Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in French colonial Algeria. In 1914, his father was killed in World War I, at the Battle of the Marne. Albert, his mother, and his brother shared a two-bedroom apartment with the family’s maternal grandmother and a paralyzed uncle. Despite his family’s extreme poverty, Camus attended the University of Algiers, supporting his education by working a series of odd jobs. However, one of several severe attacks of tuberculosis forced him to drop out of school. The poverty and illness Camus experienced as a youth greatly influenced his writing.
After dropping out of the university, Camus eventually entered the world of political journalism. While working for an anti-colonialist newspaper, he wrote extensively about poverty in Algeria. From 1935 to 1938, Camus ran the Théâtre de l’Equipe, an organization that attempted to attract working-class audiences to performances of great dramatic works. During World War II, Camus went to Paris and became a leading writer for the anti-German resistance movement. He was also the editor of Combat, an important underground newspaper.
While in wartime Paris, Camus developed his philosophy of the absurd. A major component of this philosophy was Camus’s assertion that life has no rational or redeeming meaning. The experience of World War II led many other intellectuals to similar conclusions. Faced with the horrors of Hitler’s Nazi regime and the unprecedented slaughter of the War, many could no longer accept that human existence had any purpose or discernible meaning. Existence seemed simply, to use Camus’s term, absurd.
The Stranger, Camus’s first novel, is both a brilliantly crafted story and an illustration of Camus’s absurdist world view. Published in 1942, the novel tells the story of an emotionally detached, amoral young man named Meursault. He does not cry at his mother’s funeral, does not believe in God, and kills a man he barely knows without any discernible motive. For his crime, Meursault is deemed a threat to society and sentenced to death. When he comes to accept the “gentle indifference of the world,” he finds peace with himself and with the society that persecutes him.
Camus’s absurdist philosophy implies that moral orders have no rational or natural basis. Yet Camus did not approach the world with moral indifference, and he believed that life’s lack of a “higher” meaning should not necessarily lead one to despair. On the contrary, Camus was a persistent humanist. He is noted for his faith in man’s dignity in the face of what he saw as a cold, indifferent universe.
In 1942, the same year that The Stranger was published, Camus also published The Myth of Sisyphus, his famous philosophical essay on the absurd. These two works helped establish Camus’s reputation as an important and brilliant literary figure. Over the course of his career he produced numerous novels, plays, and essays that further developed his philosophy. Among his most notable novels are The Plague, published in 1947, and The Fall, published in 1956. Along with The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel stands as his best-known philosophical essay. In recognition of his contribution to French and world literature, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Tragically, he died in an automobile accident just three years later.
In the midst of the widespread intellectual and moral bewilderment that followed World War II, Camus’s was a voice advocating the values of justice and human dignity. Though his career was cut short, he remains one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century, regarded both for the quality of his fiction and for the depth and insightfulness of his philosophy.
Camus, Existentialism & The Stranger
The Stranger is often referred to as an “existential” novel, but this description is not necessarily accurate. The term “existentialism” is a broad and far-reaching classification that means many different things to many different people, and is often misapplied or overapplied. As it is most commonly used, existentialism refers to the idea that there is no “higher”meaning to the universe or to man’s existence, and no rational order to the events of the world. According to this common definition of existentialism, human life is not invested with a redemptive or affirming purpose—there is nothing beyond man’s physical existence.
Some ideas in The Stranger clearly resemble this working definition of existentialism, but the broader philosophy of existentialism includes aspects far beyond this definition that are not present in The Stranger. Moreover, Camus himself rejected the application of the “existential” label to The Stranger. Hence, this SparkNote approaches The Stranger from the philosophical perspective of the absurd. “The absurd” is a term Camus himself coined, and a philosophy that he himself developed. Reading The Stranger with Camus’s philosophy of the absurd in mind sheds a good deal of light on the text.
Although Camus’s philosophical ideas resonate strongly within the text, it is important to keep in mind that The Stranger is a novel, not a philosophical essay. When reading the novel, character development, plot, and prose style demand just as much attention as the specifics of the absurd.
