Narrative

Psychological self-examinations are a staple in French first-person narratives, but Camus’s The Stranger introduced a novel approach to psychological depth at the time of its publication. Rather than allowing the protagonist to present a static psychological profile, the narrative leaves it to the reader to interpret the protagonist's actions and behaviors. Camus believed that “psychology is action, not thinking about oneself.” The protagonist, in addition to not explaining everything to the reader, also refuses to justify himself to other characters. He shares only his thoughts and perceptions without adding commentary. By narrating the story through such an indifferent character, the reader is drawn into Meursault’s viewpoint, experiencing the absurdity of the events firsthand. Other characters, who lack the complete insight that readers have into Meursault's story, cling to their own perceptions of him. They are quick to pass judgment during his trial, ultimately condemning him as a remorseless killer.

Structure and Language

Camus’s narrative style was immediately recognized as highly innovative. His language, often compared to the American “Hemingway style,” was seen as perfectly suited to his narrative aims and not merely imitative. Camus employs direct speech with minimal description, a choice that aligns with his narrative technique. This style keeps the reader focused on the characters’ reactions and behaviors as conveyed through Meursault.

Camus also structured the story around the central event of the murder. Part 1 begins with Maman’s death and concludes with the murder of the Arab. In Part 2, Meursault is in prison, eventually awaiting his execution. This division underscores Meursault's significance in the story's universe. The semblance of normality is disrupted throughout the first part and dissolves into chaos after the murder. The second part illustrates the intervention of law to restore meaning and order through Meursault’s death. Thus, the structure and language are intricately connected to the overarching theme of absurdity.

Setting

The environment plays a crucial role for Meursault. He frequently describes the heat of rooms, the impact of the sun on him, and various other conditions of his surroundings. The narrative is primarily set in the city of Algiers and on the beach. It is perpetually daytime, with the sun always shining. Interestingly, in the world of The Stranger, night and darkness are absent, except as mental states. Events transpire overnight, but no significant plot developments occur in the dark. The only moment when darkness seems imminent is at the start of the vigil, but the caretaker dispels it with electric light. Overnight occurrences include private moments with Marie (presumably) and the reading of the verdict at eight o’clock in the evening. However, the main events of the novel unfold during the day, with long days that blend into each other. These temporal details underscore Meursault's absurdity; nothing holds meaning except the immediate physical state within the environment.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a technique used to hint at future events, often creating a sense of foreboding. A troubling moment for both Meursault and the unsuspecting reader happens while Meursault is sitting near Maman’s coffin. “It was then that I realized they were all sitting across from me, nodding their heads, grouped around the caretaker. For a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me.” Later, in part 2, the state prosecution focuses precisely on his behavior at this funeral. The way Meursault honors his mother becomes central to his guilt. In essence, the judgment he felt from those across from him at the funeral vigil foreshadowed the solitary condemnation he would face at the trial.

*Algiers

Algiers is the coastal capital of Algeria, a country in North Africa. Although not specifically described, Algiers serves as a general backdrop not only to the main action but above all to Meursault’s struggle with the collective forces of nature arrayed against him.

Beach

Raymond, Meursault’s friend, has a bungalow on a beach outside Algiers. When the sun beats down on Meursault, the reflecting light gouges into his eyes, the lazy sea waves turn him lethargic, the fiery beach presses him forward, and the cloudless sky pours a sheet of flame on him. Under this onslaught, he has no other choice but to react in self-defense, first, by erasing the source of the attack (the Arab man and his shining knife) and then by firing four additional shots for the four elements of nature.

Prison

Meursault awaits his execution in a tiny prison cell. Only a confined space can allow him to concentrate on the essential and to think philosophical thoughts, unmolested by outside distractions and pointless discussions. After his final metaphysical revolt he is ultimately at peace, as evidenced by the stars shining on his face like a celestial projector, instead of the relentless and punishing sun, and by the heat now being replaced by the refreshingly cool night breeze on his cheeks. This Meursault calls “the benign indifference of the universe.”

*Marengo

Marengo is a retirement home and cemetery located some fifty miles west of Algiers. Before and during his mother’s funeral Meursault shows a strange callousness and lack of sorrow about her death. The unbearable heat and the blinding glare of the sun further aggravate this insensitivity, as he matter-of-factly attends the ceremony. Apparently unmoved by the occasion, he also observes the arid landscape around him, noting the green cypresses, the red soil, the humming insects, the rustling grass, and the various smells.

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is part of the harbor complex. Rather than mourn over his mother’s death, Meursault spends the next day with a female former coworker at the pool. The two then go to a movie theater to see a comedy and lastly to his apartment, where they spend the night together.

