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Critical Analysis: “The Stranger by Albert Camus”

Introduction

One of the most important works of 20th-century French literature, “The Stranger” is famous for its opening line: "Mama died today. Or perhaps yesterday. I don't know: (Camus, PP. 4) “The Stranger” is the first novel to bring international acclaim to Albert Camus (1913-60), one of the most influential writers and philosophers in the French language of the 20th century. Camus was born in Mondovia, Algiers, then a French colony, and later moved to Paris (O'Brien, 32-36). “The Stranger” , a slim and easily accessible volume, addresses the subjects of death, guilt, judgment, and self-realization in the 1940s in a world dominated by global war, apathy, and disillusionment. Philosophically laden, the novel encompasses a blend of artful storytelling and challenging social ideas and issues.

Discussion

The Book

“The Stranger” is essentially divided into two parts. The first three chapters precede the murder, while the last three chapters follow it. Written in 1940 when Camus was 26, “The Stranger” is the first of a three-part collection of works the author called The Absurds. The other two works making up The Absurds include the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" ("Le Mythe de Sisyphe," 1942) and the novel The Plague (La Peste, 1946). Title “The Stranger” implies the idea of a man who lives permanently indifferent to the world; he could not make the difference between the good and bad sides of the world. He is the main character of the novel, through which the author has explored the philosophy of absurdism (Brombert, 119-123).

Literature of the Camus revolves around two philosophical aspects of life; absurd and revolt. “The Stranger” is also a story in which the main character is indifferent to every thing around him. Through this character, the author has unfolded the absurd school of thought which is a kind of awareness of the non-meaning of life which leads to the idea that man is free to live, be willing to pay the consequences of that freedom.

Readers of “The Stranger” can easily make out the crux of the story because, despite its philosophical aspects, surprisingly the book is written in very straightforward and simple manner. It reflects the pared down and understated language used by other popular modernists such as Ernest Hemingway. The story is written in first person narrative which unfolds the events in a linear progression. “The Stranger” is quite easy to understand because it avoids the complexities of multiple story lines, psychological dimensions or intricate characterization, which were the common features of French literature of that time (Scharnhorst, pp. 60-61).

Meursault's Character

“The Stranger” reflects the malaise that dominated human existence during and after the devastation of two world wars. Meursault, the novel's prototypical antihero, exhibits none of the characteristics of the traditional hero. Self-absorbed, he has little if any interest in the world around him. Because of his denial of traditional life, he is a stranger and a loner who rejects religion, the future, and the will to live—all ideas that ...