Meursault's Contempt For The Elderly Mourners.

Meursault's entire reaction to his mother's death was unusual, but for the most part it can be attributed to their distance. It was not until he was standing vigil in the home that his anger showed through. Listening to crying mourners, Meursault was enraged by the distraction.

Meursault wishes the crying woman would just be silent because her crying is bothersome to him, but when she does stop crying, Meursault is bothered by the silence. He sees the lack of noise itself as a distraction and wishes there was something to dull the silence.

Through Meursault's irritability, we see a mostly hidden aspect of his character: he is in a fragile state because of his mother's death.

No Momma´s Boy

In the story ¨The Stranger" by Albert Camus, the main character Monsieur Meursault is presented as an awkward social outcast, whose mother just died. From the beginning, the reader was able to feel his awkwardness, but it reached a new point when Meursault gave a strong impression that he did not care about his mother´s death.

¨The blood-red earth spilling over Maman´s casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front of the cafe, the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers and I knew I was going to bed and sleep for twelve hours(18).¨

In this case, Monsieur Meursault was more happy about the bus coming than he was sad about his own mother´s death. He got over his mother´s death easily- in fact he never seemed to be that upset about it in the first place. ¨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 (24).¨ Meursault regards his mother´s death in a very nonchalant and laid-back way, and the reader can tell that there was a very little emotional connection between him and his mother-if any at all. This implies that him and his mother were not close, which brings up a blaring question...What could have happened between him and his mother that could have created such an estranged relationship? or is the main character just emotionally disconnected from everyone in general to the point where he cannot even connect on an emotional level with his mother?

What to Do in Spare Time?

In The Stranger by Albert Camus is the a story set in France about Meursault, the worker of some business company.

Most likely one of the weirdest moment from the first three chapters from the book is the pages 21-24. Meursault spends most of the day and night sitting on his balcony and staring out of the window.

After lunch he read newspaper and cut out stuff that interests him. In the story it is not specified when he decides to go on the balcony and watch the streets but the reader can infer it is about 2-3pm. He saw local boys heading to see the movie therefore it should be about the time school ends.

He observes the people and the weather. The family, the teenagers, the tobacconist, children, sky and many more. He's outside until early morning.

...with the streetcars running less often and the sky already blue above the trees..(pg. 24)

Why does he spends so much time without doing anything else? How does he have so much patience?
Does he have anything else that he enjoys doing?

'It wasn't my fault'

In chapters 1-3 of part one in ' The Stranger', the main character Monsieur Muersault, whenever he is asked or is reflecting on his mothers death will respond by saying " it was not my fault." Now in the beginning of the story, I didn't really think much of it. However, after seeing his interactions with others, his response felt a little quick and uneasy. It made him sound suspicious after a while.

On pages 4 and 5 Meursault is talking to the director talking about the care of his mother. They begin talking about how his mother did not visit him as much, and I think this is what makes Muersault's response more suspicious.

" I thought he was critcizing me for something and I started to explain. But he cut me off. 'You don't have to explain anythin

Skin Disease

Both the old man who lives near monsieur Meursault and the old man's dog are described as having skin disease. These red scabs and mangy fur/hair are one of the first attributes the audience is introduced to. Why are the two characters introduced that way? Is it a foreshadowing? A metaphor? What do you think?

Stranger Than Fiction

"Raymond told me he didn't think he could write the kind 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." - page 32, The Stranger

In the early chapters of The Stranger, the only thing more bizarre than the world of main character Meursault is the nonchalance with which he inhabits it. From his seeming indifference to his mother's recent death (he can't remember what day she died) to his lack of concern about the violent stories his neighbor Raymond tells him, it is somewhat disconcerting to read about this world through Meursault's eyes. In the scenario from the quote above, Raymond enlists Meursault to write a letter punishing Raymond's ex-girlfriend, "one with a punch and also some things in it to make her sorry for what she's done." Meursault, seemingly unconcerned with the implications of such a letter, obliges. What explains his lackadaisical attitude in the face of the absurd? Has something happened to him to make him this way?

My Mother the Stranger

A reader’s first impression in a piece of literature is always an integral moment of the reading experience, and Albert Camus’ The Stranger is no exception.

Without a doubt, the first impression Camus’ work is a disorienting one to say the least. Set in Algiers, the novel opens on the focus character Meursault and the inner dialogue he has with himself regarding the recent death of his mother. This stream-of-consciousness style of writing is one that takes some time to get acclimated to, and easily leads to some of the stranger moments in the first three chapters.

