The Stranger

Title: The Stranger

Author: Camus, Albert

Publication: New York, Vintage Books 1954.

Reason, Type, & Setting: Though I've already read this sophomore year, I decided to read it again since I knew it would be a quick read since I will be heading off to Japan in a few days and with spring break soon after that. The Stranger is a fictional story written in the early 1940s and is said to be the epitome of existensialism. The story takes place probably around the same time it was written and is set in Algiers.

Plot: The story starts with Mersault, the main character's, mother dead. So, Mersault travels from his home in Algiers to Marengo. Though his mother had just died he did not show any remorse or sadness from her death at the funeral. Upon his arrival back home to Algiers, Mersault meets a past co-worker of his at the beach named Marie Cardona and they end up spending that night together. A while after that he runs in with a couple of his neighbors and their issues such as Salamano and Raymond Sintes. Eventually, Raymond invites Mersault and Marie to stay at a beach house of his friends. There the gist of the story really begins and leads up to events that call for justified consequences.

Character: Mersault is the main character and is very much like the title of this book. He is like a stranger to society, someone who doesn't seem to fit in. He seems to want to be unnoticed and is very apathetic towards other people and society in general. He contains his own set of beliefs which include not being in a higher being, and that people have no purpose in the world. Towards the end of the story, Mersault starts to understand himself, the people around him, accepts the situation that he put himself in.

Evaluation:The story was interesting, but I did not enjoy it as much as I did last year. I guess it is because at the same time I read the book back then I was learning about existentialism in Ross Roemer's humanties class. The story made me question a lot of things, especially why Mersault is the way he is. Usually when I read books I tend to understand towards the end why a character is developed the way they are. This seemed more of a philosophical book, so it wasn't much to my liking. I'd have to say that though this book was interesting, I don't think I'd read it again.

Author, Context, & Trivia: Albert Camus was born in 1913 and much like Mersault's character he is a French-Algerian. He is associated with existentialism and is a philosopher and journalist. He won the Noble Peace Prize in 1957 and has written other stories such as The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus.