The Stranger

Rating:
Summary: A middle school reader
Review: This book opend my eyes to other peoples ways of showing emotions and their troubles in life. The main character is a Arab named Monisuer Mersault. He does not show his emtions with his face or actions he keeps them inside. At the begging his maman dies. Later as the book evolves he finds a girlfriend and on a weekend trip with her he murders another Arab. He had been getting in with the wrong group of people. When he murderd the person he was feeling threatend by a group of Arabs with knifes. Mersault felt like it was the only thing he could do to save his life. While on jail trial they used the fact that he does not feel emtions and did not mourn at his mothers funeral against him. He was proven guilty and to find out his punishment you have to read the book!

Rating:
Summary: perfect freedom
Review: "The stranger(L'etranger)" is a story of someone

named, "Meursault", but at the same time of ourselves. I first

felt him strange, then gradually familiar with myself. This is

perhaps because he is not a real "stranger."

When Meursault's mother dies, his reactions are not what

other people expect from him, such as mourning or at least

weeping in front of the dead. However, he is too tired to

satisfy those expectations and smokes a cigarette,instead.

After that he meets his girlfriend, has sex with her, goes to

the beach and kills a guy due to the burning sun who is trying

to attack his companion. That's all. There isn't any evil

intention or hostile motive in his attitude.

From my point of view, the most remarkable part of this book

is when Meursault looks at the sky and the moon through the

small hole in ceiling of the prison. According to him, he feels

the repletion full of happiness that he could never have

before, recollecting all the memories from the past. For the

short moment, he is freed from everything and everyone and

becomes the perfect sole. I would call this, the "Perfect

freedom."

A man made up of apathy,indifference, and selfishness is

Meursault. He is not interested in anything related to others

and doesn't try to turn their attention to him. That's why I

cannot hate him but synpathise with him. He is not a cruel

murderer,undutiful son,unfaithful lover or liar. All we need to

know about him while reading this book is to understand him as

the way he is. And then look at ourselves. There is not much

difference between him and us. He is our reflection and

representative of what we cannot easily express ouside. I would

rather be a "Meursault" than the judge or the jury. The

word, "Stranger" leads to the feeling of some rejection. People

usually call something strange if it is different or unfamiliar

with them. However, from the person's point of view they all

are the "Strangers."

Rating:
Summary: The Stranger
Review: The Stranger is one of the best reading experiences I have ever had. This is the first book I have read by Albert Camus, and in fact I am not even aware of any of his other works. However this book was enough for me to realize that he is truly a gifted writer. The way he developed his characters really intrigued me. I found that I was almost able to feel what Meursault was feeling, his frustrations, and his happy moments. Camus did all this without rambling on and on with too many adjectives and other modifying phrases that just makes a story seem muddled. I was also happy to see that he kept the entire novel relatively on the short side, making it enjoyable for someone, like myself, who just does not have the time to dedicate to reading a long drawn out book. It's hard when a person can only find time every couple days to read and I think we should all thank Mr. Camus for writing a book that even with that little amount of time we have to read, we are able to enjoy it to its fullest.

The way Camus develops this story makes it that much more interesting. Meursault, who has sort of the "anti-hero" role, manages to get himself entangled with the wrong group of people, and for no apparent reason, he senselessly kills a man. Meursault is then imprisoned on murder charges and after a while is brought before a jury for a rather absurd trial. The proceedings are mostly nonsense, and are based upon technicalities and other worthless information, rather than the facts of the crime. The end to the trial and the jury's sentence, which I will let you read for yourself, just further shows the absurdness of the entire trial.

Toward the end of the story it becomes even more apparent how Meursault has become the "stranger" to society through his complete disassociation with the rest of the world. Yes, he seems to show some emotion, but when it comes to anything deep, he shows none. His girlfriend wanted to know if he still, or if he ever loved her. The only thing that he can seem to come up with is, well maybe. Maybe I never did. He also showed little or no emotion for the death of his mother, finding peace in a few comedies, instead of showing signs of depression, anger, frustration, or even shedding tears. These emotional and psychological issues show to me that there was obviously something deeply wrong with Meursault and that neither he nor anyone else was going to do anything about it. Meursault is one of the best-developed characters that I have ever read about. In fact it made me wonder if there was not someone in Mr. Camus's family that possibly had similar psychological issues to Meursault, and if so than that would explain how Camus was able to develop this character so well. If there was no one that he knew first hand, than Camus deserves even more credit for developing a character was such great depth.

