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The Stranger Summary + Analysis

The Stranger is a novel that was written by a French write Albert Camus. It starts off with a character names Meursault who thinks that the universe is pointless. He took the bus home in order to attend his mother funeral and once he got there, he rejects the funeral director’s offer to open the coffin.  At night, he and the funeral director were smoking and drinking coffee while watching over the coffin. Thomas Perez, a close friend of his mother and during the funeral, even thought the old man is very weak but Meursault make no attempt in helping the old man. After the funeral, back to Algiers but end up skipping work and meet Marie at the beach. They had a romantic time and the next morning she’s gone. Returns to work as usual. Meursault meets Salamondo and his dog then meets the pimp name Raymond who is complaining about his mistress. He describes how he beat up his mistress and fought her brother. Asked to write letter about would lure the mistress back then humiliate her and Meursault agree. Marie asked Meursault if he loves her, Meursault says NOPE. Heard mistress and Raymond fought, then police arrives and slaps Raymond. Raymond asks Meursault to be the witness. Then comes Salamando who lose his dog and says he won’t pay a dime to get the dog back then later hears him crying because he lost the dog. Invited to the beach then get promote but Meursault is not excited and his boss is frustrated at his lack of ambition. Marie asks if he wants to marry her and Meursault  says yes without caring. Later that night he listens to Salamando’s talk about his dog  Next day went ti the beach with Masson and his wife and Marie. Met Raymond and got into a fight with group Arabs and mistress’s brother. Raymond’s face got slap and brings the gun. Meursault took the gun and then sends him home. Takes  the gun to the beach and runs to the brothers. Threaten Meursault then Meursault shoots him 5 Tims. Went to jail. Names as anti-christ.  Lots of people came to his hearing day, Meursault shows no remorse his mother’s death and the judge name him as a menace to the society and sentence him to death. Meursault is desperate and wants to survive but Meursault rejects God’s existence in his final moment. He is executed.                          

The book explores the theme of absurdity. The character who shows the. Reader the meaning of absurdity is Meursault. He first shows his his absurdity in his mother funeral. He felt no remorse for his mother death and even refused to open the coffin to look at his mother. He and the funeral director even drinks coffee and smoke that night and those activity is considered as disrespect toward dead person. He considered life and routine as absurd. Because of his indifference, the society condemned him. The Whole first part of the novel, it describes the way Meursault’s point of view about how absurdity and meaningless life is. Even after he murders the Arab man, he still shows no remorse and instead shoots him 4 more times. Because the writer, Camus is an existentialist, he believes that life has no meaning. His philosophy is to accept life’s lack of purpose and appreciate what life has to offer. As you know, the book name is The Stranger, the stranger here is Meursault and he does not “play along” with the society’s expectation. Because of fear of the indifference or “the strange think” from Meursault so they cut his head off. But Meursault found peace and believe that he has been born and will die then will have no further purpose. Life would still go on

-Anh-

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The Stranger - story of a cold boi

by Ân

Summary: Monsieur Mersault after receiving a letter informing that his mother had died, he went back to where his maman lived. He went to see the director and his mother’s coffin. That night he kept sitting in the church, watching over his mother’s body while the caretaker talks to him. Next morning, before the funeral, he met the director again. The funeral happens and he was displeased about many things happened during the funeral. That night, he returned back to Algiers. The next day, he went to a public beach and ran into Marie Cardona, then they went on a date. The following day, he returned to work and when he was taking the stairs to his apartment that night, he ran into Salamano and his dog, and Raymond Sintes. Mersault and Raymond had a talk in Raymond’s room, Raymond asked Mersault to help him write a letter to his mistress. The following weekend, Marie visits Mersault at his apartment, Marie questioned Mersault about how he thinks of her then they heard shouting from Raymond’s room. It was a fight between Raymond and his mistress, and policeman arrived. Next weekend, Mersault, Marie and Raymond went to a beach house owned by Masson, Raymond’s friend. They had fun there then the guys ran into two Arabs. A fight happened and Raymond was stabbed. After Raymond’s wound got treated, he returns to find the Arabs at a spring with Mersault. Raymond intended to shoot them but Mersaults convinced him and they went back. Later, Mersault went to the spring and shoot one Arab who was Raymond’s mistress’s brother for no reason. Mersault is arrested and thrown into jail. He made everyone involved in his case sick of his lack of remorse. Marie visited him and talked to him about marriage. As he awaits his trial, he slowly adapts to prison life. The next day, he was taken to the courthouse and found guilty and is sentenced to death by beheading. Waiting for his execution, he had struggles and though alot. One day, a chaplain visited him, Mersault refuses to God, basically being a atheist. Chaplain left, Mersault did more thinking and he finally came to nihilistic ideas. Accepting those ideas made him felt happy.