The Stranger Summary
The famous lines introducing Meursault's mother open the novel. He is not sure whether she had died today or yesterday since the telegram was not specific. Furthermore he does not really think it matters. He asks for two days off and takes the bus to the home he had put his mother in when he could no longer afford to take care of her. He sleeps on the way there. At the home, Meursault meets the director and the caretaker and is taken to see his mother. He chooses not to look at her and sits by her side as friends come to mourn during the night. He chats with the caretaker, naps, smokes, and has some coffee. In the morning, the funeral procession walks the hour into town for the ceremony. The sun is scorching and Meursault feels more oppressed by the heat than sad over his mother's death. Her fiancé Thomas Pérez however is in tears and must struggle to keep up by taking shortcuts. After the funeral, Meursault catches the bus home and looks forward to sleeping twelve hours.
He wakes up the next day and realizes that it is a weekend and is not surprised his boss was annoyed. He gets up late and then decides to go to the beach where he loves to swim. Once there he sees a woman he used to be attracted to at work, Marie Cardona. They are instantly attracted and agree to see a movie later that night. Marie is surprised to hear that Meursault's mother died only yesterday. That night they see a comedy and go back to Meursault's. She is gone the next morning before Meursault gets up. He remembers that he hates Sundays because they are boring so he takes a nap. Finally he gets up, makes lunch and settles on the balcony to watch people pass. Different crowds move by throughout the day including families, soccer fans, and moviegoers. He eats dinner standing up, watches some more, and then moves inside when it gets colder and darker.
A work day follows. His boss, trying to be kind, asks about his mother but is relieved when Meursault says his mother was about sixty when she died. Meursault has a great deal of work to do before lunch. On the break, he and Emmanuel jump onto a moving fire truck. Meursault eats lunch, takes a nap, and returns to work. Arriving home after work, he runs into Salamano and his dog and thinks of the routine the ridiculous pair always follow. Meursault sees Raymond next who invites him over for dinner. They talk about Raymond's fight with an Arab and then, his cheating girlfriend. He asks Meursault to write a letter to her for him to make her feel bad about what she did. Then he can punish her when she comes back to him. Meursault agrees to write the letter because he is there and Raymond seems to like it very much and says they are pals.
Meursault works hard the following week and attends the movies twice with Emmanuel. On Saturday he sees Marie and they go swimming. He admires her beauty. They frolic in the water and then hurry back to the apartment to have sex. She stays for the morning and asks if he loves her. He says no. They are interrupted by the loud fight between Raymond and his girlfriend. They go watch as Raymond is beating the woman but Meursault does not want to call the police since he does not like them. The cops break it up, slapping Raymond when he will not remove a cigarette from his mouth. Marie and Meursault make lunch but Marie no longer has much of an appetite. After Marie leaves, Raymond comes over and they agree the woman received her punishment. They go out to drink and play pool. They meet Salamano on the way back. He has lost his dog and is upset. Meursault suggests that he check the pound where he could pay a fee for the dog. Salamano is outraged at the idea of paying. He later gets the rest of the details on the pound from Meursault and then goes home. Meursault can hear him crying. He thinks of Maman and goes to bed without dinner.
Meursault receives a call from Raymond at the office which annoys. He is invited by Raymond to bring Marie to his friend's house and told that an Arab relative of Raymond's woman has been following Raymond. Soon after, Meursault's boss offers him a job where he would be transferred to Paris. Meursault admits he is happy enough where he is and the boss berates his lack of ambition. That evening he sees Marie who asks if he will marry her. Meursault says he will if she wants but still says he does not love her. Marie still wants to marry him. She is excited about the prospect of Paris but he thinks it is dirty. Meursault eats dinner alone at Céleste's until he is joined by a jerky robot-like woman. He follows her when she leaves but loses interest. Back at the building, he finds Salamano waiting. His dog was not at the pound and he tells Meursault stories about him and the dog. He does not want another. He also mentions that he is sorry about Maman and understands why he put her in a home though many neighbors do not.
Marie has difficulty waking Meursault on the day they are to join Raymond and his friend. Once outside they see a group of Arabs, like Raymond had mentioned, across the street. They get on the bus for the beach and are not followed. The cottage belongs to Masson and his Parisian wife whom Marie befriends. Meursault is struck by the idea of getting married. Marie and Mersault enjoy swimming together. Meursault then naps on the beach before playing in the water more with Marie. He devours his lunch and then takes a walk with the other men. They run into two Arabs on the beach and Raymond and Masson fight them. Raymond gets cut and needs to be stitched. When they return, he takes off down the beach again. Meursault follows him though he wanted to be left alone. They find the Arab but Meursault convinces Raymond to give him his gun. Nothing happens and the men walk back. Meursault is affected by the sun and heat and goes back onto the beach. He finds himself near the Arab again and is drawn closer. With the heat and glare of the knife, Meursault shoots the gun once and then four more times, killing the Arab.
