Striking Moment in The Stranger by Albert Camus

One passage that struck me as odd in the opening chapters of The Stranger occurred on page 28, "And once he [Raymond] asked me, talking about Salamano, "If that isn't pitiful!" He asked me didn't I think that it was disgusting and I said no".
I thought it was surprising that when Meursault was asked what he thought about a man abusing an innocent animal he replied hat he did not have a problem with it. I feel like animal abuse is a pretty commonly opposed issue so the fact that he wasn't bothered by it surprised me. Furthermore, Raymond had thus far been described as a pretty bad guy, so the fact that even he was bothered by the animal abuse and Meursault was not is surprising. I think that this section shows a lot about Meursault's character and his indifference towards other people and life in general.

The Letter of Punishment

Though I personally have never been a cheater or a cheatee in a romantic relationship, I imagine that the most common form of revenge is not found in the lines of a letter. Let alone a letter written by neither party involved. It can be inferred Meursault is hardly ever overcome with emotion and does not allow life to affect him very much at all. He is a numb being, living simply in a complex world.

Let's start at the beginning of this interesting relationship Meursault shares with Raymond, his neighbor who is also a warehouse guard. Raymond had a girlfriend. Actually, she was his mistress. She cheated on him, he found out. He's since been beating her physically but now he wishes to concoct a way to cause her more pain psychologically. Raymond thinks the best way to do this is to write a letter to the woman explaining how great she had it with him and how sorry her life will be without him. He - being a coward and all - can't write the letter himself, so he imposes upon his neighbor and friend of about three minutes to do it: "But Raymond told me he didn't think he could write the type of letter it would take and that he'd thought of asking me to write it for him. Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (Camus 32). So, without missing a beat Meursault agrees to pen a letter intended to inflict serious amounts of emotional turmoil on a woman he's never met written from the point of view of a man who openly divulged into his assault-ridden relationship with said woman within the first minutes of their first ever interaction. To put in minimally, this encounter was not a conventional one, however it is one that no reader is likely to forget. We are drawn in by the strangeness and indifference that is the life of Meursault. The sheer fact that we find ourselves almost completely unbound to this character allows us to freely live in the space the author has created for us for the time being.

When Did My Mom Die?

“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” (Camus 1).

In the The Stranger, probably the strangest part is the way Albert Campus starts off the story. He starts off the stranger- himself, Meursault,- giving background as to why he is a stranger. He is detached from his own point of view, and well sort of everything. He doesn’t really care about his mother’s death, which is very strange, unless a poor relationship caused that type of reaction; which we do not know because it is the first page of the book. What is even stranger is that he does not keep track of the days, which can be inferred from him not remembering when a important telegram came through. Overall the beginning of the novel has to be the strangest because it sets the tone for the rest of the essay. 

Well that´s weird

Something I thought was weird was when he said ¨I even had the impression that the dead woman lying in front of them didn´t mean anything to them.

It seems as though the narrator has no connection to his mom at all. Instead of him calling her mom or even acknowledging her in a respectful way he just says the dead women. He seems to have no emotions and is only there just because the fact that he wanted to get off of work and doesn´t want to look bad as the guy who didn´t go see his dead mother.

Strange Words, Strange Man

"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from home: 'Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday" (1).

In the first half of Part 1 of The Stranger, we meet the very strange Meursault, who seems to have very little emotion. He has no filter on what he says, so the reader gets to enjoy the stream of consciousness of a psychologically detached adult. I found the first lines to be the strangest moment because I was able to pick up on the personality of the protagonist instantly. Whereas in other books, the reader does not fully get the picture of the character until later on in the book. It seemed so strange that he did not know when his mother died or that he did not care. In my world, a death is a huge deal. It is something tragic and memorable, an event that is burned into my memory.

"It occurred to me that anyway on more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed" (24). The fact that a person can do this just days after the lass of a loved one is amazing, yet very very strange.

Indifferent But Not Oblivious

One of the things that struck me about the fist chapters of the book was Monsieur Meursault's concern with the way people interpret his actions and comments in response to the loss of his mother. Initially I thought that he was more absorbed in the way people perceived him than with grief after losing his mother.

Meursault, after informing his boss that he would have to take two days off from work and seeing his displeasure at the request, he tries to justify it by saying "It's not my fault" though later remarks that he "shouldn't have said that" as he "didn't have anything to apologize for" (3). Meursault then comments, during the vigil for his mother that he had the "ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge [him]" (10).

What I first interpreted as a further demonstration of Meursault's indifference toward his mothers death, I now think after rereading these sections, those that I quoted and a few others, that it was really his understanding or realization of the inappropriateness of his response to his mother's death. Although he could not make himself feel more effected by it, even remarking that "nothing had changed" after it (18), these comments reflect that he had some shame in his lack of feeling toward it.