The strangest thing we learn through Meursault’s train of thought is his apparent indifference towards the death of his mother. As the story progresses, it is revealed that not only did Meursault’s mother die around the relatively low age of 60, but also that Meursault isn’t even sure of his own mother’s age. From the discontempt for his mother’s closest friend to the diffidence he feels during the memorial service, it is clear that Meursault’s mother may very well be a stranger to him.

Stranger Things

He couldn’t have been happy about that. But, in the first place, it isn’t my fault if they buried Mman yesterday instead of today, and second, I would have had Saturday and Sunday off anyway. Obviously that still doesn’t keep me from understanding my boss’s point of view (19).

Over the course of the first few chapters of the stranger, Albert Camus describe the many conflicts Monsieur Meursault faces. His boss is not happy that he will be getting two days off of work, which turns into a four days off. These four days he is “off” will be spent at the funeral of his own mother. This is not a vacation but a time of sorrow. The time he gets off should be given to him no questions asked, and with no problems. This was not the case in Monsieur Meursault’s situation. In his situation, he also feels bad after needing to take the time off. He may feel this way because he is disconnected from his mother, but there is no reason to feel like he shouldn’t get time off. He is concerned with how his boss feels, but should be focusing on his grief and mother’s funeral.

The Stranger: Marie and Meursault

In the novel The Stranger, the character Arthur Meursault opens the novel appearing detached. His rather unconcerned attitude towards his mothers death sets the scene for how detached he comes off as. When Marie Cardona is introduced into the novel the reader isn't, even for a second, receiving the impression that Marie is anything more than a development on Meursault's detached mindset. Despite this Albert Campus spends an extended amount of time on Meursault's interaction with Marie (in comparison to the rest of the chapter). His mothers death was the center of the first chapter, as well as an important introduction to the life of Meursault. But Meursault's interaction with Marie is not the main point of the chapter and yet great detail was put into their night together. A rather pointless addition to the store leaves questions as to what further role Marie Cardona will play in the rest of the novel.  

Thomas Perez

The Stranger had a bit of a weird beginning. A couple things left me in wonder and thought but what really stuck out to me was how no one helped Maman's old friend, Thomas Perez. I found it odd how no one decided to help him when they were walking to the church in town.

The narrator exclaims how far behind Perez got because of his limp and how he had to cut across fields to catch up with them. "I turned around and saw Perez about fifty meters behind us. He was going as fast as he could, swinging his felt hat at the end of his arm". Then later on he says how he can't even see Perez anymore. "Perez seemed to be way back there, fading in the shimmering heat. Then I lost sight of him altogether. I looked and saw that he;d left the road and cut out across the fields". If you saw him limping and cutting across field's to even catch up with you why would you not help him? Everyone acted like nothing was wrong, like this was a normal occurrence. Perez could have died or been seriously injured from that walk and no one seemed to really show any concern towards it. Were wheelchairs invented when this book was written?

A Strange Thing Found In "The Stranger"

For me, "The Stranger" consisted of many unusual situations. It may of been the characters affects, or just the general vibe of the story, but it all seemed somewhat off. I think what stuck me the most, however, was Meurasult's boss. At the start of the first chapter Campus states that the boss "wasn't too happy" about Meurasult taking two days off for work. Why this seems so strange to me is that his mother had just passed and the boss showed no sympathy at all. Normally, one would comfort someone who just lost their mother, but that was not the case.

Additionally, Meurasult's boss displays a strange affect at the start of chapter three. When Mearasult returns to work, his boss asked about his mother. When he responded telling the boss she was sixty he "seemed to be relieved somehow and considered the matter closed." It is uncanny to me why the boss would be so dismissive about the situation after he found out she was sixty. In my eyes, sixty is a young age, so there was no reason for him to treat Meurasult that way.

I wonder if these strange trends will continue as the book progresses....

Marie and Mersault

If I had to pick the one strangest thing from the text, I would say it was the interaction between the woman Marie and Mersault. The interaction in itself I guess wasn't too bizarre but I found the placement in the story when it seems relatively unimportant. But then again, it doesn't really seem to coherent at all through the first three chapters.

He had a connection with her in the past, and then they met again after his mother's funeral. Personally, I don't know if I'd be up for a connection with an old acquaintance after mourning my own mother, and I guess that added to the oddity of the whole situation. It was also quite an abrupt transition from waking up, thinking about his boss, and then directly into his interaction with Marie. And then again, an abrupt transition out of it. It seems like it almost wasn't worth putting in the story at all because it's sort of irrelevant. But, then again, a lot of the first three chapters doesn't really seem to fit together to make any logical story besides the uninteresting life a middle aged Frenchman living in Algeria.