Analysis: This book is like a putting a hand on one’s shoulder, consolling people who possess the same personality and mind set like Meursault, living in such harsh society who won’t take them in. Meursault is an emotionless human. He was indifferent towards his maman’s death. Meursault, is the example of someone who doesn’t need rationality to actually enjoy life, he views physical aspects of life positively. Meursault being described as an abosolute ordinary man with a “heartless” manner made him an “absurd” of the human society. Then the author hit us with a humongous plot-twist: Meursault shot the Arab. That was a representive of how the humankind and the universe and share the same conception – irrationality. As the story went on, the notion of Meursault’s attitude can be a threat to society was introduced. But who could possibly blame him for Mersault just being at his ”universal”- self? This is when his belief hits him hard, gaining insights and such about irrationality. This book also shows the level/ progress of a person who believe in nihilism and atheism. The new development about his death in the final chapters is an incredible breakout regarding his previous self-awareness. Not only the everything is purposeless and meaningless, it is also hopeless and death is inevitable.

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Review Book( The Stranger )

by Nhi 

The stranger is a short novel written in first person narrative by Albert Camus- a French philosopher, author, and journalism. The narrator in the novel was a man named Meursault, a man of French descent who live in Algeria. Meursault is the product of modern culture: purposeless, battered by material and social conditions, and desire. When he heard his mother died, he was not over shock about it. At the funeral, he doesn’t cry when his mother died. Meursault was condemned because there was no expression of a son who lost his mother (not visiting his mother often, not suffering, not seeing his mother's face for the last time, drinking coffee and smoking in front of a coffin who died and slept while keeping spirituality...). He is a “stranger” in more way than one. He cut off all his normal feeling, don’t care about anything else. Meursault comes across as being “distance" from general society. 

But everybody knows life is not worth living" that is probably the most haunting sentence in this work. It is also the idea of the main character, Meursault, who considers this life unreasonable and means to live and die even if he does not want to die. Throughout the novel are episodes that make me feel as if I sink into the world full of "plague" and "nausea". From the melancholy, passive and boring lifestyles, doing bland tasks day in and day out, life is tasteless without purpose, while all suffering and torment are always around. After experiencing many events, Meursault realized that life was meaningless.

However, when he was sentenced to death and advised to preach to the point of death until he died, he thought that he had no guilt on the contrary and was very happy when he gonna died.

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The Stranger Review

The stranger isa novel of Albert Camus, a French author published in 1942. This short novel is easy to read but it’s very difficult to understand. It’s quite boring but somehow the reader is attracted by it. The novel opens with a funeral of Meursault’s mother and ends with the dead of Meursault, the main character. This novel is about a guy who thinks the universe is absolutely pointless. Meursault’s mother funeral happened at the beginning if the novel. He lived alone until he got the news that his mother died. Then went to the place where his mother has been living. He rejected the funeral director offer to open the coffin. Next, Meursault spent a night with a funeral director to smoked cigarettes and drank coffee together. Not similar to others Meursault didn’t feel sad or upset and he didn’t remember the day of his mother’s funeral. That is the reason why he was condemned. Thing happened in his mind when he moved back to his place after his mother funeral is his boss is going to be mad at him for 4 days’ vacation. Next thing, he did is went to the beach with his colleague, Marie. After that they went to the movie theater together. The next morning when Meursault woke up Marie’s gone. So, he sat on the balcony and was watching people move outside there. The next following days, Marie came to Meursault’s apartment and asked him does he want to marry her? And he replied that if that makes Marie happy. But it doesn’t mean anything for him. While that Raymond was having a fight with a girl, he slapped her and then the polices came. Next Sunday, Raymond, Marie and Meursault decided to go to the beach. There, they met the 2 Arabs and one of them is the brother of Raymond’s ex. Raymond was stabbed so Meursault took out his gun and shot the Arab. Meursault was caught and went to the jail. He has lawyer but the lawyer was tired of his remorse attitude. Meursault was asked too many times that does he believe in God, as many times he was asked he answered no. He saw the universe as meaningless to him. So, he didn’t upset when his mother died, doesn’t love Marie and didn’t care about marriage and he wasstill calm when he is going to die. Everything is meaningless so he didn’t believe in anything even God.

Meursault knew that is wrong but he still did that. Hedid that because he didn’t care about the result. He just did what he wanted. Meursault did want to kill the Arab, he just revenge for his friend, Raymond. Nowadays, people in society always don’t care about the reason why the suspectconvict crime. They just think that whatever they don’t know before, they just know that he had did that crime, so he must feel remorse and guilty about himself. Now, he a suspect so he must obey all they want him to do, or to be. I think Meursault is innocent, he saw everything is meaningless, so he doesn’t have to be sad about his mother’s funeral. Or worry about he killed the Arab and will be punished. The life is meaningless so he do what he want.

Thao

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The Stranger and it's beyond!