Puppy Love

"Salamano was swearing away at the dog. He was saying "Filthy, stinking bastard!" and the dog was just whimpering. I said "Good evening" but the man just kept on cursing. So I asked him what the dog had done. He didn't answer. All he said was "Filthy, stinking bastard!" I could barely see him leaning over his dog,trying to fix something on its collar."

This was a peculiar piece of the first three chapters because it was so loud and passionate. At the vigil and funeral for his mother, Meursault is calm, quiet, and expresses little passion about the passing of his mother. When Salamano is yelling at his dog it is a clear example of raw emotion. Meursault has an aloof attitude throughout these chapters, and that raw emotion was a change of pace.

Oh Wait, That Was Actually Really Weird

The moment that I found strangest in the first few chapters of The Stranger was when Thomas Perez, Meursault's mother's friend, struggled to keep up with the procession so he kept on taking shortcuts through the countryside but when he finally caught up he had "big tears of  frustration and exhaustion... streaming down his face" and when the procession got to the church Perez "crumpled like a rag doll" (18).

I was taken aback by the amount of effort Perez put into keeping up with the others and by Meursault's lack of reaction. Meursault seems indifferent to Perez's struggles which makes the situation feel normal and commonplace in the context of the book yet strange in the context of the real world. At this point in the book, Meursault's apathy towards others already seems to be a reoccurring theme and his behavior towards Perez in his time of grieving exemplifies this. He doesn't think about how Perez is feeling after losing his one friend or worry about why he would put so much effort into keeping up to the point of fainting.

Mans Best Friend?

"They look as if they belong to the same species, and yet they hate each other.  Twice a day, at eleven and six, the old man takes the dog out for walk.  They haven't changed their route in 8 years.  You can see them in the rue de Lyon, the dog pulling the man along until old Salamono stumbles.  Then he beats the dog and swears at it.  The dog cowers and trails behind.  Then it's the old man who pulls the dog.  Once the dog has forgotten, it starts dragging its master along again, and again gets beaten and sworn at.  Then they bot stand there on the sidewalk and stare at each other, the dog in terror, the man in hatred.  It's the same thing every day." (The Stranger, Albert Camus, Pg. 27)


This particular section in our reading caught my attention because of the detail and peculiar cycle Salamano and his dog share.  Their violent walks make me wonder why they have put up with each other for so long.  Why hasn't the dog run away?  Why hasn't Salamano gotten rid of it?  I think it's interesting how no matter how much the two loathe each other, they still put up with each other daily.

Fairly Old, Fairly Odd

"A minute later he asked, 'Is that your mother in there?' Again I said, 'Yes.' 'Was she old?' I answered, 'Fairly,' because I didn't know the exact number" (16). 

Aside from Meursault's overall reaction to the death of his mother, the fact that he seems to have no knowledge of her age at her time of passing, and the fact that he does not seem the least bit concerned about this, is odd. Perhaps it had been a while since he had seen her, but until this point it is reasonable to think that he occasionally wrote to her, perhaps on her birthday, or remembered her to some extent while they were separated. 

A birthday is a milestone, a coming of age, a celebration. There are years that stick so firmly in our minds it is as if we could close our eyes and relive them, whether they are good or bad memories. 

It would make sense that Meursault had a general idea of how old his mother was, but then again, a lot of his behavior thus far has not been typical.

Is Indifference a Virtue?

One of the moments that struck me most in The Stranger by Albert Camus was the night time vigil for his recently deceased mother. In this scene, Meursault sits awkwardly as he watches over his mom, but all the while paying more attention to the guests that have come to the vigil. Despite this solemn event, he takes notes on the peculiar mannerisms of the other people in the room, such as smacking noises they make or the way they are crying. At one instance he says, "I'd never noticed what huge stomachs old women can have" (10).

What surprised me most about this moment is how disinterested Meursault actually was in the death of his mother. He was actually more interested in the people around him. Other sorts of this "people watching" behavior is prevalent throughout the story. Another instance of this is when he looks over his balcony and watches the people go by. Meursault is very perceptive, but in an odd in way. He always notices minutia, rather than things that are of actual importance. The ways through which Meursault seems to navigate the world is very methodical and direct. Meursault is not one to stop and smell the roses. It might be interesting to ask if a major problem were to occur in his life, how would he respond to it? Will he ignore it, similar to how he waived away the death of his mom, or will he find a direct and simple solution?

Underlying Emotions

Perhaps the most notable characteristic of the first chapter of The Stranger is the drowsy tone of the text. The reader sees the narrator's fatigue pop up during his bus ride to the old people's home, in the mortuary, and at the funeral. His fatigue manifests itself in different ways, but perhaps its most intriguing form appears on page 9:

"That's when Maman's friends came in. There were about ten in all, and they floated into the blinding light without a sound. They sat down without a single chair creaking. I saw them more clearly than I had ever seen anyone, and not one detail of their faces or their clothes escaped me. But I couldn't hear them, and it was hard for me to believe they really existed" (Camus 9).

