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Read the full book summary, an in-depth character analysis of Meursault, and explanations of important quotes from The Stranger. Or, learn more by studying SparkNotes guides to other works by Albert Camus.
- Important Quotes Explained
Important Quotes Explained - The Stranger: Study Guide |...
- Chapter 1
A summary of Part One: Chapter 1 in Albert Camus's The...
- Part Two
A summary of Part Two: Chapter 5 in Albert Camus's The...
- Plot Summary
A short summary of Albert Camus's The Stranger. This free...
- Part One
A summary of Part One: Chapter 6 in Albert Camus's The...
- Themes
A summary of Themes in Albert Camus's The Stranger. ......
- Character List
Character List - The Stranger: Study Guide | SparkNotes
- Meursault
Meursault - The Stranger: Study Guide | SparkNotes
- Raymond Sintes
Raymond Sintes - The Stranger: Study Guide | SparkNotes
- Key Facts
Full Title The Stranger or L’étranger . Author Albert Camus....
- Important Quotes Explained
A short summary of Albert Camus's The Stranger. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Stranger.
At first glance, the plot of Albert Camus’ The Stranger seems to comprise a sequence of random events in the life of the protagonist, Meursault. However, the novella’s events suggest a dark and forbidding meaning: in a universe that is irrational and indifferent to human suffering and experience, people desperately struggle to explain ...
The best study guide to The Stranger on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.
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- Plot summary
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The Stranger, enigmatic first novel by Albert Camus, published in French as L’Étranger in 1942. It was published as The Outsider in England and as The Stranger in the United States.
The title character of The Stranger is Meursault, a Frenchman who lives in Algiers (a pied-noir). The novel is famous for its first lines: “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.” They capture Meursault’s anomie briefly and brilliantly. After this introduction, the reader follows Meursault through the novel’s first-person narration to Marengo, where he sits vigil at the place of his mother’s death. Despite the expressions of grief around him during his mother’s funeral, Meursault does not show any outward signs of distress. This removed nature continues throughout all of Meursault’s relationships, both platonic and romantic.
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Raymond, an unsavoury friend, is eventually arrested for assaulting his mistress and asks Meursault to vouch for him to the police. Meursault agrees without emotion. Raymond soon encounters a group of men, including the brother of his mistress. The brother, referred to as “the Arab,” slashes Raymond with a knife after Raymond strikes the man repeatedly. Meursault happens upon the altercation and shoots the brother dead, not out of revenge but, he says, because of the disorienting heat and vexing brightness of the sun, which blinds him as it reflects off the brother’s knife. This murder is what separates the two parts of the story.
The novel’s second part begins with Meursault’s pretrial questioning, which focuses primarily on the accused’s callousness toward his mother’s funeral and his murder of “the Arab.” His lack of remorse, combined with his lack of sadness expressed toward his mother, works against him and earns him the nickname “Monsieur Antichrist” from the examining magistrate. During the trial itself, Meursault’s character witnesses do more harm than good, because they highlight Meursault’s apparent apathy and disengagement. Eventually, Meursault is found guilty of murder with malice aforethought and is sentenced to death by guillotine. As he waits for his impending death, he obsesses over the possibility of his appeal being accepted. A chaplain visits Meursault against his wishes, only to be greeted by Meursault’s intense atheistic and nihilistic views. In a cathartic explosion of rage, Meursault brings the chaplain to tears. This, however, brings Meursault peace and helps him to accept his death with open arms.
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Camus utilized The Stranger as a platform to explore absurdity, a concept central to his writings and at the core of his treatment of questions about the meaning of life. However, Camus did not identify himself as a philosopher. In fact, he abjured “armchair” philosophy and argued that sitting around and thinking was not enough. One needed to live life as well. He also did not identify himself as an existentialist. He agreed with some proponents of existentialist thought that life has no inherent meaning, but he criticized others for their pursuit of personal meaning.
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Camus’s concept of the absurd instead implored people to accept life’s lack of meaning and rebel by rejoicing in what life does offer. Elements of this philosophy can be seen in Meursault, as he refuses to behave as if there is meaning where there is none—or, as Camus himself put it in a preface to The Stranger, Meursault “does not play the game.” Society thus feels threatened and cuts off Meursault’s head. Similar themes can be seen in Camus’s essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), also published in 1942.
Camus wrote The Stranger from a place of tragedy and suffering. His father had died in World War I, and the unfolding carnage of World War II forced a questioning of life and its meaning. Camus had also witnessed mistreatment of native Algerians during the French occupation of Algeria, which had begun in the first half of the 19th century and, after World War I, was opposed by a growing nationalist movement. This conflict can be seen specifically in Meursault’s killing of “the Arab,” the only name he uses to refer to Raymond’s mistress’s brother.
The murder has been read by some as a metaphor for the treatment of Algerian Muslims by the colonizing French. Camus published The Stranger at a time when Algerians were demanding political autonomy with increased forcefulness; although France did extend some rights during the 1940s, ongoing conflicts and failed French promises of more independence culminated in the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954.
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The Stranger is filled with multilayered symbols and enunciated through Camus’s straightforward writing style. He uses figurative language minimally and gets straight to the point of what Meursault is feeling (or not feeling) and saying.
The Stranger (French: L'Étranger [letʁɑ̃ʒe], lit. 'The Foreigner' ), also published in English as The Outsider, is a 1942 novella written by French author Albert Camus. The first of Camus's novels published in his lifetime, the story follows Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills ...
