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The Stranger Cultural Analysis

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This Novel, by Albert Camus, traces a year in the life of a young clerk, Meursault, in the 1940s who works for a shipping company in Algiers. The first thing that happens to Meursault is that he gets a telegram that his mother has departed. He takes a bus to see her and they hold the vigil. He shows no expression of remorse or sadness. Once back in Algiers Meursault goes to the public beach for a swim. There, he runs into Marie Cardona, his former co-worker. They decide to go on a date and they see a comedy movie, which is ironic after his mother’s death, and they sleep together during the night. The next day he spends just watching people in the street. That next day Meursault returns to work and works all day and while at his apartment …show more content…

When reading Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger one understands the protagonist, known as Meursault, to be central to the understanding of the novel. To the reader, Meursault detaches himself from his own emotions and from others making him unable to experience normal human connections. He fails to forge bonds with other characters because of his discomfort and confusion. “Yet in the early chapters of the work, during which Meursault’s personality emerges, the other characters in the novel give no indication that they perceive his behavior other than normal.” (Strange 1) This shows that Meursault has very weird bonds with people and they don’t completely understand that he is a withdrawn sociopath. Upon reading the first sentence of the book one instantly believes that the character has something wrong with him. “Today, maman died. Or perhaps yesterday, I don't know. I have received a telegram from the nursing home. ‘Mother deceased. Burial tomorrow. Sincerely yours.’ That doesn't mean anything. It was perhaps yesterday” (Camus 1) Nathan A. Scott remarks, “the lifeless monotone of the speaker [Meursault] intimates that the issue is of no consequence to him” (Scott 34). This is showing that Meursault has ultimately no recognition of what should be hurting him. He feels that

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