Part Two of the novel takes place after Meursault's arrest. He is taken to prison and held there. The magistrate gives him a lawyer although Meursault does not think it is necessary. He is taken into an interrogation room with a single lamp like in books he has read. It seems like a game but the magistrate is reasonable. His lawyer visits him the next day and is disturbed that he will not agree to say that he repressed his natural feelings on the day of Maman's funeral. Meursault considers stopping him to explain but is too lazy. The magistrate calls him again and is bothered by the part in his testimony where he hesitated before firing the last four shots. As Meursault cannot explain why, the magistrate takes out a crucifix and attempts to make Meursault repent so God will forgive him. Meursault does not follow his reasoning nor does he believe in God. Frustrating the magistrate further, Meursault says he is more annoyed than sorry about the crime he has committed. Their discussions after this time are more cordial and Meursault remembers little else he enjoyed as much as these moments between him and the magistrate.
The same eleven months spent talking to the magistrate are also lived daily in the prison. Meursault does not like to talk about this much. Marie visits him once and the visiting room is very crowded, bright, loud, and hot. Meursault finds it hard to concentrate on their conversation, picking up pieces of the mostly Arab conversations around. Marie looks beautiful and Meursault looks at her body more than he listens to her voice. Meursault is hot and dizzy. He almost leaves but wants to take advantage of Marie being there. Soon after she visits, he receives a letter from Marie saying she is not allowed to visit any longer because she is not his wife. Still this time is not so hard for Meursault. He has free man thoughts and urges for awhile, such as the desire to go swimming, but these only last for a few months. He realizes that he can get used to anything. The first months are especially hard because of his desire for women and cigarettes. Women's faces fill his room with desire but they also help to pass the time. He chews on pieces of wood to get over smoking and realizes that the only way to really punish him is by taking away these freedoms. The main problem he faces is killing time. To combat time, he catalogs every item in his apartment gaining more and more detail each time he visualizes its entirety. He learns to sleep two thirds of the day . He finds a scrap of a newspaper crime story about a tragic Czech family and reads it over every day. These items and his memory allow him to ease time. He loses a sense of all but yesterday and today. Meursault realizes that he has even begun talking aloud to himself and that his reflection refuses to smile, but he is not at all unhappy.
The year until the next summer passes quickly and it is time for Meursault's trial. At the courthouse, people cram into to see a spectacle and Meursault realizes that it is he. He feels as if he is being judged. The room is very hot and Meursault feels dizzy. The press has built up his story making the interest and crowds larger than expected. One young reporter in particular examines Meursault thoroughly and the robot woman is also seen in the audience watching intently. His examination is first and he agrees with the judge's reading of his statement. He is irritated by the questions on Maman. After a break, the prosecution's witness are called. The director and caretaker of the home testify on Meursault's lack of sympathy toward his mother at the funeral. Pérez testifies that he could neither see Meursault cry or not cry through his own tears. The defense is then called and Céleste is the first witness. He states that the murder was bad luck. Marie testifies about the day they met following Maman's burial which is turned by the prosecution into a dubious liaison too close to his mother's death. Masson states that Meursault is an honest man and Salamano pleads with the jury to understand. Raymond is the last witness and testifies that Meursault was at the beach by chance and the Arab had hated Raymond. The prosecutor says Meursault is on trial for burying Maman with a crime in his heart. Meursault leaves the courthouse and smells the summer air. He remembers the days when he was happy, noting that his path could have gone either way.
The lawyer's summations follow the next day and Meursault is interested to see what they will say about him. As both speeches are very long, Meursault finds it difficult to pay attention. The prosecutor seems to dwell on his crime being premeditated. Meursault finds the recreation of events plausible and sees how he could be thought of as Raymond's accomplice. Meursault notes how odd it is that his intelligence is used against him. The prosecutor then spends a long time on Meursault's treatment of Maman. Meursault admits to himself that the prosecutor is correct that he is not able to show remorse. The prosecutor ends by declaring that Meursault's soul is empty and that he is a monster who has paved the way for the parricide trial following. Meursault replies that he had no intention of killing the Arab. When asked why he did it, he does not know and can only blurt out that it was because of the sun. The defense lawyer's summation is not as skilled Meursault finds, especially since he does not address Maman's funeral. Meursault does not like how his lawyer replaces his name with "I" and feels further excluded from the entire process. The pointlessness of the trial depresses him and he wishes he could go sleep. Meursault is made to wait in another room as the jury decides and pronounces the verdict. He is brought in for the sentencing and hears that he is going to be decapitated in the name of the French people. He has nothing to say.