The Stranger by Albert Camus's main concepts surrounds a guy name Meursault. In the story, his mother funeral seems to bother him enough to unengaged him about his blood member. He feels nothing and doesn't care anything during the event. People just come and influence his thought about how these people shift his mom's life. The story steps in its new chapter when he met Raymond and both gentlemen convince a girl back, destroy her then. The consequence with police now is rescued by Meursault and Raymond escape the court! One day, Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go out for a swim and they meet some Muslims at the pool and the atmosphere gained from the group change more stress so they decide to move to the beach. Ridiculously, they meet Raymond's friends and wife there. After finishing lunch, three men decide to take a jog and suddenly seeing the Muslims holding knives, walking ahead to the men scarily. Luckily, Raymond is bringing a pistol. However, he doesn't use it and this may cause a cut on his friend's face. So Raymond and his friend go to the hospital while Meursault takes the pistol and head back to the shack. He meets the Muslims and kills one of them this time. As a result, he jails himself and gets executed by the guillotine.

Overall, I promote this book's concepts as it pursued a pure characteristic of self-believe. In the book, Meursault's denied any others influences his way of living. Specifically, Meursault attached to lots of significant events that vary due to Christianity bothering his schedule and feels ignored by himself. Nihilistic person? he has no goals in life as his emotion to mom's funeral and instead sleeps with girls on the next day. He doesn't give a f**k to Jesus because God trades nothing to him. Ethical elements also in revenging Raymond's girlfriend plan as optioning between a woman get abused and betraying friend. I really love this book as it beyond confused me attractively and further seek forward to read more this kind

(Khanh)

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That's mess-up 🙄 (The Stranger book review)

Wellcome back for a mother book review Mr. Matt😁 Hope you had a great day after all the f*ck up wifi thingi. Anyway, let's get right into it.

The Stranger, aka  L’Étranger is a book written by Albert Camus, a French philosopher, novelist. His style of writing is amazing, in which I would call the no-such-thing-is-personal style. IN the book, you can easily pick up sensitive description in which he tried to write as detail as possible about the character's experiences and thoughts. 

Well the question here was why does The Stranger become an overrated novel?

For those who haven't read the book (you know who), here is a short summary about the plot of the story.

    Meursault, our main character, was a young yet detached man. It all started with a telegram informing Meursault about his mother's death. What causing the attention was after attending to his mother funeral, he continued his life as if there was no different. HE said “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” His lack of emotion toward his mother death causing many people and readers confuse and outrageous. The prosecutor even call him a monster

And during a beach vacation with friend, Meursault got into a violence ensues and actually killed an Arab which cause him not a life sentence but a death penalty. The topic about his lack of grief over his mother's death and yet alleged heinousness of his crime. One day, after becoming enraged with an annoying, preachy chaplain, Meursault denounces Christianity and vehemently refuses to appeal to religion as a way of finding solace. In the very end, he gets to leave society and all that goes with it behind.

However, is Meursault really a col-hearted? Or all of his behaviors are conditioned? Yes Meursault was breaking social norm which is behavior that society expected from individual as a result of a certain vent/ stimuli/ etc. How ironic when people actually convince family members of the death to be strong and move on yet when someone does that, they become classify as weird, not normal, cold-hearted and a "stranger" among the society. 

Sexual and depression topic are unusual and a type of "try not to talk about" topic in any kind of plat forms; yet Albert Camus used it as a foundation for his story and idea. For the book to be call "one of the overrated books of all time" is not an over exaggerate comment. Albert Camus did an amazing job in expressing his thought and personal message to his audiences. From the message about being yourself is well seeded throughout the story; to the style of his writing to the detail about the characters and their thoughts. Jane Elliot, aka "the Bitch" once said, "You are not born racist. You are born into a racist society." 

Sadly enough, the society has a very huge impact on you, us, any individual. They call people with difference divergent and sometimes even forget they too are human.

By: Hahn Nguyen

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The stranger review

Finally, Meursault is dead. But he didn’t feel sad. Because he told me that life isn’t worth living anyhow. Also, he really dishonors who disrespectful his mother. He didn’t see his mother at the last time. He went to his mother funeral but he didn’t feel sad. So, after the day he went swimming, he took a girl, the name’s Maria. They went to the cinema and had sex. The next day, Meursault met a neighborhood name’s Raymond, this guy asks him went to dinner and told that his Arab girlfriend is not a loyal girl and wanted to revenge. Raymond asks Meursault to write him a letter to make his girlfriend comes back with him. And Raymond will disgrace and kick her out and Meursault agreed to do this.

Next weekend, Meursault and Marie went swimming with each other. They came back home and hear a lot of noise in Raymond’s room. A big group troop in front of his room. At that time, Meursault didn’t want to do this but another neighborhood did it. When the police arrived, they saw that Raymond fight with his girlfriend. Raymond and Meursault were walking on the beach. Just because it was hot, Meursault shot one of the guys, 5 times who were following them. After being taken to a state court, the court rules that Meursault's lack of emotion after his Maman’s death, seeing Marie just a few moments after, agreeing to help Raymond writes the letter and defending him, all these things that make him like a weird person, and nobody understood him, and they saw him as a monster who was a threat to society. And decides to execute him. A priest visits before his death, and Meursault said that nothing matters.