Detention Center

This is the jail in which Meursault is held before his trial. He and his court-appointed lawyer discuss his defense, which, given his general apathy, does not look promising. Progressively, as he understands the purpose of his imprisonment, he adapts to his new environment by killing time and by sleeping.

Courtroom

This is the room in which Meursault’s trial takes place. Again, the heat is stifling, increased by the hour of the day and the large crowd of spectators and reporters. Again he responds and reacts in an all-too-aloof and unconcerned manner. This is why he is considered a “stranger,” quickly found guilty, and sentenced to death.

Examining Magistrate’s Office

The first time Meursault is formally interrogated, the nondescript, ordinary room is so hot, with flies buzzing around, that he nods to any statement, from accepting Christ as his personal savior to being vexed over having shot a man.

Algeria

After the Napoleonic era, France resumed its policy of imperialist expansion by invading Algeria in 1830. The French quickly took control of Algiers and several coastal areas, but it wasn't until 1857 that they subdued the entire region. France sent settlers to colonize Algeria, but even by 1940, French settlers were outnumbered nine to one by the local population. During World War II, many Algerians sided with Germany, which had occupied France. However, they were not strongly opposed to the Americans, and when General Eisenhower landed in November 1942, he encountered minimal resistance. This invasion prevented Camus from leaving France to join his wife in Algeria until France was liberated in 1944. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Algerian independence movement grew stronger due to interactions with British and American soldiers.

After the war, the independence movement continued to gain momentum but was met with violent suppression by French forces. The conflict intensified when the National Liberation Front (FLN) drafted a new constitution in 1947. Unable to fulfill the promises of the new constitution, the FLN initiated a war of independence against France in 1954. By 1962, Charles de Gaulle agreed to grant Algeria its independence.

World War II

By 1942, World War II was in full swing, with America declaring war on Japan and Germany following the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the outlook for the Allies was grim. France had fallen to the Germans, and British forces were pushed back to India by the Japanese. On the Russian front, the Germans appeared close to capturing Stalingrad, launching a brutal siege in February. Despite these setbacks, there was still hope as both the British and Russians refused to surrender. Geography favored the Russians, and the Royal Air Force's superiority made the siege of Britain perilous for the Germans.

As summer progressed, the Allies began to gain ground against the Axis Powers. American efforts were increasingly successful in supplying the Allies through their base in Iceland. Significant progress was made in June when the American Navy defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Midway. This decisive victory halted Japanese expansion in the Pacific and severely weakened their naval capabilities. In November, Eisenhower led a joint British-American force in a landing in Algeria. Meanwhile, in Russia, the Germans failed to secure victory as the Russian army steadfastly resisted. By the year's end, Russia had lost 750,000 soldiers, but the Germans also suffered heavy losses, with only eighty thousand men surviving through cannibalism and surrendering by February 1943. Gradually, the tide began to turn against the Germans.

The Stranger is arguably the most unique of Camus’s works. Rather than a traditional novel, it is presented as a narrative, embodying the essence of the “new novel” that 1960s writers, inspired by Camus, would later explore. Essentially, the story is a fragmentary tale, leaving many elements to the reader’s imagination. This fragmentation highlights the incoherence of the absurd world. The language and style choices reflect Meursault’s indifference and apathy. Instead of the passe simple, the conventional past tense used in literature, the author opts for the passe compose, or conversational past. Camus frequently uses indirect speech, emphasizing the disconnect between events and Meursault’s thoughts.

The novel is split into two parts with a parallel structure. Critics often regard the first part as superior and more innovative. Here, Meursault elaborates on the disconnect between the world and himself. The second part, which focuses on his trial, is richer in irony and lyricism, with a notable emphasis on solar imagery and poetic elements. Despite this, in both sections, Camus demonstrates his narrative prowess and lyrical talent.

The Stranger was the first significant novel to come out of French Algeria. The Arab presence is crucial in the narrative, highlighting themes of kinship, rivalry, and bloodshed. The act of violence, where Meursault murders an Arab man, underscores the tension in Arab-European relations. However, the Arabs were not inherently adversaries to the French; the murdered man represents his people as a symbol of silence and reflection. Meursault's senseless act of killing demonstrates that murder is not a solution to the Arab-European conflict, which would later escalate into warfare in the 1950s—a conflict where Camus opposed the push for native independence.

Camus also explores the theme of justice during Meursault's trial. In reality, it is a mockery of justice, as he is judged not for the act of murder but for his indifferent reaction at his mother’s funeral. Throughout the trial, Meursault is stripped of his identity, never given a real chance to speak, with his lawyer speaking on his behalf using the first person. Meursault symbolizes an individual persecuted by society for rejecting its deceit and hypocrisy. He refuses to partake in its artificial norms and will not play along with its charades. Ultimately, he is convicted on a technicality, illustrating that the trial is nothing more than an empty formality.

