Book:

The Stranger By Albert Camus

Photo credit

Philippe de Champaigne

The NeverEending Story (1984)

Synopsis

A shipping clerk living in French Algiers in the 1940s, Meursault is a young, detached yet ordinary man. The novel begins with Meursault receiving a telegram informing him of his mother’s death. He attends the funeral, but surprises other attendees with his unusual calmness and detachment. Over the next two weeks, Meursault carries on life as if nothing tragic has happened. He frolics with a new girlfriend, befriends a pimp, and goes on a beach vacation with both. Meursault is strangely detached from the real world. During the beach vacation, however, Meursault and friends are confronted by two Arabs. Violence ensues, with Meursault eventually killing one of the Arabs. It was a hot day, and aside from the weather, no explanation exists for Meursault’s crime. At his murder trial, the court seemed much more interested in Meursault’s lack of grief over his mother’s death than the alleged heinousness of his crime. Judged to be a cold-hearted, nonconforming, and of course, detached misanthrope, the jury finds Meursault’s character – not crime, per se – punishable by death. Awaiting his execution in prison, Meursault struggles to come to terms with his impending death. One day, after becoming enraged with an annoying, preachy chaplain, Meursault denounces Christianity and vehemently refuses to appeal to religion as a way of finding solace. Meursault joins the absurdist camp when he declares that firstly, the world is meaningless, lawless, and without rational order, and secondly, this is a perfectly justified claim. Some would say he gets "enlightened" in prison. Others would disagree. Either way, Meursault looks forward to his execution as affirmation of his "life is ridiculous" mantra. At the very least, he gets to leave society and all that goes with it behind.

Text taken and revised from: http://www.shmoop.com/the-stranger/summary.html

What makes us humane? The judge who prosecuted Meursault sentenced him to death for basically a lack of emotion, so is it widespread knowledge that at certain times, humans should be remarkably happy, and depressed enough to cry? And if this does not happen, one is not seen as a human?

Why is satisfaction sometimes considered an abnormality? Meursault’s incredible ability to lack remorse let him to willingly if not carelessly, live in

solitary confinement during his time in jail led to the magistrate saying he is a threat to society. He acts the same in jail as he would outside, which others such as the lawyer saw as demeaning to society’s expectations. Is it because the satisfied reaction is just unexpected or is there more?

Do authorities know that they are creating changing the unwritten laws of society? Authorities have control over the normal citizens, as in this book, when during Meursault’s trial, the prosecutor was surprised by Meursault’s actions which went against the unwritten laws. The authorities would be offended by his indifference in court, which is also society’s view on him.

Do human relationships help ‘soften’ the soul? What would happen if Meursault had a personal relationship with a person, enabling him to open

up? How different would he act towards others? In jail, the magistrate says that Meursault has a hard soul, and one of the differences between Meursault and a typical person is the lack of how

personal he is with acquaintances.

What characteristics define a person in general? Humans have always had the superiority over other animals but when do people look at someone and see them as animal-like, yet not imitating animal behaviors? Due to the type of society they are brought up in, the answer would differ, but from this book, lacking emotion is definitely one of them.

Was Meursault so passive when he was younger? Though the story never reveals Meursault as a child, the thought that he might have had a

difficult childhood comes to mind.

What kind of past history enables one to act like Meursault, passive and detached? What would be the general formula to get the kind of personality Meursault has? What would one have to go through in order to be so depersonalized?

What does Meursault consider as social norms, and what would make it differ from nonconformity?

Has he ever thought about such things and just ignored it, or has he never considered his actions as acceptable or unacceptable? I believe that really he does know what’s right and wrong, but is

careless in his own actions because he finds consequences insignificant in a way.

Quotes from the book

And his voice didn’t falter, either, when he said, “Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains?” “Yes,” I said.

But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I know perfectly well that it doesn’t

much matter whether you die at 30 or 70, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living- and for thousands of years.

When the emptiness of a man’s heart becomes, as we find it has in this man, an abyss threatening to swallow up society.

I have never been able to truly feel remorse for anything. My mind was always on what was coming next, today or tomorrow.

My nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings.

Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.

People never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine at all.

What did other people's death or a mother's love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we are all elected by the same

faith, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself-so like a brother really-I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.

On my way out I was even going to shake his hand, but I remembered just in time that I'd killed a man.

Mostly, I could tell, I made him feel uncomfortable. He didn't understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me. I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else. But really there wasn't much point, and I gave up the idea out of laziness.

Explanation

The background represents society and the world in general. There are images of nature, religion (specifically Christianity), relationships, human emotions, authority, and people (represented by the bottom right image of a neighborhood). As a translucent silhouette, Meursault is given these choices in life and though with most people, which things they will choose depends on what they think is normal in their society, he won’t use that method.

Photo credit to:

Frederike Wetzels

Marianna Rothen

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

Rogier Van Der Weyden’s Deposition - Mourning Woman

The Face Magazine No. 22 ‘The 3rd Summer of Love’

BSIP’s ‘Depressed man in silhouette’

Explanation

Meursault doesn’t aim for a certain something on life, which leads to my assumption that he will take what is offered, and doesn’t bother with the rest. In this photo, his silhouette is completely filled with a choice of things given from life, which is all he needs.

The photo of a mountain and flowers represents his appreciation for nature, which is natural and physical. The second photo is of two people, which symbolizes friendship. Though Meursault’s friendships were more of acquaintances and not very deep, he still spent time with people such as his neighbors and his girlfriend, Marie. Although he lacks emotion, Meursault still finds people interesting. The third photo is of the sun, which plays an important role during the shooting of the Arabs. The shooting, which caused Meursault’s trial and eventually death, was from Meursault’s reaction to the sun, which gave him a heatstroke. The fourth photo is the physical relationship between him and Marie after his mother’s death. When Marie came to visit Meursault later in jail, he explains how uninterested he was in his ‘girlfriend’, which leads to the belief that the relationship he had with Marie was only for physical benefits. The fifth photo is of a laughing person, which again represents that he still carries around emotion. Laughter is contagious, and when he was at the beach with Marie, they laughed and it shows that he is still human. The last two is of his time in jail; it represents his time in solitary confinement which he didn’t object to, but rather got used to (because it was something physical that was given to him which he accepted), and in the end, when he has a rage fit before his execution, which represents him breaking that hard shell of solitude and feeling emotions.

Credit

Petra H Bring

Marianna Rothen

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

The Face Magazine No. 22 ‘The 3rd Summer of Love’

Explanation

Meursault’s silhouette is covered with things he accepts effortlessly as explained for the previous photography, and the background is of a city, representing the society and the social norms that he is supposed to look up to. Above him are photos of a gavel, a person feeling remorse, and religion. These particular things have carved events and particular thoughts from other people that have eventually led to his execution. The gavel represents authority, Meursault’s trial, and is part of the social norms, which is represented by the background. Also in the background is the person with hands covering her face, which I decided to represent as remorse, regret, and guilt. These emotions that Meursault lacks are part of what society expects from people at certain events such as the passing away of a mother, and a death sentence. Religion is something else Meursault doesn’t accept because it is the opposite of his beliefs that there is no meaning in life.

Credit

Kim Walker

Marianna Rothen

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

The Face Magazine No. 22 ‘The 3rd Summer of Love’

When one thinks of a nonconformist, stereotypes open up images of punk teenagers and violent rebels, movements against the ‘system’, yet those examples are of people who want to gain something, whether it is attention or to fit in. The term nonconformist is a very general term, which can be used to describe Meursault, the main character of this story, though not so typical to be called this term, because from a glance, he is a normal person. He doesn’t make decisions to be labeled as a nonconformist; it isn’t a conscious decision, which I found such a beautiful part of his personality.

This book has created a path for me to understanding more of existentialism and absurdist views. For a brief period of time I developed numerous characteristics of Meursault’s after I had read The Stranger for the first time, trying to impersonate him. I can easily say this book is one of the many that have helped carve out the personality I have today. Camus’ novel allowed me to be more aware of the type of culture I was living in, what actions were based on the type of societies, and what social norms restricted people to, and the discontents of it.

As I was reading the book, what kept me going was the narrative style. The bleakness, simplicity and directness contributed to how I imagined the personality of Meursault, including the passiveness and calmness of everything described. Right from the start I could sense trouble inducing behavior from Meursault. His behavior was confusing and strange, quite like what society has dubbed unacceptable. I started wondering how he had developed this type of lifestyle.

Meursault, I realized, is actually quite typically a normal human being who did not have much of a problem other than what others would believe as a lack of emotion or remorse. I started noticing his nihilist views on life from the shooting of the Arabs, and during his time in jail, it grew strong until his complex personality started breaking. He was sent to court for an unjust crime of killing an Arab, but was sentenced to death for rejecting social normality, which was noted from the event of his mother’s death. How extreme will the people go to keep the image of an orderly society?

Nonentities plural of non·en·ti·ty (Noun)

Noun: An unimportant person or thing. Nonexistence.

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