So, I liked this book because of the guy in this book always make a bad choice. And when mom’s funeral, he didn’t cry anything and that thing can’t be accepted in this modern-day. He is a straightforward person

VIET

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The Stranger Review <333

-Hyejun 🤘

Have you ever felt left out, and feel like you are an outsider in this world? If you ever had, sit and read The Stranger. The book was written by Albert Camus, a French philosopher, journalist, and author. Generally, the book talks about death around Meursault, the main character. The book starts with Meursault’s narration about the first death in the book, Maman’s death with a direct tone. Unlike other people, he doesn’t act emotional about deaths throughout the book. He isn’t sad about Maman’s death. After going back to his home, he gets a new girlfriend called Marie and a friend called Raymond. They get closer, and Marie proposes Meusault. One day, Meursault enjoys his free time with them and he faces the second death in the book. The scorching sun made him pull the trigger. As a result, an Arab guy who followed Raymond died. In consequence of the shooting, receives death sentence which is the third and the last death in the book.

When I first read the book, I didn’t understand why Camus named the book The Stranger. Luckily, I got a chance to re-read the book in a philosophical perspective which helped me understanding the message, the meaning of the title. As I read the book, Meursault seems like an unemotional man who is considered as a stranger/outsider of the society. 

This book talks about some philosophical concepts, but I’m going to be focusing on morality. Can murder ever be justified? According to Meursault's narration, the Sun caused the murder. However, the Arab guy was following Meursault which is kinda creepy. Murdering someone because of the weather cannot be justified, but what if there was another side of the story? Is it okay to kill, or not okay to kill since the Sun was the main reason?  

Let’s talk about the title. The Stranger. I fully understood the meaning of the title after reading the ending. The ending was surprising for me. The last sentence of the book is “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” He admits that he’s the stranger in the society. Why is he a stranger to the society? Is it because he’s a bad son, bad boyfriend, and murderer? I believe most readers felt that Meursault is being extra while reading the book. I felt that when he responded Marie’s propose unconfidently. As readers find his behavior peculiar, Meursault is the outsider from readers. Readers' opinion, and the way society sees Meursault makes him a stranger in this world.

Overall this book might be confusing if it’s first time to read this book. However, it really gave me a new way to think about life. I hope it’s helpful when I work on the quarter long project. 🙂  

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The Stranger summary/analysis- by Serafina Chun

Nothing matters…Meusault’s Maman died. But he didn’t cry because it was hot to think about the funeral and also he is a disgraceful bastard who didn’t appreciate his mother. He didn’t even want to see his mother one last time. After the funeral it was just back to normal life for him. He even took a girl home, Marie, the next day after going for a swim (just like what a normal person would do soon after his mother’s death). His next door neighbor, Raymond came by later and asked him to write a letter to his cheating mistress who left him after he beat her up, so she would come back and he could fuck her and spit at her face and beat her up again after. Stupid Meusault said yes, that he would write the letter. The mistress came on running, and as planned, Raymond beat her up again, and police was called after few complains. Meusault made another stupid decision to defend Raymond. And of course, the mistress’s brother wanted revenge (who wouldn’t?), and started following Raymond everywhere with other guys.

Raymond and Meusault were walking on the beach. JUST BECAUSE it was hot, Meusault shot one of the guys, 5 times who were following them. After being taken to a state court, the court rules that Meusault’s lack of emotion after his Maman’s death, seeing Marie just few moments after, agreeing to help Raymond-who court views him as an ass- to write the letter and defending him, all these things that makes him a weird person, and nobody understood him, and they saw him as monster who was a threat to society. And decides to execute him. A priest visits before his death, and Meusault loses his shit and screams that nothing matters…

I liked this book, ‘The Stranger’ because it was interesting to see him make all the stupid choices. I got why he didn’t cry at his mom’s funeral… no I actually didn’t, and also I didn’t get the part he met Marie and acted it was normal afternoon. But it was Meusault being Meusault. He wasn’t careless, or didn’t have a heart, he just was uncomplicated and straightforward person. And he PROBABLY wouldn’t have got executed if he didn’t get involved in other people’s business. Like why? Why would you want to write a letter for a jerk neighbor who wants to screw a girl over?... like that started the whole thing and next thing you know, you are holding a gun shooting a guy and seconds from people chopping your head off…

(That picture just looked cute...) But I think he was a person who would do things if he can’t see a reason of not to. And the court just couldn’t see that, because his mind and the way he thinks, his emotions, his actions made him a stranger like an outsider.

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𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕚𝕤 𝕃’É𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 𝕕𝕖 𝔸𝕝𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕥 ℂ𝕒𝕞𝕦𝕤 𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕? by Uyen Ngo

Wassup people👋🏻! Today, let’s take a look at our big-boi: L’Étranger (also known as The Stranger) by a French novelist, author, and philosopher, Albert Camus✍🏼. Instead of a boring review, this blog is more like my recommendation about this novel for y’ all, especially for those who have a hard time to fit in this society.  Of courses, I will also answer the question that most of you ask: Why does The Stranger become an overrated novel?

