. Here you can see the powerful emotional influence Raymond left on Meursault and how controllable he is. Raymond’s shady past track record as an aggressive man and current occupation as a pimp are two of the worst possible traits to find in someone. Meursault’s easily manipulated mind succumbs to him rather easily as he has no reason not to. The three encounters that occur all show readers different things about Meursault: his main motive, how easily influenced he is, and how oblivious he is to his surroundings. Raymond, like most minor characters in literature, helped fuel the interest to the story and the development of the personality of the main character. Raymond is without a doubt the best passageway to knowledge about Meursault in the entire book.