ENG4 GHP/AP Mr. Neff Notes on Camus’s The Stranger

STYLE  Psychological and philosophical narrative o Many Psych. Novels would consist of the narrator- character making observations of other characters; instead, we have a 1st person narrator who the other characters and we observe and judge. o Camus said that “psychology is action, not thinking about oneself.” We can judge M. by his actions and mind; the other characters only have his actions to judge by. o 1st person subjective point of view (Meursault) (potentially unreliable?). We get into his mind. He seems indifferent towards anything social or emotional; instead, he is concerned only with physical and concrete (makes many comments about temperature and the way he physically feels).

LANGUAGE  Sentence structure and point of view o Direct speech, spare description (similar to Hemingway). This written style supports the characterization of the narrator character; we are focused on his actions and behavior rather than his words.

STRUCTURE  Part One: opens with the death of his mother, ends with death/killing of “the Arab” (from Normality to Chaos)  Part Two: opens in prison, ends with…(do I ruin the ending?) (Law attempts to bring Order to Chaos, but only reinforces Absurdity) ENG4 GHP/AP Mr. Neff

THEMES  Absurdity: remember Camus’s philosophy of the absurd: one recognizes the absurd condition when one realizes one’s repetitive and objectively meaningless existence. One finds freedom from objective meaning and outside forces (freedom from social customs, law, religion, and others’ expectations of us). o Free Will: Meursault is free to an extreme: he is free of these influences, including the influence of emotion or social custom. He is concerned only with the present and concrete. o Over the course of Chapter 1 (and the novel), society expects certain behavior of M., but he reacts independently (they expect him to mourn his mother; he shows no emotion because he apparently feels none). o Look for other examples of the expectations that society and others put on Meursault vs. his own independent viewpoint and actions.