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s jump right into the summary( since I'm a nice person, so I’m not going to spoil the WHOLE STORY, just sneak peek some scenes for y' all #dontspoithestranger🙅🏻‍♀️) Also, a little reminder is that my pictures and gif might be violence to some of you so don’t continue to read it if you are uncomfortable with it.

The story following the life of our man, Meursault who said at the beginning: “Aujourd'hui, ma mère est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.” which means “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” This showed that he basically didn’t give any reaction such as crying when he heard about the death of his mother. All he did is choosing the coffin closed instead of seeing his mother for the last time; smoking next to his mother’s coffin ️which considered as the disrespectful action. Even worse, Meursault thought that: “It occurred to me that anyway, one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed.” Thus, after the funeral, he lived in his normal life as usual. He dated Marie, his former co-worker 💑. They spent the whole night together after seeing a comedy in the theater. Also, he became friends with his neighbor, Raymond, a woman-beater who is hated by everyone. Later, Raymond asked Meursault to revenge his mistress, who cheated on him and Meursault agreed. A few days later, on the beach, he killed an Arab, who defined as Raymond’s mistress’s brother by some 🔫🔫🔫due to the hot of the sun. No surprise, he was arrested and thrown into jail. Not only that, the law put his ass into the death row. But the thing is killing an Arab is just the cover of his real crime, being a “weirdo” from the society and not having a “heart” is actually his real crime. Therefore, it’s easy to understand that the judge informs him of the final decision: that he will be publicly guillotined.  While waiting to learn his fate, either his successful appeal or execution of his death sentence, Meursault meets with a chaplain who tried to make him turn to God. However, Meursault disagreed with it. Thanks to the unfriendly “talk” with the chaplain, our man later found out that his existence has no meaning. Because of that, in his perspective, death isn’t a big deal to him anymore. In fact, a large, hateful crowd at his execution will end his loneliness and bring everything to a happy ending.   

The truth is that Meursault isn’t a bad dude! In fact, he’s just being himself, which is the thing that not everyone can do it in this society. Hence, this basically made him become a “stranger” from the rest of us. Because of having indifferent behavior, no wonder why he felt that everything in his life is absurd like the story of Salamano who truly loves his dog but hate it at the same time. Or his neighbor, Raymond who loves his mistress at first and then, he started to hate her after she left. Since everything is meaningless in his life, people use this absurd to make him become a real murder. Y’all can clearly see that how the prosecutor called Meursault as a monster 😈for not crying in his mother’s funeral, how the chaplain tried to make our man worship to God for purifying his “soul” (or his next life after execution) since he was considered as a cold-heart man. I mean he feels, see and believe things (that happened in his life) in his own way and we can’t just apply our thinking, belief on him. We try to control and make his emotion, lifestyle, and belief, which also means that we control his freedom. As a result, he had the execution to have freedom back since he didn't follow the belief that society wants in this world. For me, this is the nonsense execution shows how absurdity is this society 😡!

All in all, I understand why The Stranger become one of the overrated books of all the time. It’s famous since the main purpose that Albert Camus wants to show us is that being yourself instead of following someone else. Why? because no one has a right to force you to follow something that you dislike. Not only that, but he also wanted us to notice that this society is sometimes cruel by using absurdity to manipulate others’ life, which happens quite often nowadays. It's sad but true because I saw many nonsense deaths such as suicide, which similar Meursault’s case since they live in the society keeps judging, criticizing for being different these days. 

Thanks for reading my review about The Stranger 💖😘

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An OvErViEw AbOuT ThE StRaNgEr !?! /By NaNcY DaNg/

Summary:

Meursault is a secretary who sends goods in Algiers province in North Africa. He is a person who does not believe in God, living indifferently to his own life, he is like a body without a soul. When he heard that his mother died in a nursing home, he attended his mother's funeral but he did not cry, which is something his society does not accept. Meursault knew Marie Cardona, a young woman who had previously worked with him at the office. They fell in love after a period of understanding each other. Meursault has a neighbor friend named Raymond Sintes, Raymond Sintes is betrayed by an Arab girlfriend so Sintes wants revenge. Sintes asked the Meursault to write a letter for her to come back and then scold and chase her away. Meursault agreed to do this without even knowing that Raymond had beaten his Arab girlfriend.

One day when Meursault went to the beach and because the light was too bright, He went looking for shade at the end of the beach when he saw Arabs standing inside, they thought that he came to aggression, so they drew one knife. Due to being dazzled, the Meursault pulled out a gun and shot a man. Meursault was imprisoned. The court-appointed defense lawyer told him that the police had recognized his great brutality during his mother's burial. Meursault was surprised that the incident had nothing to do with the murder and he explained that on the day of the funeral, he was too tired to be active in the ceremony. On another question day, the prosecutor advised him to apologize and look to God. The Meursault refused the advice because he did not believe in God and the prosecutor said it was a hard soul he had never met. Maria wants to enter the prison but is not allowed because they are not married. When Meursault was imprisoned for the first time, he thought he would get used to it and he would kill time with sleep and think about the past.