In his prison cell, Meursault denies the chaplain three times. He wishes he had paid more attention to executions so that he could think of one possibility where the criminal had escaped the inevitability of the process. He finds the absoluteness of the situation to be arrogant. He remembers Maman's story of his father going to an execution and now understands why. He wishes that he could visit all of the executions from now on. This wish is too painful though since there is such little chance of his freedom. He imagines new penal codes which would allow the condemned to have one chance in ten of escaping his fate. He realizes that his concept of the guillotine has always been skewed. The two things he thinks about most though are dawn and his appeal. Meursault knows that the executioners would come right before dawn so he waits up every night. Although he knows everyone will die, the thought of his appeal is maddening. He must convince himself of its impossibility in order to introduce to himself the chance of a pardon, which when faced rationally, gives him an hour of calm.
He thinks of Marie for the first time in a while at such a moment and the chaplain comes in. Asked why he has refused him, Meursault answers that he does not believe in God. Meursault tries to convince the chaplain that he has little time to devote to other thoughts and the chaplain's words do not interest him. The chaplain is surprised to learn that Meursault truly believes there is nothing after death. He points out that every sufferer has found the face of God in the prison stones. Meursault has looked only for Marie and not found her. The chaplain refuses to accept Meursault's behavior. Meursault snaps, yelling at him that he does wish for another life but one where he could remember the present one. He attacks the chaplain as the one who is dead inside, waiting for something after life. Meursault realizes that he has been right all along. He had lived his life one way but it did not matter and no one's life, death, or love made a difference to him. Every life is worth the same and all are privileged.. The guards tear the chaplain away and Meursault falls asleep. When he wakes, it is night. The sirens blast just before dawn and Meursault thinks of Maman. He understands her need to live life all over again, explaining why she took a fiancé so close to death. No one has a right to cry over her. He opens himself to the indifference of the world and finds it to be a brother. He is happy. To feel less alone, he only hopes that a crowd of haters will welcome him at his execution.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
The Irrationality of the Universe
Though The Stranger is a work of fiction, it contains a strong resonance of Camus’s philosophical notion of absurdity. In his essays, Camus asserts that individual lives and human existence in general have no rational meaning or order. However, because people have difficulty accepting this notion, they constantly attempt to identify or create rational structure and meaning in their lives. The term “absurdity” describes humanity’s futile attempt to find rational order where none exists.
Though Camus does not explicitly refer to the notion of absurdity in The Stranger, the tenets of absurdity operate within the novel. Neither the external world in which Meursault lives nor the internal world of his thoughts and attitudes possesses any rational order. Meursault has no discernable reason for his actions, such as his decision to marry Marie and his decision to kill the Arab.
Society nonetheless attempts to fabricate or impose rational explanations for Meursault’s irrational actions. The idea that things sometimes happen for no reason, and that events sometimes have no meaning is disruptive and threatening to society. The trial sequence in Part Two of the novel represents society’s attempt to manufacture rational order. The prosecutor and Meursault’s lawyer both offer explanations for Meursault’s crime that are based on logic, reason, and the concept of cause and effect. Yet these explanations have no basis in fact and serve only as attempts to defuse the frightening idea that the universe is irrational. The entire trial is therefore an example of absurdity—an instance of humankind’s futile attempt to impose rationality on an irrational universe.
The Meaninglessness of Human Life
A second major component of Camus’s absurdist philosophy is the idea that human life has no redeeming meaning or purpose. Camus argues that the only certain thing in life is the inevitability of death, and, because all humans will eventually meet death, all lives are all equally meaningless.
Meursault gradually moves toward this realization throughout the novel, but he does not fully grasp it until after his argument with the chaplain in the final chapter. Meursault realizes that, just as he is indifferent to
much of the universe, so is the universe indifferent to him. Like all people, Meursault has been born, will die, and will have no further importance.
