THE STRANGER

I bought this book a few years ago and just barely got around to reading it, finally. The story follows a man, whom they call Meursault, settled in French Algeria. As part one begins we are both introduced to Maman (Meursault's mother) and her death. This doesn't seem to shock Monsieur Meursault too badly, you'll notice throughout the book it's sort of the odd things that seem to get underneath Meursault's skin rather than the obvious traumatic experiences he faces. For instance, Meursault is face to face with the death of his own mother when guests around notice his absence in remorse. It is not till he is seconds away from an incredibly impulsive murder that we feel a sense of anger in him, towards the heat of the afternoon sun. Meursault ends up imprisoned for about  a year before he is finally set for trial. During this time it is made obvious that Meursault is a cold-hearted senseless man who had not a care for what should properly matter, as he did not know the day his mother had died or the age she was and to top it all off, when asked his reason for pulling the trigger he goes to blame it on the sun. Though friends and acquaintances had stood to say nice things in efforts to contradict the decision that seemed to be already decided, Meursault was sentenced to execution by the guillotine. Back in the prison awaiting for his death, sentenced to now to sit and think. For his last few hours before his world would forever fade Meursault finds himself thinking about his mother. Throughout this story we view Meursault as an indifferent man as we see how he floats around life carelessly, telling his lover Marie that it didn't really matter if he loved her or not, but if it made any sort of difference he didn't think he did, agreeing to accompany a friend in some sort of revenge scheme because he felt he didn't have a reason not to. It's not until these last few hours where we find him understanding how Maman had felt just before her own death, we see him gain a sort of enlightenment where he is able to accept that his life is at its end and begin a new one all for that one to end. He accepted an indifference in the world that seemed to be much like his own. 

“...I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” (p.132) 

I honestly knew little about this book when I had picked it up so when I started reading it I found it to be quite intriguing in its talk of the meaninglessness and irrationality of life. Something that always seems to wander across my mind as I'm sure the same question has been in millions of heads before mine. Camus has introduced to us the absurdity of life we live, how in the end we are all faced with death, if we know this act to be inevitable then the process of it happening does not truly matter. The Stranger is a title I  did not understand, I thought maybe it was in correlation to the man he had killed but I now see that it is referring to Meursault. A stranger amongst a crowd of faces whom he is far away from, mentally, spiritually, moraly, he is strange to these people. And you know, I can see that as his actions do not necessarily add up to society standards. Meursault seems to just be there, like he's aware of his existence realizes that there's really not much he can do with it so there he is just floating like a fish in the sea. For example again with Marie, when she asks him if he'd like to be married to her he replies by saying it doesn't make much of a difference to him and that if she wanted to they could, he’d say yes to any other girl that asked him too. It makes me wonder what Marie had believed in as she had stayed with him all that time never really seeming to mind. And though Meursault will say these things in front of Marie, we also hear details of him describing her almost like he did love her, or rather appreciated the beauty she held in such an obscure life. A life he saw no meaning in, a life where he understood that no matter what path he took he'd end up at the same door awaiting death. This where things can go wrong though, if we accept that life has no meaning, if that is true then how is it we proceed? As Meursault did? I think that may be too far. If there is no meaning of life to search for then what is it then that we search for? Here comes in the irrational portion of life, “the absurd” as Camus would put it, and that he is right.