When he was in front of the Court, Meursault was surprised to find that there were too many acquaintances before and people described his behavior on the day of the mother's funeral, and he was convicted of things outside murder and also a crime in the heart. The prosecutor said that Meursault was in desperate need of repentance, not only guilty of murdering an Arab but also "guilty of morality" on his mother's funeral. After being sentenced, Meursault comforted him that "anyway, life is not worth living" and everyone must face the dead. In the prison, the chaplain attempts to convince Meursault of "God's justice" and beliefs in the next life. Meursault found the absurdity of the chaplain's ideas. His anger towards the chaplain had made him lose all hope in the next life. The Meursault hopes that on the day of death, there will be a crowd of people coming to see them, they will greet him with the words "hate". In that unreasonable society, Meursault was considered a stranger. He is a stranger to others and at the same time a stranger to himself.

Analysis:

The novel The stranger portrays a portrait of the Meursault character for nearly a year since his mother died until his own death. Meursault society live is an irrational society. It was the absurdity that made his life turn into a vast prison and the communication between the prisoners was obstructed by the soundproof glass. In that invisible prison, every prisoner lives, works, loves ... mechanically with stuffy, dull, pent up. His life is a life that evokes a sense of meaninglessness. He acts mechanically, unconsciously, always dominated by feeling tired, bored, monotonous. He acts just to kill time and be bored. While at work, he works; when he met his girlfriend, he talked, watched movies, took a bath; when someone asks, he answers ... all done mechanically, stereotyped and dull. When she was alone, Meursault also performed meaningless actions: reading an old newspaper, collating a song he found interesting and then spending Sunday evenings to observe the street from the balcony. That monotony makes others feel like he merely exists and not lives. It seems he only acts instinctively, like a programmed robot.  

Life is changing, the unreasonable society that Camus feels during the time of creation The stranger is no longer the same, the stranger of Camus, probably, of course, too. Also retains the original symbolic meaning. However, that meaning is only changed, refreshed and not completely dead. The stranger no matter what time he is, he is still a stranger. And, to this day or even how long, it can be said that every person in society, albeit more or less, is forever a stranger to himself and to life.

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The Stranger book review (Alec)

The Stranger main story is about the life of Meursault. The story begins at Meursault mother funeral where he doesn’t really care about it that much, he just be there and doesn’t care anything. He looking at the people that come and visit his mother, thinking about what does this people affect his mother life. The next day he come back to his home in London and went for a swim when he meet a girl name Marie and he fall in love with her, they sleep with each other that night. Then he meet a guy name Raymond and he help Raymond to convince his ex girlfriend back then just destroy her after she betrayed Raymond in the past. After Raymond abuse his ex girlfriend, he get into trouble with the police but got out thanks to Meursault. Any way one day when Meursault, Marie and Raymond head out for a swim, suddenly they see a bunch of Muslim man who staring at them but they don think they are a big threat so they move on to the beach. There, they meet Raymond friend and his wife. After lunch, Three man go out for a walk then suddenly they saw the Arab men that they meet before walking straight toward them with knife. The closer they get the more Meursault and his friend got scarier and scarier. Fortunatly Raymond have a pistol in his pocket and when the fight broke off, he didnt used the gun but Raymond friend got a cut in his face. Raymon and his friend go to the hospital while Meursault take Raymond pistol, head back to the shack that Marie and Raymond friend that Raymond friend is in the hospital, then Meursalt head back to the beach with the pistol. After walking for a while he sees those Arab men again and this time this time, when they about to attack him, he wiped our his pistol and shot one of the Arabs. He got into jail with after that and got executed by the guillotine

I truly recommended this book because it really portrait the character way of thinking and his own believed. For example in the book, Meursalt face the idea of Christianity everyday but he just ignore it and thinking that it just an believed. He is like the ideal example of Nihilism, he just don't give a damn like his mother just die like yesterday and the next he already sleeping with a girl. He just live his life and just don'really care whether he live or he die. He don't even exist in god and think that god is just some made up bullshit that doesn't help you and anyone else. This book also portrait ethics (ish) about our character because when he first meet Raymond, Raymond ask him to write a letter to his ex so that he can get revenge on her. in this case you have 2 choices and both off them can be seen as an ethical choice in certain perspective. If you choose to not write the letter, you can prevent Raymond ex getting beaten up by Raymond himself but if you do write the letters, on Raymond perspective, it ethical because his ex cheated on him although he is the one who work day and night just so that she have money to spent. Overall this book is an amazing book to read and fun at some point in the book and yeah i would love to read more book like this in the future.