Raymond and Meursault: Friendship of Foils

In my opinion, Meursault's oddest choice in the first half of the first part of Albert Camus's The Stranger was to befriend Raymond Sintès and assist him in his domestic issues. Despite both Meursault and Sintès being social pariahs, they are fundamentally distinct from each other, which Camus emphasizes through effective character development and light-handed symbolism.

From first glance, Raymond and Meursault contrast in more ways than one. While Meursault is a chronic pacifist and tends to avoid confrontation, as shown by his reluctance to confront his boss about his mother's funeral, Raymond is shown to be arrogant and spontaneous in his actions, such as when he punched the man at the train station for insulting his manliness. While both men appear to both have no sense of sympathy, Meursault's lack of sympathy seems to stem more from apathy such as an inability to connect with his dead mother, while Raymond's draws parallel to hubris, shown in his treatment of his girlfriend. This juxtaposition is equally present in many of the minor character traits of the two, with Raymond described as being rough and boxer-like and Meursault being portrayed as a lowly businessman with few edges. Such distinctions can also be drawn from the foods they enjoy, with Meursault drinking coffee with cream, which can be extended to state that Meursault dulls his own senses of emotion to the point of making himself characteristically bland. Likewise, Raymond is shown to have a fondness for blood sausage and (presumably red) wine, which are known to have exceeding strong flavors, that reflects his brash, strongman-like attitude.

Altogether, Meursault's decision to befriend Raymond was one of his oddest choices so far, but has the potential to become one of his greatest assets. Being perfect foils to each other, Raymond and Meursault can learn from each other and develop into more well rounded people.

Sintès' Ghost Writer?

"...Raymond told me he didn't think he could write the kind of letter it would take and that he'd thought of asking me to write it for him..." (pg 32)

Even the first few chapters of The Stranger are full of moments that make the novel aptly named. One such moment is when protagonist Meursault agrees to write a letter for Raymond Sintès to give to his ex-girl to make her "sorry for what she's done."

First of all, the absurdity of the moment came largely from just Sintès' twisted plan on how to enact his revenge on her. He details how he'll seduce her and then spit in her face in bed. Of course, this is absolutely grotesque, but I think the fact that Meursault agrees to write this letter is even stranger.

Meursault, at the very end of the chapter, notes that Raymond has started calling him a "pal" in lieu of the formal Monsieur. All I could think once I read this was that the pair were not so-called "pals" before! Yet, Raymond trusted him to write this letter and Meursault believed that he could do a fine job. 

Why does Sintès trust him with this? They don't have much of a relationship previous to this, so how does he know that Meursault will accurately portray his intent from the get-go? Or does he simply not care about the woman enough to be bothered with such?

Furthermore, this must, in some way, speak about Meursault's character as well. So far, I cannot figure out whether he is mourning his mother, is a seasoned nihilist, or if he simply has a weak moral backbone.

These two choices as main characters of a novel have definitely intrigued me! I look forward to seeing more development of the pair!

Meursault and His Mother

Albert Camus's The Stranger lives up to its title. The story in the first three chapters is odd, and some parts will make you stop for a minute and say "what?!" This was the reaction that I experienced when Meursault admits to himself that he doesn't know his mother's true age. During the funeral procession, Perez asks him, '"Was she old?' I answered, 'Fairly,' because I didn't know the exact number" (16).

In the beginning of the story, it is clear that Meursault is not very close with his mother, as he does not express any emotion concerning his mother's death. Details later on reveal that Meursault used to live with his mother, but had to put her in a nursing home in order to efficiently provide for himself. After their separation, he did not put in any effort in order to see his mother. Meursault's actions surrounding his mother and her death give the reader a sense of his odd personality, but at the same time it leaves the reader with questions. Maybe Meursault has an odd, estranged relationship with his mom, or maybe he cares about his mother so much that he is trying to block out any emotion in order to protect himself.

Disconnected Grief

Albert Camus's book, The Stranger starts off in a very peculiar way. The first few lines, "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know"  describe the narrator's reaction to the loss of his mother. Instead of displaying sadness or signs of grieving, his thoughts seem very careless and uncertain. Opening a novel with this unusual reaction to death really sets the mood for the reader. It gives us the idea that he is very disconnected from society, particularly his family.

In the next few paragraphs, he seems to do all that he can to avoid communication with those around him. He gives one word responses to questions and takes in the pity that people have for him without much acknowledgement.

Then, the story shifts when it says, "The home is two kilometers from the village. I walked hem. I wanted to see Maman right away." While given the assumption that he was not close to his mother in the beginning of the story, it is shown here that the narrator may not know how to grieve with such a loss. It is very common for people to shut down when they experience excessive sadness because it is far too hard to come to terms with the truth.