The narrator portrays Maman's friends as ghosts, describing them as floating, soundless, and surreal beings. The reader may wonder if they are even real at all. After all, hallucinations and fatigue are both symptoms of grief, and this may be the narrators way of expressing his emotions. The former symptom is debatable, however, considering that most hallucinations in this situation are typically of the deceased loved one. The narrator's fatigue as a sign of grief is certainly plausible, considering it is a common factor in the grieving process. Overall, the tone of beginning of the novel may serve as an underlying indication of what the narrator feels during the first chapter and later on.

Heartless vs Indifferent

Right at the start of the novel The Stranger, I found the narrator Monsieur Meursault a bit (dare I say) strange. The novel began by saying, "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" (page 3).
I found it odd that when Monsieur Meursault received news of his mother's death, he was only concerned with when his mother died, not with the fact that his mother died. My initial thought was that Monsieur Meursault was heartless but as I read on, I realized he was not.

It is not that Monsieur Meursault is heartless, he is not happy his mother passed away, he is just unaffected by her death. He is indifferent. He had not talked to his mother in a while, he even says, "That's partly why I didn't go [visit her] much this past year" so her death did not drastically change his life. That is why he acts so robotic when attending her funeral. After trying to understand Meursault as a character and as a person, I've come to the conclusion that although he is a bit different from people's definition of "normal", he might have a heart after all.

Meursault the Absurd Hero

Having spoiled myself two years ago with Albert Camus, existentialism, the philosophy of the Absurd, and an overview of The Stranger, I knew what to expect before reading this. However, it still surprised me by how the writer managed to write Meursault to have no sense of judgment on moral, social, and emotional grounds, but still convey him as a believable human character, if not more than human, whenever unique traits such as his enjoyment for washing his hands exclusively during lunchtime are revealed.

Meursault's notes of the weather and nature in particular are simple yet striking because they fall outside of the archetype of both an amoral and a pragmatic character. Frequently, he dedicates a few words to mentioning them despite how it never appears to serve any practical purpose, which is something he is concerned with in all other cases. Take note of how the sun bothers him in pages sixteen and seventeen during the funeral procession; this makes a return at the end of Part One.

Although we should see The Stranger as a work of literature before anything else, it might be worth mentioning its background. That being said, I think Meursault serves as an example of an "Absurd Hero" that Camus sees an ideal person. In his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus," Camus wrote about humans' search for rational or inherent meaning in their lives and morality despite their inability to find it. He likened this struggle to that of the Greek mythological figure Sisyphus, who defied the gods and, as a consequences, was condemned to repeat the pointless, never-ending cycle of pushing a boulder up a hill, seeing it roll down once he's reached the pinnacle, and pushing it up. Camus said that the only challenge to this process would either be suicide, or to simply imagine that Sisyphus was happy with his life, the latter of the two choices of which meets the criteria of being an "Absurd Hero". Camus himself was a rather delightful man compared to other existentialists and western philosophers. Although I'm just making a weak inference here, I think this will become clearer towards the end of Meursault's story.

Hand Washing

One of the scenes in The Stranger that really struck me was the was on page twenty-one.

 "After lunch I was a little board and I wandered around the apartment. It was just the right size when Maman was here. Now it's just too big for me, and I've had to move the dining room table into my bedroom. I live in just one room now, with some saggy chairs, a wardrobe, whose mirror has gone yellow, a dressing table, and a brass bed. I've let the rest go. A little later, just for something to do, I picked up an old newspaper and read it. I cut out an advertisement for Kruschen Salts and stuck it in an old notebook where I put things from the papers that interest me I also washed my hand, and then I went out on the balcony."
                                                                                                   (The Stranger, Albert Camus, Pg. 21)

I found this really interesting because it was a glimpse into the narrator's private life and a look into his way of doing things. I was also slightly puzzled by several specific lines. First is the narrators reference to how he saves a salt add, but why no reference has yet been made to the narrator having an interest in art or advertisements. We also know that the narrator does not have any ties to the ad industry. So why does he save this part of the paper and not a story that interested him. I also was intrigued by the reference to washing his hands. The narrator speaks about washing his hands several times throughout the early part of the novel. But why? It is certainly something to think about.

Magic Moment in The Stranger

During the first three chapters of The Stranger, the character traits of the main character, Monsieur Meursault, are established through descriptions of his responses to his mother's death. The character is painted as very frank and somewhat unaffected by displays of emotion, tense situations, and daily life. This traits are exhibited in the following interaction with a mortician at Meursault's mother's funeral:

The man from the undertaker's said something to me then which I missed, He was lifting the edge of his cap with his right hand and wiping his head with a handkerchief with his left at the same time. I said, "What?" He pointed up at the sky and repeated, "Pretty hot." I said, "Yes." A minute late he asked, "Is that your mother in there?" Again I said, "Yes." "Was she old?" I answered, "Fairly," because I didn't know the exact number. After that he was quiet (16 Camus).

 This particular scene paints a portrait of Meursault's social skills and surface-level personality. He comes off as very pragmatic, almost indifferent to the death of his mother. Through small, internal expressions of grief throughout the chapter, the reader knows that Meursault is not heartless, but this interaction gives the reader context as to how other people may view him. The dialogue and actions really contribute to the reader's absorption in the "magic" of the story, to use Nabakov's language.

Everybody Does NOT Love Raymond

In Albert Camus's novel, The Stranger Things, everyone is pretty odd but Raymond and Meursault gave me weird vibes. When we first meet Raymond, he seems like a pretty normal guy who felt bad for his neighbor's pet. Although he seemed normal, his overall persona declined very rapidly. I got the impression that Meursault didn't know Raymond very well and was almost uncomfortable that Raymond invited him into his home in the first place. Then, Raymond goes on this rant about his mistress and how he thinks she is cheating on him. Meursault didn't seem to show any discomfort from this man, who is pretty much a stranger, pouring his life story onto him. More importantly, Meursault took no issue in feeding his story. When Raymond said, "I'd smack he around a little, but nice-like.. She'd scream a little" (30), Meursault simply agreed that this woman, who he does not know, deserved harm! Maybe Meursault was agreeing just to make the conversation less awkward, but even still, how could he say that?

Raymond also gave no sympathy to Meursault's mom passing, and I thought that was really insensitive. Again, Mersault was not offended and it made me think that maybe Mersault wasn't close with his mother after all. Overall, both characters seem a little out of touch with interacting politely with each other and I am interested to see more wacky things Mersault and Raymond have in store through the novel. 

One strange part of the first three chapters of The Stranger is at the very end when Meursault leaves his neighbors apartment. Chamus writes, "All I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. I stood there, motionless. And in old Salamno's room, the dog whimpered softly" (33). When he leaves the apartment, there is this suspense in the air but the reader is left hanging. When he was having dinner with Raymond, Meursault gave no indication to his attitude towards the plan that Raymond wanted to put into motion. He agrees without much emotion.

Throughout the first three chapters, Meursault seems disconnected with the rest of the world and never seems to carry heavy feelings towards anyone or anything despite the recent events, but at the end he has this feeling of suspense that feels odd compared to the beginning of the story. The blood is rushing in his head, he picks up the dog whimpering, and he stands still like a deer in headlights.

What does it all mean?

Twice a day, at eleven and six, the old man takes the dog out for a walk. They haven't changed their route in eight years. You can see them in the rue de Lyon, the dog pulling the man along until old Salamano stumbles. Then he beats the dog and swears at it...He was saying, "Filthy, stinking bastard!" (27)

He'd beaten her till she bled. He'd never beaten her before. "I'd smack her around a little, but nice-like, you might say. She'd scream a little. I'd close the shutters and it always ended the same way. But this time it's for real. And if you ask me, she still hasn't gotten what she has coming." (31)

After the funeral you are introduced to new characters in Meursault's life. We meet the girl he goes on a date with, Celeste from the restaurant, and his two neighbors. The two neighbors were perhaps the oddest part of the rather uneventful first three chapters. First, Salamano is introduced. He immediately gains the reputation as the dog beater. He comes across as a very violent person that even beats his dog just for being there. Then the other neighbor that invites Meursault over dinner also has a violent side. He very openly talked about beating his ex-girlfriend. There is no sign that these two people are connected. There are no signs that Meursault has struggled in any way with abuse in his life. We just get two very violent characters that left me a little confused. Perhaps these neighbors set us up for a deeper meaning down the road on personal relationships. Or maybe they are just there to help us see inside Meursault's jumbled mind. It will be interesting to see how the story progresses with this unique cast of characters.

The Oddity of Meursault and the Funeral

Throughout the beginning of The Stranger, Meursault is mourning the death of his mother. But instead of the expected tears, tissues, and gnashing of teeth of a funeral, the writing gives an impression of cool melancholy. He focuses often on his own feelings of tiredness or heat, saying "It was very hot" (3) or "I am tired" (12). Even during the vigil, he complains about the other people who came to give their respects. He even seems relieved when the woman who is crying over his mother finally stops.

His overall tone seems to be retiring or even irritable about the funeral in the first chapter. Most often people would be devastated at the death of the relative. He seems piqued.

So why does Camus use this tone? Is it to set the character's attitude towards life? His family? Other people in general? Or is it to set up something later in the story?