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The Stranger

Meursault is the narrator of this novel. He uses first-person narration to tell throughout the story in a direct style. The story opens with Meursault reading a telegram informing him of his mother’s death. He hasn't expressed any emotion or is shocked when he read that letter because he knows that his mother is old already, and death is an early or late thing that forced everyone to have to go through. At the funeral, he doesn't cry or show any pain. After that, he turns back to where he lived, the old province. Here, he meets a girl named Marie at the public beach. After leaving the pool, they make a date to go watch the comedy together at a movie theater. Then, they spend the whole night together. The next day, when Meursault wakes up, Marie is gone, and he spends the whole day to sit on the bed or sit on the balcony to watch the people pass on the street. The following days, Marie go to Meursault apartment to visit him. She asks Meursault if he loves her, and he replies that “it didn’t mean anything,” but probably not. Then, Marie asks Meursault if he wants to marry her. He replies indifferently but says that they can get married if she wants to, so they become engaged. On Sunday, Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go to a beach. That afternoon, Masson, Raymond, and Meursault run into two Arabs on the beach, one of whom is the brother of Raymond’s mistress. A fight breaks out and Meursault is stabbed. After that, Meursault and Raymond planning for revenge. Meursault shoots Raymond’s mistress’s brother. Meursault is arrested and thrown into prison. His lawyer seems disgusted at Meursault’s lack of remorse over his crime, evil, and, in particular, at Meursault’s lack of pain at his mother’s funeral. Meursault is found guilty and is sentenced to death by beheading.  

A story begins and ends with death.

Meursault belongs to nihilism. He goes through a passive, boring and "death" life. He doesn't care about the outside world, society standard, no aspirations, no religious beliefs, no emotion. Especially, he doesn't understand the meaning of life. For him, everything that exists or disappears has its natural law and he feels normal when a person dies, even when he will die soon. His life is meaningless.  

He was condemned not because of the way he killed people, but because of his attitude and his thinking. Just like how he appeared at his mother's funeral. Without grief, without a tear, he even fell asleep. Society condemns the way he faces everything.  

This society is so, you can't live the way you like. To survive in this society, you must actively participate in the game, to fulfill your role in a way this society wants not in your own favorite, whether that be true to their true self or not. You have to follow this society and society doesn't give you what you want.

_Jocelyn Nguyen_   

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The Stranger

By Sofia Chun

This Book, The Stranger written by Albert Camus took an unexpected turn than I imagined what the book was about. When I was reading, it kept me interested through the end of the book. I didn’t understand the ending of the book, because I can’t relate why he wanted people to watch and get attention when he was executed. I mean, the book started with his normal life, and as it goes he kind of sounded like a psychopath. He didn’t show emotion when his mother passed away. When Marie asked him about getting married he said yes but, he would have said yes to other women too. He didn’t think about how he felt because he was lack of feelings. I think he was just living because he was born like he didn’t have a purpose to live. Sometimes, he described how beautiful Marie looked but he didn’t tell her, that the parts that I felt that he maybe keeps things to himself.  

One of the reasons I liked the book was because there was a dog, but I felt bad because Salamano would beat him up. I think it was a simple way of thinking that Meursault got himself in the situation of the Arabs and execution. The judge was looking for signs of his empathy to see if he was safe to be released and that he wasn’t a threat to anyone in his daily normal life. But for Meursault it was just life or death, I could see that he cared about people that were alive, not dead because they are already gone. Like when his Mother died, he didn’t care much but when Salamano lost his dog he helped him. When Raymond beat his girlfriend Meursault even wrote a letter for him to give it to her.  

Meursault’s philosophy was simple, maybe he showed lack of emotions but he showed it in his own way. I think the lawyer that he had for the trial was not really experienced. In a way, Meursault made sense, the trial was about him, but the lawyer didn’t let him talk for justification. If the judge knew what a simple man that Meursault was, he wouldn’t rule execution. But the lawyer showed a glimpse of his personality that made him sound like he didn’t have a heart. And if Raymond told all the parts of why Meursault shot the Arab, maybe the judge would have ruled self-defense.  

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The Stranger (Johnny)

The book “The Stranger" by Albert Camus is a very interesting read which question a lot of the philosophical belief normal people have. The story tells of a man name Monsieur Meursault whom mother just recently passed away. He attended his mother funeral after receiving a telegram about the news. He spent a night with the undertaker at the place where her coffin was. The undertaker was somewhat intrigued at him not showing a lot of sadness. Monsieur drank coffee, smoked cigarettes and drifted off. The undertaker asked him whether he wanted to open the coffin to see his mother one last time. He refused saying it was alright. After that, he arrived back in Algiers. The next day, Monsieur went to the beach for a swim, where he met Marie, his former co-worker. Two of them decided to go to the theater for a movie that evening. Then Monday came, he returned to work. He had lunch and worked throughout the whole afternoon. He then ran into his neighbour, Raymond. Raymond invited Monsieur over for dinner. Raymond explained that he just had a fight with his girlfriend and wanted help from Monsieur to write a letter to lure her back with him. The following Saturday, Marie came over to Monsieur's place. She asked whether he wanted to marry her. He said it didn't matter if he’s going to marry her or not. Right at that moment, loud noises started to come from Raymond’s apartment. Raymond and his girlfriend had gotten into a fight and looks like Raymond has gotten what he wanted. Not long after, the police arrived and Monsieur was asked to testify on behalf of Raymond. Monsieur agreed. The following Sunday, the three decided to go to the beach and visit a friend named Masson, whom owned a house nearby. They caught the bus there and along the way, they spotted two Arabs. One of them is the brother of Raymond's ex-girlfriend. They entered a fight and Raymond was stabbed and he was bleeding terribly. Monsieur then decided to took out the gun to revenge. He killed one of the Arab. He is then arrested and went to jail. He got a lawyer but his lawyer was disgusted at his no-remorse attitude. He was questioned whether he believed in god, for which he replied no. The time he served slowly separated him from the outside world and to him, it doesn't matter anymore. He then was pronounced a death sentence due to the many reasons such as going on a date the day after his mother was buried. At the end he was asked again on whether he felt a sense of remorse, he angrily shouted “NO". He said even if he was death or alive, it really didn't matter and it wouldn't make any different. 

