In my fourth year of high school French our teacher felt that we were finally ready to read a book en français. She selected for us The Stranger (L'Étranger) by Albert Camus. I'm guessing she selected it because it is a relatively short book, 132 pages, and Camus' writing style is fairly straight forward and direct. What I don't think she took into consideration is how absurd the story, so absurd that I'm fairly sure that none of us American teenagers were prepared for it. Because of the oddness of the story, however, it really stuck with me all these years. But, because I read it in French, I've always wondered what I missed. Even at the time of the first reading I knew I was missing a lot.
Therefore, in May when our local art house theater was showing "The Stranger", I lobbied my husband to take me to see it. It was also en français but this time there were English subtitles to aid understanding. When I left the theater I wondered what the movie left out and I started making a plan to reread the book. Now that I had reread The Stranger I know that the movie was very true to the original, leaving out almost nothing. And the absurd nature of the story was very much front and center.
I do remember our French teacher telling us the story was written by an existentialist, Albert Camus, and her attempt at explaining this philosphy.
Existentialism was developed significantly in the 20th century by thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, the movement rejects the idea of a predetermined nature or "essence," arguing instead that "existence precedes essence". Rather than relying on religion, tradition, or societal expectations, an individual creates their own identity and moral code (Existentialism Crash Course YouTube)
Camus actually didn't like being called an existentialist, he preferred the term absurdist. Indeed the two are clearly related. We might think of absurdity as something silly or inane but for existentialists, absurdity is related to trying to find answers in an answerless world. In other words, we live in a meaningless world but we want our life to have meaning. That is the ultimate example of absurdity.
This philosophy became most prominent around the time of World War II based on the senselessness of the Holocaust. Ironically, Camus wrote The Stranger during this period and the Nazis, who were occupying France at the time, saw nothing wrong with the book and allowed it to be published. That in itself is proof of the absurdity of life.
The Stranger centers on the story of a shipping clerk, Meursault, living in Algiers. It begins with a telegram that his mother has died. Meursault travels to attend her viewing and funeral. While there he doesn't demonstrate any sorrow for others to observe. In the next few weeks after returning from the funeral Meursault goes on with his life which includes going to the beach, starting a new relationship, and seeing a movie. He also gets entangled in a beef between his neighbor and some Arabs, siding with the neighbor. Later that same neighbor and Meursault go to the beach where they encounter the Arabs and Meursault ends up killing one of the men. Aside for the hot weather and the bright sun, there is no explanation for this killing.
At the murder trial the prosecutor is more interested in Meursault's lack of emotion at his mother's funeral and his ability to go on with normal life afterwards than in the details of the crime. The jury condemns to death not for the crime but for his character. Absurd!
As I said before The Stranger is written in a very straight forward, unadorned style. One might even think of it as boring. But the author intended for the writing style to give an idea what it is like in Meursault's head. He sees the world as a series of monotonous, unexciting events. Through the text, we do, too. I couldn't help wondering if Meursault was an example of a person living with Asperger's syndrome. He certainly reminded me of past students who were identified as being somewhere on the autism scale. The most notable thing about them was their flat affect. That is how I would describe Meursault, a man with a flat affect. The world wanted him to be sad about his mother's death but he didn't live in a world of feelings, he lived in a world of sensations. For that difference he was condemned.
The book is very well done and easy to read. My rating 4 stars.
-Anne
