The Stranger (novel)

The Stranger, also translated as The Outsider, (the original French version is called L'Étranger) (1942) is a novel by Albert Camus.

(Note: Étranger in French has several meanings. One is "foreign", as in exterior to one's country, while another is used to signify a generic person who is unknown to you, similar to "stranger". It could be argued that the title would be better translated as The Foreigner, as the main character is a foreigner, which would be fitting in the context that Mersault was a man of French origins living in Algeria. However, knowing Camus' position in regards to Algeria, it may not mean "foreigner" because the character Mersault is a pied-noir, probably with several generations of family living in Algeria before him. Camus was known to advocate that pied-noirs were as much a citizen of Algeria as the Algerian population.)

The Plot

The novel tells the story of an alienated man, who eventually commits a murder and waits to be executed for it. The book uses an Algerian setting, drawn from Camus' own upbringing.

The novel starts off with Meursault going to his mother's funeral, where he does not express any emotions. Later, while vacationing on the beach, he gets in a fight with an Arab and winds up shooting and killing him.

At the trial, the prosecution focuses on the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral, considered suspect by the authorities. The killing of the Arab apparently is less important than whether Meursault is capable of remorse. The argument follows that if Meursault is incapable of remorse, he should be considered a dangerous misanthrope and subsequently executed to prevent him from doing it again, and by executing, make him an example to those considering murder.

The Background and Philosophy

Albert Camus, like Meursault, was a pied-noir (literally black foot) – a French colonialist who lived in the Maghreb, the northernmost crescent of the Mediterranean Sea, the heart of France's colonies.

Early Christian missionaries accused dark-skinned people of having no morals because they cannot blush, so they are 'unabashed sinners'. Meursault's unwillingness or inability to cry at his mother's funeral could have been interpreted as the societal prejudice of the 'immorality' of people of color.

Usually classed as an existential novel, The Stranger is indeed based on Camus' theory of the absurd. Many readers mistakingly believe that Meursault lives by the ideas of the existentialists. In the first half of the novel, however, Meursault is clearly an unreflecting, unapologetic individual. It is Meursault's inability to reflect on the nature of his existence and of life that leads him to killing the Arab. Only by being tried and sentenced to death is Meursault forced to acknowledge his own mortality and the responsibility he has for his own life.

Another theme is that we make our own destiny, and we, not God, are responsible for our actions and their consequences (non-determinism).

In writing the novel Camus was influenced by other existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger. Camus and Sartre in particular had been involved in the French resistance during WWII and were friends until ultimately differing on their philosophical stances.

Ultimately, Camus presents the world as essentially meaningless and therefore, the only way to arrive at any meaning or purpose is to make it ones self. Thus it is the individual and not the act that gives meaning to any given context. Camus deals with this issue, as well as man's relationship to man and issues such as suicide in his other works such as A Happy Death and The Plague, as well as his non-fiction works such as The Rebel and The Myth of Sisyphus.

Cultural Influences

In cinema, the novel inspired Lo Straniero (1967), directed by Luchino Visconti, and Yagzi (2001), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz.

In popular music, it inspired The Cure's single Killing an Arab.