The Stranger

From beginning to end of Albert Camus’ 1942 novel, ​The Stranger​, there are countless

transformations, in personal beliefs and the nature/manner of existence, that the main character

Meursault undergoes. They are relatable to both the transformation of Meursault’s character and

the theme of the work, all tying into an overall lesson on Existentialism. Meursault’s

transformation involves the move from a stagnant life of passivity and lack of emotion, even at

his own mother’s death, to a time of acceptance and purposeful passivity. The murder he

commits soon after his Maman’s death is followed by a period of hysteria where he attempts to

change his fate by putting faith into a doomed appeal. After time alone in prison, he comes to

accept his sentence as well as his own Existentialist views, which bring him comfort before his

death. These transformations mirror Camus’ own philosophies of absurdness and the notion of

revolt; that seeking purpose or reason in existence is futile, and death is the only certainty of life.

The acceptance of these facts, the rebellion against oppressive forces, and the individual’s

commitment to personal values is essential to creating significance or meaning in anything.

The nature of Meursault’s transformation through the novel is in many ways existential,

The Stranger​ being a work that falls under said category. Existentialism is “a philosophical

theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and

responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” (link) The two

main characteristics of existentialism that apply to The Stranger are the beliefs that “society is

unnatural and its traditional religious and secular rules are arbitrary,” and that each individual

lives in a world which is not rational, but all individuals must make their own personally rational
decisions to the best of their ability; it is their responsibility. It is also a philosophy that

recognizes the futility of seeking solid answers in life and any other form of existence, as well as

death. Before the climax of the story, the reader gets to witness the thoughts and actions of an

unknowing existentialist before an epiphany-induced realization. Each chapter before section

two brings a new lot of instances in which Meursault is known as passive, non-introspective, and

apathetic to what life brings him and what he makes of it.

There are many confusing events that occur in the novel that build up to this

transformation of Meursault starting with the death of his mother, Maman, at the beginning of

the book when the reader is immediately introduced to his peculiar emotional and mental state.

After the death and the funeral of his mother, during which he did not cry a single time, ​“​It

occurred to [him] that anyway one more Sunday was over, that [his] Maman was buried now,

that [he] was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed.”(24) He even refused to

see her body one last time but accepted coffee and smoked cigarettes with no second thought. He

did not see a reason to feel any different than before. Needless to say, Meursault’s reaction to the

death of his ​mother, ​or the lack thereof,​ ​is the first real indication of his nature as a human. His

specific take on what would normally be a deeply emotional, incredibly stirring event for most

anybody else is one of the main points made against him in court later on. It is safe to say that

this event lays the foundation for the rest of the book, with incidents only increasing in intensity

and outwardly bizarreness that begin to shape Camus’ view of existentialism; That a lack of grief

or other emotions commonly thought to be natural, even mandatory with death and other trauma,

are in fact completely arbitrary.

 The existential nature of Meursault’s transformation is firstly visible in the changes of his

character. In the first section of the book, he feels a lack of meaning in most things and therefore

acts with a lack of caring in everything that he does, doing almost nothing to change the course

of his every day, other than in ways that better serve his basic needs like working, feeding

himself, and smoking cigarettes. He is not motivated nor does he feel he has a pressing need to

be, as far as his minimal introspection allows him to feel. When faced with basic happenings of

life in which he could have an absolute effect, either by influencing the situation or snubbing it

out altogether if he so wished to, like the beginning of a friendship with such a questionable

character as Raymond Sintes, he does nothing. He sees action against such things as arbitrary.

