Total Page : 72
Publisher : SparkNotes
Publication Date : 2002 07 15
>> Quick And Powerful
At 120 pages The Stranger is a very quick read and contains much more than initially appears under its surface It s also a wonderful turn of prose when you realize that Meursault is not just aloof but an absolute sociopath Definitely a book that I need to read again to delve even deeper into it s themes of apathetic absurdism
>> Boring and Absurd
According to one reviewer Patricia Highsmith s The Tremor of Forgery has undertones of Albert Camus The Stranger While there is a resemblance between both books The Tremor of Forgery addresses existentialist issues that The Stranger barely addresses just in the last chapter of part II
The Stranger is divided into two parts
Part I is simply boring Meursault s life from the moment his mother dies until he murders an Arab is described with no insight whatsoever as to why he is so emotionally detached and innately passive about the world around him He s just like that and that s it Going to bed with Marie seems to be the only thing that keeps him interested
Part II is simply absurd The Prosecutor focuses more on Meursault s callousness than on the murder itself to prove his point in a rather forced way The novel gets a bit interesting in its last chapter but by the time I got to those last 10 pages I couldn t help trying to figure out what the point in the previous 135 pages was
This review is based on Stuart Gilbert s translation
>> The Stranger book review by high school student
The Stranger by Albert Camus a winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 Originally written in French and published in 1942 Although it was then translated by Matthew Ward and was published in 1988 I describe this book as philosophical crime fiction in that it makes you really think about what s happening Understanding it is difficult because of the actions that the characters take and which come off very mysterious With 123 pages no pictures except the ones you can imagine in your head
Three people that really stand out in the story are Meursault Raymond Sintes and Marie Cardona Meursault is a type of person who lives for the day and tries to make it as wonderful as possible Knowing him he doesn t worry about the future to much or think before he takes action As for Raymond he beats his mistress and her brother becomes a conflict Raymond is the cause of Meursault s downfall because he gives him the gun that later kills his mistress s brother Originally Raymond just wanted to use Meursault but in the end they ended up trusting each other which they both gained a friend Marie is in love with Meursault Inside she wants to marry him although he feels indifferent about it but that doesn t run her away She remains loyal to him even when he goes to court She is known as the mixed blessing in his life
The main problem of the story is a murder It starts out with Meursault receiving a telegram explaining that his mother has died He travels to Algiers to attend his mother s funeral but he doesn t remember much of it The day after the funeral he goes to the beach for a swim and runs into Marie Cardona a former co worker They make plans that evening to see a movie then they stay the night together when he awakes Marie is nowhere to be seen so he sits on his balcony and watches people go by The following day he returns to work on his way home to his apartment he runs into his neighbor Raymond he invites him in for dinner Over dinner Raymond brags about beating up his mistress because she cheated on him and he got in a fight with her brother He wants to torment her more but he needs Meursault to write her a letter telling her to come back so he agrees to do so Marie later comes and visits Meursault they hear shouting and the police show up and arrest Raymond for beating his mistress Raymond asks Meursault to testify on his behalf so he agrees to do so
Marie asks Meursault if he wants to marry her and he replies indifferently and says if you want to we can so they become engaged Bringing Raymond with them to a friends beach house where they run into the Arabs one of which is Raymond s mistress brother a fight breaks out and Raymond gets stabbed they leave to go treat it When returning to go find the Arabs again Raymond thinks about shooting them but Meursault stops him and takes the gun Meursault then returns to the spring to cool off when he shoots Raymond s mistress brother for no reason He s then arrested and thrown into jail Meursault is heartless He is asked to put his faith in God but refuses to do so Adapting to prison life pretty well he keeps his mind of the things he always had Usually by sleeping most of the day
Meursault is taken to court During the trial the subjects shifted from the murder to a discussion of his own character Many people were called upon to testify although they all attested to his lack of grief and tears Because of his lack of moral feeling threatens all of society the prosecutor calls him a monster Sentenced to death by beheading He is given one more chance to turn to god but gets angry and refuses to Believing he is right in living in a meaningless world For the first time Meursault truly embraces the idea that human existence holds no greater meaning Which he abandons all hope for the future and accepts the gentle indifference of the world This acceptance makes Meursault feel happy
As we look back on this book it didn t really have a great meaning to it Although it kind of did It s sad to think that many people in our world think this way Life is meaningless and they can just kill anyone who makes them upset but you can t do that We need to learn to tolerate people you can be sad or mad but you just can t take it out on people who have done nothing to you for no reason Honestly I wouldn t recommend this book to teenagers because they could think wrong about it Besides that I think it is a good book that you really have to think about and understand the concepts