I would have to say that some people may not find this book that interesting to them, some parts are a bit ambiguous, but if you think about those parts you find them clear enough to get through. The characters, as I have said before, are described and developed so well that you will feel like you are one of them, along with what I felt was a fairly interesting story line. Even if you don't like the book you should be at least able to appreciate how well written this novel is.

Rating:
Summary: The Stranger: A thought provoking yet depressive novel
Review: The Stranger (or the Outsider depending on translation) is a novel that will make you question your life, how you live it and the reason for it. Although written in the 1940's its content is still totally relevant today and allows the reader a bitter- sweet read through Camus' use of simple yet decadent language.
The main protagonist Meursault lives his life by the sun, but circumstances push him closer to the death that he has spent all of his life living for. The novel is entirely ambiguous but this is what makes it such a fascinating read as each reader interprets the text differently to satisfy their own personal self. Camus leaves us questioning all aspects of life including mortality, nature, religion, society, love and hate with all of these themes combining to make The Stranger a thought provoking yet depressive novel that must be read.

Rating:
Summary: Odd Fellow
Review: "The Stranger" makes for an excellent title ... the character is very unhuman, (but at the same time oddly human), and very detatched from the world around him. In a way, his lack of emotions and unresponsiveness to his enviroment makes him seem unhuman ... people are walking and living all around him, and he doesn't seem to be one of them. On the other hand, he does have human atributes, making him the most basic human you could imagine. He does have feelings, (such as his attraction, but not love, towards Marie), but he doesn't have the strong emotions that inherantly come along with humanity. When you read this novel, it's not the plot that matters, but rather the peculiar character. And besides, it's so short you have nothing to lose anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Maman died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I dont know.
Review: I dont like to rate works of art, but that being said, this is probably my favorite novel to date. It is the story of a seemingly dispassionate young man who stumbles into an arbitrary situation which eventually forces him to confront his own mortality. The majority of the story recounts the events that lead to this confrontation. Throughout the events, many of which are quite dramatic, the character remains emotionally detatched.
There is a sense of nihilism in his reflections. But by the last chapter his nihilism trancends rational antibelief into something equally godless, equally meaningless, yet something far more real, far more irrational and far more human. It is in the last chapter where the novel flowers from rugged minimalist narrative into powerful and poetic philosophical prose. The theme is expanded from the particular to the universal, and Camus establishes himself as the most passionate voice of the existentialist movement.

Rating:
Summary: stranger is all too familiar
Review: Our society has a weird setup, which is something that i realized a few years ago. It's one that has morale, values and belief systems that practically everyone accepts in one way or another, but often contradicts. although the fact that moral is a belief is something that we should all get credit for. so what happens if you have a disaffected, amoral non-believer present in the society? that's the question that camus examines in "the stranger" and gives its readers an answer i don't think many were prepared for.
the novel has a pretty simple plot. it's about a young man named mersualt who has a job, lives in a flat, has a girlfriend, and committs murder by accident. he's sent to trial and the jury decides to execute him by guillotene.
that's the book on a shallow front but it really folds into a character study of a young man who has been abandoned by morals, values and traditional views by standard society. mersualt is concerned mostly with the present and not thoughtful about the future. he gets excited over jumping on a car, but turns an opportunity to get married, change jobs and move. his concern is mostly over physical sensation and morals take a backseat. he is observant and at times self centered. he doesn't reflect on his views and values until he's forced to and his physical desires are left empty.
camus does a great job in "the stranger" because it examines part of our value system and demostrates that some people may be closer to being amoral than they want to think. when i first read the novel i was about 15 and i thought it was cool odyseey into a character who reveals thoughts and does things that i don't think many people have the gaul to do. i read it a second time in my English class and a lot of people had adverse reactions to it. most people were stuck on the murder, his language, and how dare he hang out with pimps and talk about his girlfriend so carelessly! where are his morals! so during a discussion i happened to say that the character just didn't have a concrete view on what's good or bad, nor were his values determined by society's standards. for example, he doesn't cry during his mother's funeral. well, i didn't cry during my father's and i was 10. does that mean that i am an example of evil? no. mersualt (and i) both see death a natural act, although it's standard convention for someone to be extremely mournful at a funeral. in other words, common morals are sort of a way to bond people and add value to life. if people at least have the belief then they are still people, right? mesualts views are determined by his own standards, and he didn't really have a reason to be concerned about other people and their current state until his life depends on it.
the reason why the stranger was such a profound book is because of the reaction that it got out of people. i can say this, because most of my classmates were disgusted with mersualt and i had to say that people treat others like this all the time. and it's also an examination of the concious that a lot of people are unwilling to admit to. mersualt is not sugarcoated by society's standards, although he is broght to trial for that.
the other characters are central to the story as well. marie is devoted to sensual pleasures as much as mersualt, and the pimp (sorry, i forgot his name) sees mersualt as a good person. other characters saw him as weird. their interpretation of mersualt, who demonstrates camus' rule of absurdity is a representation on society's interpretation of the rule itself.
the stranger is all too familiar in our society and presents an alternative in the rule of absurdity which could be accepted with a few changes. the stranger provokes, assualts and challenges the belief systems of current society, which is a question that will always remain contemporary although the book is about 80 years old. i tip my hat off to camus. this book is not a must read that can easily be discarded. it should be required of everyone in order to gain insight into our world, the validity of our beliefs and understanding of ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: a tangible life
Review: meursault is not detacted from reality, but rather, he lives life through nature which is not subject to manipulation;i.e. religion, relationships.

