Albert Camus - the Stranger

Albert Camus’ novel, “The Stranger,” brought to light how someone or something inconsistent with the norms of society could be construed as a threat to those who don’t understand it. The character of Mersault is an emotionally stale person. He doesn’t show his feelings or react in a way that is common in our society. In the world we live in, people with different personalities are often treated as outcasts. Given that he is treated differently, Mersault does not feel as though he fits in with society as a whole. Consequently, he is driven to courses of action that will, in effect, help others feel as though they have an understanding of him.

Mersault’s relationship with his mother and inability to cry at her funeral is focal point of the trial against him. He is a different person and though he does have feelings towards his mother internally, those feelings are not translated on the surface. He is looked at as an outsider because of these unusual tendencies he has.

I noticed then that everyone was waving and exchanging greetings and talking, as if they were in a club where people are glad to find themselves among others of the same world. That is how I explained to myself the strange impression I had of being odd man out, a kind of intruder (84). His trial ultimately should be about the situation between him and the Arab, but it is more about his uncaring personality.

In society it is normal to show sentiment at the passing of a loved one. There is a grieving process one goes through. If one is seen to not react in a common way to a situation they are considered to be an odd or even mentally unstable person. The director of the home in which Mersault’s mother resided was taken back by his lack of emotion towards her death. The director then looked down at the tips of his shoes and said that I hadn’t wanted to see Maman, that I hadn’t cried once, and that I had left right after the funeral without paying my last respects at her grave (89). Mersault’s observed actions have made him a man who would commit such a heinous act to another person in the eyes of the world around him.

With Mersault obviously seeing that the world was not accepting of him at his trial, it became almost commendable the path he had taken. He has never felt as a component of the absurdity that has