When asked by Raymond, “‘How about joining me?’”, he “figured it would save [him] the

trouble of having to cook for [himself], so [he] accepted.” While writing the letter to the woman

Raymond planned to mistreat quite severely, something that most other people would deem

against their own morals, he “did it just as it came to [him],” but he “tried [his] best to please

Raymond because [he] didn’t have any reason not to please him.” (28-32) In Meursault’s mind,

he had no reason to please him, no reason to displease him, and this passivity paired with the

need to serve​ himself​ is but one of the several main ‘wrong’ turns Meursault takes in the first

section of the novel. Basically, through indifference and a passive approach to life, love,

friendship, and most other things, he finds himself in difficult situations by his own hand that

humanity judges him for. He does not understand the consequences of these inactions,

observable in his reaction to being taken in by the police, an event during which he is incapable

of understanding the case against him. Upon being asked if he’d hired an attorney, Meursault

“admitted that [he] hadn’t and inquired whether it was really necessary to have one,” because he
thought his case was “pretty simple.”(63) This moment shows the lack of will or a sense of

responsibility in Meursault as well as a lack of true understanding for the ‘rules’ of the governing

society.

Before his arrest, Meursault is portrayed as having a very limited and shallow personal

life, at least on his part, which may be the best that one in his state and with his condition may

achieve. Early on, he becomes sexually (keyword: sexually) involved with a former coworker

named Marie, a beautiful and kind woman who wishes to marry him at several points. Meursault

never expresses any true desire for her besides on a sexual plane. One evening, Marie came by to

see him “and asked [him] if [he] wanted to marry her,” to which he responded that it “didn’t

make any difference to [him] and that [they] could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if

[he] loved her. [He] answered the same way [he] had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything

but that [he] probably didn’t love her. ‘So why marry me, then?’ she said. [He] explained to her

that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, [they] could get married. Besides, she was

the only one who was doing the asking and all [he] was saying was yes.”(41-42) This particular

interaction seems to happen repeatedly, taking different forms in different aspects of his life.

Situations that would trigger an emotional response such as anger, happiness, or fright do not

rouse sufficient emotion in him, perhaps slight annoyance at most. Whether he is passive towards

his involvement with others romantically, platonically, or even in terms of murder, it all stems

from the same interior which he possesses and does not quite understand yet.

Soon, an abrupt change in his character comes with the murder he commits on the beach

and the aftermath of it all. This day on the beach, during which Raymond and Meursault confront

the Arabs that had been following Raymond, Meursault ends up going back down to the water
after everyone else retreats towards the house. Wanting to escape from the sun, he made his way

towards the spring, where he found the single Arab resting. He had not gone there to kill the

man, but once the Arab drew his knife and the sun glinted into Meursault’s eyes, mixing with the

heat of the sand and the sun, Meursault felt he had to do something in order to stop the pain he

felt. As an amalgamation of overwhelming stimulation took place, it occurred to him that “all

[he] had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it. But the “whole beach, throbbing

in the sun, was pressing on [his] back.” ​He “realized that you could either shoot or not shoot,”

and he chose to shoot.(58) He did not will himself not to. This momentary realization,​ not a thirst

for blood, led him to shoot the man. The responsibility-less Meursault retells the trigger as not

being pulled by his own hand, but as the “trigger ​gave​,” renouncing himself of personal

connection to the ‘actions’ of the gun, despite the fact that he shot an extra four times a few

moments after the initial shot.(59)

During the entire trial, his actions are criticized deeply, questions are asked, and he

simply cannot give one satisfactory answer by the human societal standards of anyone other than

himself. He cannot comprehend why others do not understand him, when in fact he does not

understand them as well. He is no longer as passive as he used to be, because he is questioning

what is happening in his life. He views the entire ordeal as absurd and unfair, and at this point,

tiny factors of Meursault’s character truly begin to change. He was enraged by the fact that his

fate was being “decided without anyone so much as asking [his] opinion.”(98) This is when the

pure absurdity of the rules and the guidelines of the world hit him, and despite the fact that he

found most things to be entirely meaningless, when faced with a room full of people present to

watch him be sentenced to his death, he felt the “stupid urge to cry, because [he] could feel how
much all [of the] people hated [him].”(90) This is something Meursault was in no way concerned

about thus-far. What sparked this sudden awareness of the position he was in and the concern for

what anyone thought of him? The realization that he was a stranger in the world and to himself.

