Thursday, October 19, 2017

Blatant Systemic Racism and Sexism


The discussion of racism and sexism in The Stranger is often about the specific prejudices of individual characters, but truly, there are blatant examples of the systemic bigotries of the time period. Although Mersault was technically on trial for the murder of the Arab, the death was clearly not what he was in trouble for. Mersault was questioned minimally about what happened the actual day of the murder and not a single one of the other Arabs had any part in the trial, not even as witnesses. Instead, Meursault was questioned mainly about his character. Most witnesses and questions were about the death of his mother and his reaction to it. Obviously the death of the Arab did not matter to the court. What mattered to the court was that Mersault was not following the social normality of the world with his emotions or actions. They were more appalled at the fact he didn’t cry over his mother’s death than the fact he murdered an Arab. This is supported in Raymond’s interaction with the law as well. Raymond got off with just a warning because Mersault testified that Raymond’s mistress (consistently unnamed) had cheated on Raymond. It was ruled that the immorality of the mistress’s alleged fault in her loyalty outweighed the immorality of Raymond beating her bloody. In the eyes and values of the court, the safety of an Arab or woman was of less importance than following the societal norms. Was Mersault also racist and sexist? And if so, was he really that free from societal constricts?

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you brought this up. It's easy to get distracted by the specifics of the plot and the characters' relations to each other, but Camus does reveal a world full of complete disregard towards race and gender-based violence. It makes me wonder about existentialism as a whole and Meursault's place in it: can't all oppression be justified by the idea that suffering and death exist randomly anyway? I feel like treating the violence shown to Raymond's mistress and the unnamed Arab man is to neglect larger patterns of systemic injustice.

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  2. This is a very good point to make. I think that many readers overlook these events in the novel, but when looking at the novel in a whole it is apparent that Mersault does not follow any of societies social norms allowing him to be an outcast or a 'stranger' in society.

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