A Day After Maman's Funeral

"I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies that evening. She laughed again and told me there was a Fernandel Movie She'd like to see. Once we were dressed, she seemed very surprised to see I was wearing a black tie and shed asked me if I was in mourning. I told her Maman had died. She wanted to know how long ago, so I said, ¨Yesterday.¨ She gave me a little start but didn't say anything. I felt like telling her it wasn't my fault, but I stopped myself because I remembered that I already said that to my boss.¨

When reading "The Stranger", I found this quote very strange and interesting. Strange because the day before Meursault mother died and the next day hes making plans to see a movie with a girl and interesting because at the end of this quote he say "I felt like telling her it wasn't my fault".

In the beginning of the book, Meursault mom dies and the noble thing to do is, like any son would do, mourn for his lost but not Meursault, instead its another thing that has to get done. It seems strange how Meursault reacts to his mother death and it makes me wonder the relationship they had before. The parent and child bond is so strong but in this scenario that relationship doesn't matter. I felt like after the whole trip and funeral in chapter one there was not real closure for the audience or Meursault. Albert Camus starting out something so emotionally strong to end in one chapter leaving Meursault unaffected seems again strange. Maybe the reason why he doesn't feel anything of his mom's death is because he had closure before she died and now thinks of her as just another person. Also when he says "it wasn't my fault", of course it wasn't his fault but this leaves me thinking maybe he has done something that he is not proud of relating with maman and unconsciously he is guilty for doing it. Maybe. There is a lot to think about in this book. The next day after his mother's death he ask Marie to go to the movies. The next day. Of course the movies seems appropriate a day after the funeral (sarcasm). This just proves how distant he is from his mother and how unaffected he is by her death. This upsets me but its just a book. 

Its Always Been This Strange

"She said, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.” She was right. There was no way out," (pg. 17). 

I completely understand this quote and where its coming from. Its definitely something to talk about when you are trying to look nice at any event. Who would want to be very uncomfortable when already dressed uncomfortably. From my experiences dressing nice may look nice but is not always the most cozy thing to wear. The nurse's words describe the problems the weather causes. Its as if escaping the heat is impossible. But as you look closely at what the nurse meant by "There was no way out" it may reflect on how man is brought into this word and can only escape by death. Just like the sun, death is unavoidable and that is the reality that the nurse is trying to emphasize here. A lonely nurse explains her thoughts to Meursault. Sad but true. You may be stuck working up a sweat or having a sunstroke in a church. But whats next is up to you. 

Something Strange in "The Stranger"

"'The undertaker's men arrived a few minutes ago. I'm going to ask them to seal the casket. Before I do, would you like to see your mother one last time?' I said no. He gave the order into the telephone, lowering his voice: 'Figeac, tell the men they can go ahead,'" (page 13).

I found this conversation very odd because I know if my mom or dad had died I would want to see them one last time before they were buried. I think when someone close to you dies, you need closure. For me closure is just seeing the body, knowing for sure that they are gone. It's strange how Meursault does not want to see his mother one last time. I also found it very strange when the director lowers his voice when telling Figeac he can seal the coffin. It's not like it's a secret that the coffin would be sealed so why would he lower his voice. I think that he lowered his voice because he either did it out of respect for Meursault or something fishy is going on.

Underworld Friends should be a Dealbreaker

The trend that I found the strangest in the first half of Part 1 of The Stranger was Monsieur Meursault's lack of any sort of strong feelings to events that evoked powerful emotions for the reader. This character trait is best exemplified by Monsieur Meursault's dinner with his neighbor Raymond Sintes. Sintes vividly describes his plot to "punish" his mistress for cheating on him, including conversations he had with his "underworld friends" (31). Sintes finally decides to write a letter, with the help of his new pal Monsieur Meursault, to seduce her, and then throw her out "at the last minute" (32). To a normal person, and I assume I fall under this category, being witness to the birth of this barbaric revenge plot would be reason enough for me to do more than calmly drink wine and apathetically agree to a friendship.

This indifference towards the suffering of Sinte's mistress could be a coping mechanism for Monsieur Meursault, as he had just attended his mother's funeral, but I do not think that is the case. Monsieur Meursault did not know the age of his mother, nor the exact day she died, and he did not seem overly upset by the whole funeral process. 

Overall, our protagonist's apparent disconnect from the world around him gave the otherwise straightforward plot of chapters 1-3 an unshakable "there is something wrong here" feeling. The introduction of Sintes right at the end of chapter three enhances this tone by depicting Monsieur Meursault as complicit to  the destructive plot of one of his disturbing neighbors without showing any emotion.