Paradoxically, only after Meursault reaches this seemingly dismal realization is he able to attain happiness. When he fully comes to terms with the inevitability of death, he understands that it does not matter whether he dies by execution or lives to die a natural death at an old age. This understanding enables Meursault to put aside his fantasies of escaping execution by filing a successful legal appeal. He realizes that these illusory hopes, which had previously preoccupied his mind, would do little more than create in him a false sense that death is avoidable. Meursault sees that his hope for sustained life has been a burden. His liberation from this false hope means he is free to live life for what it is, and to make the most of his remaining days.
The Importance of the Physical World
The Stranger shows Meursault to be interested far more in the physical aspects of the world around him than in its social or emotional aspects. This focus on the sensate world results from the novel’s assertion that there exists no higher meaning or order to human life. Throughout The Stranger, Meursault’s attention centers on his own body, on his physical relationship with Marie, on the weather, and on other physical elements of his surroundings. For example, the heat during the funeral procession causes Meursault far more pain than the thought of burying his mother. The sun on the beach torments Meursault, and during his trial Meursault even identifies his suffering under the sun as the reason he killed the Arab. The style of Meursault’s narration also reflects his interest in the physical. Though he offers terse, plain descriptions when glossing over emotional or social situations, his descriptions become vivid and ornate when he discusses topics such as nature and the weather.
Motifs
Decay and Death
The different characters in The Stranger hold widely varying attitudes toward decay and death. Salamano loves his decaying, scab-covered dog and he values its companionship, even though most people find it disgusting. Meursault does not show much emotion in response to his mother’s death, but the society in
which he lives believes that he should be distraught with grief. Additionally, whereas Meursault is content to believe that physical death represents the complete and final end of life, the chaplain holds fast to the idea of an afterlife.
An essential part of Meursault’s character development in the novel is his coming to terms with his own attitudes about death. At the end of the novel, he has finally embraced the idea that death is the one inevitable fact of human life, and is able to accept the reality of his impending execution without despair.
Watching and Observation
Throughout the novel there are instances of characters watching Meursault, or of his watching them. This motif recalls several components of Camus’s absurdist philosophy. The constant watching in The Stranger suggests humanity’s endless search for purpose, and emphasizes the importance of the tangible, visible details of the physical world in a universe where there is no grander meaning.
When Meursault watches people on the street from his balcony, he does so passively, absorbing details but not judging what he sees. By contrast, the people in the courtroom watch Meursault as part of the process
of judgment and condemnation. In the courtroom, we learn that many of Meursault’s previous actions were being watched without his—or our—knowledge. The Arabs watch Raymond and his friends with implicit antagonism as they walk to the bus. Raymond’s neighbors act as spectators to his dispute with his mistress and the police officer, watching with concern or petty curiosity. At times, watching is a mysterious activity, such as when Meursault watches the woman at Celeste’s, and later when she watches him in court. The novel’s moments of watching and observation reflect humanity’s endless search for meaning, which Camus found absurd.
Symbols
The Courtroom
In the courtroom drama that comprises the second half of The Stranger, the court symbolizes society as
a whole. The law functions as the will of the people, and the jury sits in judgment on behalf of the entire community. In The Stranger, Camus strengthens this court-as-society symbolism by having nearly every one of the minor characters from the first half of the novel reappear as a witness in the courtroom. Also, the court’s attempts to construct a logical explanation for Meursault’s crime symbolize humanity’s attempts to find rational explanations for the irrational events of the universe. These attempts, which Camus believed futile, exemplify the absurdity Camus outlined in his philosophy.
The Crucifix
The crucifix that the examining magistrate waves at Meursault symbolizes Christianity, which stands in opposition to Camus’s absurdist world view. Whereas absurdism is based on the idea that human life is irrational and purposeless, Christianity conceives of a rational order for the universe based on God’s creation and direction of the world, and it invests human life with higher metaphysical meaning.
The crucifix also symbolizes rational belief structures in general. The chaplain’s insistence that Meursault turn to God does not necessarily represent a desire that Meursault accept specifically Christian beliefs so much as a desire that he embrace the principle of a meaningful universe in general. When Meursault defies the magistrate by rejecting Christianity, he implicitly rejects all systems that seek to define a rational order within human existence. This defiance causes Meursault to be branded a threat to social order.