The Stranger, By Albert Camus

In his Novel The Stranger, Albert Camus tells the story of a man, Meursault, a character who shows almost no emotions, even though he lives an ordinary life. He has a job, a girl who loves him, and a life full or purpose, yet he still acts as a stranger in his work life, social life, and love life. From the first line of the story Meursault was strange, “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.” The telegram from the Home says: “Your mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Deep sympathy. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.” Meursault just received news that his own mother had suddenly passed away, yet he shows no sense of sadness, depression, anxiety or any other relatable senses that would come …show more content…
Meursault on the other hand, basically saw Maria as a way to relieve himself of his often sexual tensions. “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?” (Camus 28) Let us get this straight, a girl loves this man so much that she decides to bring up the topic of marriage. Maria basically proposes to Meursault but he responds with “I don’t mind.” If this were any other girl or guy for that matter, he or she would have more than likely walked right out of their life. But, for some strange reason Maria still agrees that they should get married. At this point of the story I am beginning to actually applaud their decision of marriage because now, they are both pretty strange and disgusting as far as I see. Also, they probably are not going to find anyone else to put up with each …show more content…
The response reads: “Of recent years, I’d rather lost the habit of noting my feelings, and hardly knew what to answer. I could truthfully say I’d been quite fond of Mother— but really that didn’t mean much. All normal people, I added on as afterthought, had more or less desired the death of those they loved, at some time or another.” (Camus 41) At this point in the story Meursault finally comes to realize that he really does not have any sense of emotion or feelings. But, the strange part is that he does not see anything wrong with it. In fact, Meursault has not felt any emotion his entire life until he is about to receive the death