73 pages • 2 hours read
Albert CamusThe Stranger
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Existentialism, Absurdism, and the Meaning of Life
The Stranger is famous for its themes of existentialism and absurdism. Existentialism is a school of philosophy that attempts to deal with the dread or anxiety brought about by a seemingly uncaring and meaningless world. The search for purpose or meaning in an uncaring universe is a key element of existentialism, and it emerges as a key theme of The Stranger, though Camus did not consider the book an existentialist novel. Absurdism, an extension of existentialism, holds that pursuing meaning and order where none exists incites conflict between the individual and the universe. In the absurdist view, accepting this meaninglessness is the only way to attain happiness and purpose. The protagonist Meursault rejects society’s expectations and concludes that life lacks any real meaning. In this respect, he becomes the embodiment of the text’s philosophical themes.
Meursault exists without any real connection to the world, just as he is an observer who lacks any investment in his relationships. He barely sees his mother, he refuses to commit to Marie, and his friends and neighbors hardly know him at all. Meursault’s idea of fun is sitting on his balcony and watch the rest of the world go by. Both on his balcony and in a larger sense, Meursault is a detached observer of a meaningless world, a person whose life has no real purpose other than watching others from afar.
While Meursault’s life seems to lack meaning, he concludes that there is only one real certainty: death. In Meursault’s opinion, death is inevitable, and this inevitability is the only thing of which he can be truly certain. Every human eventually dies, whether they pass away due to natural causes or they are sentenced to death. Meursault’s story is the gradual realization of this idea, as he goes to a funeral, then kills a man, and is then sentenced to die as punishment for his crime. Meursault’s story is punctuated by death at every turn: the passive, inconsequential nature of his mother’s death; the Arab’s death at his hand; and then Meursault’s own death at the hand of the state. Life lacks any meaning but death is unavoidable, providing the only real structure to an unmoored existence.
The meaningless of life and the inevitability of death is not presented in a negative way. In fact, the idea finally helps Meursault achieve some degree of happiness. Meursault accepts the reality of existence, and this allows him to abandon the useless fantasies that previously occupied his thoughts. Through this character development, Meursault moves beyond existentialism to embody absurdism. Absurdist themes run throughout Camus’s work, especially The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), his book-length essay on the topic. Camus encouraged accepting the absurdity of life, believing that freedom, happiness, and purpose depend upon embracing the absurd. By the novel’s conclusion, Meursault exemplifies this worldview. He is not concerned by any kind of hope, whether that means marriage or escape from jail. Meursault accepts his fate and shrugs off the burden of life. By understanding the true meaningless of life, he is free to enjoy the precious little time he has left.
An Uncaring Universe
Meursault’s struggle with the meaningless of life informs another theme in the novel, which is the idea that the universe is largely apathetic and uncaring. Meursault does not believe the world was meticulously designed by God or some other deity; rather, he views the world as an absurd and irrational place that does not reflect or care about its inhabitants in any way. Meursault must grapple with his own unclear place and purpose in the world, but he only comes to understand himself when he realizes that the universe itself is as apathetic and as detached as he is.
Meursault’s realization cannot be reached by everyone. Almost every other character has a natural inclination toward believing the opposite. Salamano seeks comfort in his hated pet, Marie insists that Meursault never give up hope, and the magistrate and chaplain depend on religion to gives their lives purpose. These ideas seem rational to the characters, but from Meursault’s perspective, they are far more absurd and nonsensical than reality. Salamano’s dog is not a replacement for his wife, and his story bores Meursault. Marie’s insistence that Meursault never give up hope has no influence on the trial. Neither the chaplain nor the magistrate can provide any real reason why Meursault should believe in religion other than that everyone else does. Meursault concludes that their belief in religion and order is an echo of the uncaring universe. Everyone believes that life has purpose because they have always believed this. Only by confronting and accepting death can a person truly understand the absurdity of existence and the uncaring nature of the universe.
The characters do not accept Meursault’s conclusions. They push back at every opportunity and attempt to impose order on his behavior. The trial, for example, abandons all pretext that the murder was an immoral act. Instead, the prosecutor focuses on Meursault’s earlier behavior. Meursault rejects the idea that his actions have meaning, so the prosecutor puts this theory on trial. He points to Meursault’s behavior as unacceptable in a society built on the belief that actions and gestures have meaning and purpose. While the court finds Meursault guilty of rejecting this idea, Meursault is quite happy with the conclusion. He reaches his own decision and realizes that he has been acting out the only logical understanding of existence. The trial is an attempt to force Meursault to obey society’s expectations, but it ultimately teaches him that the universe is an uncaring and absurd place. As such, the trial becomes an exercise in absurdity, and the universe does not care about the result. Death, Meursault knows, is inevitable regardless of the final decision. For all its supposed power, the court cannot impose rationality on an inherently irrational world, and its attempts to do so only prove Meursault correct.
The Consequences of French Colonialism in Algeria
Meursault embodies the themes of apathy and absurdism in The Stranger, but there is a less obvious, more pernicious idea that is expressed through the nonspeaking characters. Meursault is a French Algerian man and part of the colonizing force of French society, which rules over Algiers and the local Algerian Arabs. There is a clear disconnect between the colonizers (the French Algerians who are culturally European) and the colonized people (the Algerian Arabs who are culturally African). Meursault’s tumultuous journey through existence teaches him about the nature of the universe, but it also allows him to confront issues such as the French colonial presence in Algeria. Colonialism is a key theme, but it is chiefly explored through subtext.
The two primary Algerian Arab characters are Sintes’s mistress and her brother, known only as the Arab. Every other Algerian Arab is reduced to a background role and becomes part of the environment, as important to Meursault’s story as the scenery or the buildings that surround him. Furthermore, neither of the two primary Arab characters is given a name. One is beaten and abused by Sintes, a representative of colonial powers, and the other is shot and killed by Meursault, a French Algerian man. The Arab population of Algiers exist to be abused and murdered by the French population, who suffer little punishment for their crimes against the local people. Sintes is not punished for beating his mistress, and Meursault’s trial is chiefly concerned with his transgressions against society rather than the murder of the Arab. The local colonized people in Algiers have no name and no agency in the story; they exist to be abused by and to inspire philosophical revelations in the colonizing people, and they pay for this existence with their blood.
Meursault’s murder of the Arab embodies the theme of colonialism. Meursault is an unthinking member of the occupying colonial power that extracts wealth from Algeria for its own benefit, leaving behind a trail of violence. Meursault cannot explain why he murders the Arab, which reflects how colonial violence is not an active concern for Meursault or his demographic. Meursault encounters the Arab, brutally murders him, and then continues with his life, which functions as a metaphor for the French treatment of Algerians at the time the novel was written. Though the novel does not explicitly criticize the French colonial occupation of Algeria, the violence enacted by the French characters and the lack of freedoms and opportunities given to the Algerian Arabs speaks to the true nature of the exploitation and violence inherent in the colonial system.
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