Essay on "The Stranger"

What makes an individual a stranger? Could it be the fact that you know nothing of him, or his background, where he’s from? In Mersault’s case, the people who actually did know him, who have eaten with him, vacationed with him, especially conversed with him, can’t seem to read him. Albert Camous’s “The Stranger” introduces to readers both the life of an empty soul, and the mind of an existentialist writer, both connecting on a deeper level.
During the funeral of his own mother, Mersault seems rather impatient and bored during the reception. As opposed to the normal reaction one would get to their own mother’s passing, his was an unusual case, one that will be magnified further on. “Just then the caretaker came in behind me. He must have been running. He stuttered a little. ‘We put the cover on, but I’m supposed to unscrew the casket so you can see her.’… He looked at me and then asked, ‘Why not?’ but without criticizing, as if he just wanted to know. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He started twirling his moustache, and then without looking at me, again he said, ‘I understand.’ (pg. 6)” In the text, Mersault goes out of his way to stop the caretaker from doing even the simplest of tasks. Not having seen his mother in a couple of years after placing her in a Nursing home you would imagine him to want to at least see her one last time, especially on the day of her reception and burial. Instead, he doesn’t care for the little things that can hold meaning . Usually, the procedure for standard receptions are that the casket will only be closed when the deceased has been physically unbearable to view due to certain circumstances. Obviously his mother doesn’t fall under this category, yet Mersault decides to once again make decisions for himself and not for others, such as the close friends in the home that knew his mother probably better than he did all those years of never speaking but living amongst each other in they’re apartment.
After a long weekend of what was supposed to be spent mourning, Mersault disrespectfully takes Marie to a weekend getaway and tries rekindling old romances with her. She finds him odd and peculiar yet she loves this about him. The way Marie finds unusual interest in him due to his peculiarness, Mersault finds in the strange woman in Celeste’s restaurant. Her movements which were described as robotic caught Mersault’s attention immediately, the way she hadn’t paid him no mind at all eluded himself from his usual mind state of never caring. “Then she stood up, put her jacket back on with the same robotlike movements, and left… I eventually lost sight of her and turned back. I thought about how peculiar she was but forgot about her a few minutes later (pg.44).“ This is significant as Mersault’s sketchy way of living life without motive or understanding is always viewed through a window by everyone around him. His encounter with the small woman from Celeste’s brightens his eyes for a brief moment as he realized there is actually someone out there who doesn’t find his aloofness impressive for once.
Marie, Raymond, and Celeste all have something in common when it comes to their mutual friend Mersault; they all find him to be a “man”. The way Mersault carries himself about, living life only in a serious manner never seeing the insight of things was viewed to Celeste as manful, as people only come to restaurants to escape their usual lives at home and dining out is always considered a privilege. Mersault does thing constantly, even alone at times, making his dining plans always strictly business. Marie is attracted to him even though she is only a physical attraction to him and things can never excel between them. Raymond views him as a man because he dares to do the things that he himself cannot do as a man, such as write a vengeful letter to a woman, one that includes as much hatred as one can possibly possess. And Mersault referring to both Raymond and Celeste as both of them having the same equivalent friendship to him, which is interesting because Mersault is able to kill a random person for Raymond, a man he is not so close too. Only one can ponder on the thought of what Mersault might’ve done for Celeste, just another “friend”.
Mersault as a character has never taken a liking to the world he is in on a personal understanding. He is constantly observing everything. He observes the world that is beyond his grasp. He blames the sun for an inconvenience that he doesn’t see as a huge deal, killing a complete random person. No reason at all for his actions, not accepting his place in the world, he feels his belonging, his actuality, will only turn into a reality once he is in a place within this world that can accept him for the “man” he is. In his eyes, that place is prison. The only thing he misses behind those prison walls, is not the life he had of a successful man, not the beautiful woman everyone else wished they had possessed, but the world itself, and the way it works. He uses his prison time only to sleep, not taking advantage of any yard time. His only times he can enjoy taking another look at the outside world, is when he got a visit from Marie or when he was in court. Noticing and observing as much as he can, because everything and everyone is apart of the world he Is not, fascinating him in unusual ways. Albert Camous describes his novel as what he explains to be “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.”
In conclusion, Albert Camous, the French existentialist author, explores the emptiness and meaningless life of a lost soul in which the events in his lifeline lead him not to an ordeal of hope and chance of finding himself, but to a not-so happy ending, all built up on what was described as “luck”. Instead of an individual taking the usual route of exploring his inner self in hopes of discovering their purpose or greatness that they possess, Camous shows readers the life of one who doesn’t care about where his path is leading and the sad life lived by a meaningless man, one who is unidentifiable to others. The man who is described as The stranger.