this is shown at the time of the death of the arab. meursault does not intend to murder the arab, he is acting in self-defence. camus's choice of words here discribes nature as being violent so meursalt reacts to this by defending himself. the arab just happens to be there. meursault is immediately aware that his life has just changed, therefore " it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness".
this shows that meursault is attached to reality. he was, and will be again, happy and in love with life.

this said, i do not believe the stranger is a book written to be explained.

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading, essential Camus
Review: This excellent novel is essential reading for students and lovers of literature; especially for those interested in Western philosophy. The Stranger, the first of Camus' three major novels, was written in French in 1942 and first translated into English in 1946. His other two major novels are The Plague written in 1947 and The Fall written in 1956. Camus also wrote numerous essays, plays, short stories, and letters that have been published. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

Among all his works The Stranger remains his best known and most widely read work. However, it should not be understood as the culmination of Camus' philosophical thought, but rather as a relatively early iteration in its evolution. Likewise, it is not a definitive presentation of existentialism. Rather, The Stranger and his other writings represent Camus' particular existential philosophy; and his view sometimes conflicted with those of others, such as Jean Paul Sartre.

The Stranger's greatness does not lie in the beauty of its prose or in the vividness of its description; but rather in its superb construction, symbolism, and profound philosophical message. The novel is tightly crafted, mostly simple in language and sentence structure, sparse in description, and even sparser in the thought and reflection of its characters. But it does paint a stark picture and creates a disquieting mood in the reader's mind of a world that presses itself into one's senses. The sun and heat are prevalent symbols in this novel. They press against the main character, Meursault inescapably, inexorably, yet indifferently. They symbolize the whole of reality; aspects of which are continually present in our thoughts, feelings, and senses, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes unpleasantly, but always with "benign indifference" and without meaning.

Meursault is also pressed by people and events that are random, meaningless, and absurd. And due to his own indifference Meursault rarely acts, instead he reacts to their wishes and to events happening around him. He even agrees to get married just because his girlfriend asks him in this excerpt:

Marie came that evening and asked me if I'd marry her. I said I didn't mind; if she was keen on it, we'd get married.
Then she asked me again if I loved her. I replied much as before, that her question meant nothing or next to nothing - but I supposed I didn't.
"If that's how you feel," she said, "why marry me?"
I explained that it had no importance really, but, if it would give her pleasure, we could get married right away. I pointed out that, anyhow, the suggestion came from her; as for me, I'd merely said, "Yes."
Then she remarked that marriage was a serious matter.
To which I answered: "No."

This is not just empty-headed indifference. It is indifference with a cause. If life is meaningless, even worse than that, is absurd, how can a person care about the pointless activities of people? To ascribe meaning or significance to anything, especially abstract things such as love of another person, is delusion, ignoring the absurdity of life in which death is the only final outcome.

Near the end of the novel Meursault is faced with his own impending death; and he hopes, absurdly, for a way to avoid what is unavoidable. Then when pushed by a priest to turn to God for solace and to save his soul, Meursault, in a fit of anger, has an epiphany. His thinking crystallizes. He sees clearly the inexorable yet benign indifference of the world, his own indifference, and his appropriate intimate connection to it. Thus, he concludes, happily, the way he had lived his life and his view of life are justified and correct. Unlike the priest, Meursault is deeply connected to this world, to reality, and to the present moment. He is not living as if already dead, neglecting the present reality while hoping to live in some abstract future afterlife. Further, abstract ideas and other delusions about reality (e.g. sin, love, etc.) do not determine his choices nor cloud his view of reality.

So, as a result of his epiphany, Meursault is now "on the brink of freedom, ready to start life over again" in each moment of life remaining. And when death does come, with its final absurdity, one may assume he just might die with a smile on his face after all.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: This book will change your view on life in general, very highly emotional book.