Camus is frequently compared to Pascal in terms of existential questioning and despair, despite Pascal's staunch belief in immortality. Among his 19th-century forerunners are the skeptical Vigny and Stendhal. Stendhal's The Red and the Black (Le Rouge et le noir, 1830) features both a mistrial and a condemnation based on technicalities. Victor Hugo’s The Last Day of a Man Condemned to Death (Le Dernier jour d’un condamné, 1829) similarly delves into the thoughts of a man in prison. Meursault’s crime bears resemblance to the one in Samuel T. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).

Germaine Bree identifies echoes of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Dmitri Karamazov in Meursault, noting that “his real crime was not the one he is tried for, but one which will lead him to a new level of awareness” (The Brothers Karamazov [Bratya Karamazov], 1879–1880). Lastly, the use of short, disjointed sentences throughout the narrative is highly reminiscent of Hemingway, who significantly influenced many mid-20th-century French writers.

The only one of Camus’s novels adapted for the cinema is The Stranger, produced by Paramount in 1967 and directed by Luchino Visconti. Emmanuel Robles, a friend of Camus, contributed to the screenplay, which remained quite faithful to Camus’s original text.

There is also a short film titled Albert Camus: A Self-Portrait, produced by Fred Orjain. This film features Camus discussing theater and includes some scenes of Algeria. Additionally, several sound recordings exist of Camus’s voice, where he reads excerpts from The Fall (1956), The Plague (1947), and The Stranger.

The 1950 film Panic in the Streets, directed by Elia Kazan, although not directly inspired by Camus, explores the same theme of a plague as in Camus’s The Plague.

Only one adaptation of Camus's novel has been made for the screen. Directed by Luchino Visconti, L’Etranger was produced by Paramount Pictures in 1967. Although the film did not successfully convey Camus's unique style, Marcello Mastroianni's portrayal of Arthur Meursault is outstanding. Additionally, Anna Karina provides a commendable performance as Marie Cardona.

Sources

Donald Lazere, The Unique Creation of Albert Camus, Yale University Press, 1973.

Henri Peyre, “Camus the Pagan,” in Yale French Studies, Vol. 25, 1960, pp. 65-70.

Richard Plant, “Benign Indifference,” in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. 29, No. 20, May 18, 1946, p. 10.

Jean-Paul Sartre, “An Explication of The Stranger,” in Camus: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Germaine Bree, Prentice-Hall, 1962, pp. 108-21.

Philip Thody, “Camus’s L’Etranger Revisited,” in Critical Quarterly, Vol. 2, Summer, 1979, pp. 61-69.

Colin Wilson, The Outsider, Houghton Mifflin, 1956.

For Further Study

Robert J. Champigny, A Pagan Hero: An Interpretation of Meursault in Camus’s The Stranger, translated by Rowe Portis, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1969. Champigny examines Meursault through multiple readings, portraying him as innocent but with traits that lead to his culpability. He also asserts that Meursault’s response to his guilt elevates him to a heroic status.

Raymond Gay-Crosier, “Albert Camus,” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 72: French Novelists, 1930-1960, edited by Catherine Savage, Gale Research, 1988, pp. 110-35. This article provides a comprehensive overview of Albert Camus’s life and literary contributions.

Adele King, Notes on L’Etranger: The Stranger or The Outsider, Longman York Press, 1980. King offers an introduction to the novel, detailed chapter summaries, and concise critical commentary on key aspects such as theme, historical context, structure, and style. An invaluable resource.

Patrick McCarthy, Camus: A Critical Study of his Life and Work, Hamish Hamilton, 1982. This book-length study delves into Camus’s life and works, situating them within the historical backdrop of war and conflict.

Norman Podhoretz, “The New Nihilism and the Novel” in his Doings and Undoings, Farrar, Straus, 1964, pp. 159-78. Podhoretz argues that Camus was the first to recognize the shift in twentieth-century fiction heroes from rebels to strangers, highlighting the significance of new nihilism in literature.

Jan Rigaud, “Depictions of Arabs in L’Etranger,” in Camus’s L’Etranger: Fifty Years On, edited by Adele King, Macmillan, 1992. This essay is part of a collection exploring various aspects of the novel, including literary influence, textual analysis, and comparative studies. Rigaud’s piece specifically focuses on the often-overlooked portrayal of Arabs in The Stranger.

English Showalter Jr., The Stranger: Humanity and the Absurd, Twayne, 1989. This accessible introduction to the novel provides historical context, discusses its significance, and offers an overview of its critical reception. The latter half of the study presents a detailed analysis of the text.