The main point of the book is to portray an individual who is a complete “stranger" to society, the law and the normal moral beliefs. Such as how everyone was expecting him to feel guilty for killing a man, he didn't. Or feel sad and goes into mourning after the death of his mother, he didn't. Monsieur was a complete outcast of all the beliefs and expectations that society had. He was being condemned to death because of it, because of not following the standard. A very valuable point of view from the book is being different. In many cultures, it is deemed as wrong or “sinful". No one should be an outcast or rebel against society. They should be normal just like everyone else and follow all the rules that was set in place. Unfortunately, the consequence of standing out will result in such horrific ending, such as the one like Monsieur. This pointed out the philosophy that human are a social creature, they want acceptance and to be normal like everyone else. That's why it takes a really brave soul to stand out and walk on the path that no one else has. 

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A Nihilist

Opinion based, feel free to disagree, have fun:))

Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless. They are nothing that can be known or communicated. This belief is often associated to the extreme pessimism or a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A person who believe in nihilism is called nihilist is a person who believes in nothing, no purpose, no loyalties, might be driven by an impulse to exterminate things.

To some part of the society,  nihilism is considered as very silly, harmful and wrongful belief. The belief of nothingness can lead to the dark corners of a person’s head. This belief is very negative, it makes you feel like you are standing on a cliff and you should jump. They also believe that nihilism is contradicting itself. The definition nihilism is the believe of there is non meaning and no value at all in this universe so it is making a statement that claims that It has non meaning and value. To them, something has no value or meaning in this life is not existing 

The consequences:

Life is complicated. It can be easy, it can be great but it can also be pretty darn terrible and a human being needs a reason to live. In my opinion, nihilism can cause consequences like suicide or depression. If a sad person is really tired and sad and only remembered bad and negative memories, and if that person is unlucky enough for being a nihilism believer they would believe that life is not worth living and might lead to one takes there own life

Influence in art

There have been many movements such as cubism, surrealism, dada and situationism which openly embrace the idea of nihilistic. In literature, especially contemporary literature and music, Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen which was influenced by nihilism, the author said: “ moral black world has no existence” 

Influence on the society

In this society, our lives are base on religion, culture and traditions. These things dictate and control our thinkings. Anyone who is different or doesn’t follow any culture or tradition is considered as an outsider to our world. People provide the submission that the society require inn order to get “label” such as morals, virtue, righteous,… Many people blindly follow this path so mindless that they don’t even aware that they are being control. To some people, nihilism is a form of belief of an escape from these chain that the society wrap around them, a nihilist in a society refuse to bow down to faith or accept the principle. To other people Nihilism is pretty depressing because they can’t bear to live in na society without faith or belief, they need these “chain” to keep them “sane” 

Influence on myself: 

In my opinion, I don’t think Nihilism is depressing at all. Try being nihilist for a day, life would be more fun to experience. A nihilist does whatever she likes and she gets to experience the wold however she wants.  For me, I believe that freedom is the soul of nihilism, I perceive by acknowledge values and meanings inn my mind but not as something that I have to do in the outside world. 

-Anh-

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What’s Nihilism

Nihilism is mean everything around us is not important. So, you live in the modern world but you don’t have a target for your life. Because some people they think that when they die, they can’t bring physical things and money, so they don’t want to do anything, everything is untarget for them. Deadpool is a best example for this situation. Deadpool, he doesn’t have any target for his life and a group they catch to change him and he needs to change a target for his life. It represent to target, purpose of your life and nihilism represent the opposite.

So, all the people they don’t have a target because collapse abut something before. Later, they think everything on the world is no meaning. They had a barrier to pull their target down.  Maybe, they think they are not exist on this world, so they just relax on this world and don’t do anything. So, make the world have it own meaning and that people will have a meaning on this life.

So, they need to stand up find a job and make schedule for their life, make their own life have a meaning. So, when they have meaning, they will want to stay on this world. That time, they will see that in this world, everything is happiness. They always have chance to do but depend on their mind.

VIET