Anglais: étude du roman l'étranger d'Albert Camus

The Stranger is a novel written by Albert Camus and published in 1942.

Albert Camus was a famous French author of the 20 century. He is born in French Algeria. His famous works are for example The Plague (la Peste) and The Fall (la Chute).

In this book there are three main characters;

Meursault, almost all the plot is around him. He is the main character of the novel. This man is an office worker in Alger. He is gloomy.

The second main character is Raymond. He is the neighbour of Meursault in Alger. He will become Meursault’s friends. He brings Meursault into conflict with the Arabs.

The last main character is Marie. She works at the same place as Meursault. She fall in love with him and wants to get married with him. She represents the enjoyable life.

As the title suggests, this book speaks about a man who is utterly strange in his life. He is impassive in front of the sting of events. The book is dividing in two parts.

The book opens with the arrival of a telegram. It’s the old people’s home of Meursault’s mother. They announce that his mother is dead. He went to her funeral in a little village. At the funeral he doesn’t cry and seems not sad. When he comes back in the capital city of Algeria, he met a girl called Marie, at the harbour. He spends the night with her and the following day he was idle. He met Raymond the same day. Raymond explains him the story with an Arabs: I cut the story short: Raymond was with a girl, but he cheated on her, also the brother of Raymond’s mistress was upset and they fight. Raymond proposes to Meursault and Marie goes to the small beach house of a friend of him. They swim, eat and drink. The men walk on the beach and see two Arabs, including the brother of the mistress of Raymond. Meursault shoot the Arabs.

The second part appeals to intrigues. Meursault is arrested. He goes to jail. During his trial, he doesn’t show anything. He seems not angry, not sad. He is condemned to death. The last day of his life a chaplain wants talk with him. Meursault doesn’t want. He hopes one thing: that there is crowd including his friends at his execution.

It’s unfortunate that Meursault doesn’t wake up during his trial. I don’t know if it’s plausible that a man, who lost his mother, kill a man and be condemned to death can be so indifferent. At ending the story lacks of happiness. But the book is redeemed by Meursault’s hope at ending. We can see that he is not so indifferent that he wants to show.

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