The Death of the Stranger

The Stranger starts off with "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday." (3)

My first reaction to this passage is that he seems very nonchalant about his mother's death. Throughout the chapter when the subject of his mom comes up it seems like he doesn't know a lot about her. He doesn't know the day she died, he doesn't know how old she was when she died. He doesn't know much about her life in the home. It's almost like he doesn't care for his mother, it seemed like he made no contact with her when she was in the home. He said he didn't come visit her because he would have to buy tickets and travel for two hours. Two hours isn't actually that far away and he wouldn't have to go every weekend but maybe once a month would be good. He didn't talk about his mother much to his friends or co-workers until she died, and even then it was one or two words about her. It makes me feel like perhaps he didn't like his mother or even know her. He didn't even want to see her one last time before they put the casket in the ground. It makes me sad for him and his mom to imagine their relationship, I can see them sitting in the kitchen of that small apartment eating in silence. In the passage when he says "That doesn't mean anything" it could also apply to his mom like she didn't mean anything to him. That maybe his mom is the stranger because she has become a stranger to him.