Does he do anything to challenge that? Not quite yet. Only after his time in prison, alone with

himself and his mind, does he begin to see his own insides.

One day, after the guard had left his cell, Meursault “looked at [himself] in [his] tin plate.

[His] reflection seemed to remain serious even though [he] was trying to smile at it. [He] moved

the plate around in front of [himself]. [He] smiled and it still had the same sad, stern

expression.”(81) In that moment he heard his own voice as well, realizing that he had been

talking to himself all along. To see his reflection and feel separate from it, and then to recognize

the sound of his own voice as he spoke, is an out-of-body experience that, in this case, acted as a

catalyst to Meursault’s travels inward. After receiving the death penalty and spending the time

between the trial and his final day in a cell, Meursault’s passive nature morphs into a hysteria

similar to that of a caged animal. Fighting with the ridiculousness of it all, all he “[cared] about

right [then] [was] escaping the machinery of justice, seeing if [there was] any way out of the

inevitable.”(108) The use of the words “machinery of justice” highlights the way which

Meursault viewed the legal process, having little to do with the moral or intentions of the person

and more to do with the concrete morals of the rest of the world. The character of Meursault is at

this point more wild and resistant than ever before, rejecting the inevitability of anything and

everything, not knowing that he would soon take comfort in exactly those concepts.

Finally, Meursault experiences a breakthrough. After what seems like years of frenzied

analyzation of the “relentless machinery” of which he felt he was condemned, he comes to a

phase of acceptance, an ultimate change in his core beliefs and therefore in his character.(108)

One day, the Chaplain visited him, trying to reassure him of his chances of survival and possible

savior. Meursault did not “know why, but something inside [of him] snapped. [He] started

yelling at the top of [his] lungs, and [he] insulted him and told him not to waste his prayers on

[him].”(121) He now knew that he did not need saving; he did not need chances nor help from

god. After all, “it doesn’t matter whether you die at thirty or seventy, since in either case other

men and women will naturally go on living—and for thousands of years.” (114) Therefore, “[he]

had to accept the rejection of [his] appeal.” (114)

With Meursault’s journey from a non-emotional life to a life imprisoned and eventually

to a life being lived in a happy embrace of death, there are many changes of theme. In the

beginning, Meursault’s character reflects a theme of passivity and apathy that is perceived as

both selfish and selfless. After he murders the Arab on the beach, the theme shifts to focus on

isolation and frustration as well as irrationality. Being in the courtroom and watching a group of

people who did not know nor understand him decide his fate leaves him questioning the

existence of any meaning for anything at all. The beginning of this internal struggle which he

must face alone leads to his personal epiphany and acceptance of his beliefs, a man fallen victim

to the absurdity of the world and nothing more. The peace that comes with this new-found

understanding of himself and the facts of the world carries a new theme of acceptance, a

knowledgeable and enlightening change to the beginning theme of his character: passivity.

Meursault is first introduced to the readers when he is a man unsure of himself, living a

life in which he has not yet recognized his place nor the purpose behind the way he is. Moving

from indifferently passive, and therefore, self-destructive to purposefully passive in an act of

acceptance towards his life, he experiences something raw and real. The founding of a personal

philosophy in which he takes comfort. He is no longer a stranger to himself. To others, he

remains an alien, living in a society that frowns upon the way he lives only because of his actions

which are imposed on others. It took murder for his condition to truly be noticed by anyone, and

for humanity to judge his heart as “an abyss threatening to swallow up society,” basically

quarantining him because of it. (101) He is deemed an outsider, a stranger to the moral staples of

humankind. He saw an utter pointlessness to life, everything, that nobody else seemed to see.

Only when faced with immense changes in his own character caused by the murder he

committed was he forced to look inwards while awaiting death, forming a clear understanding of

the futility of life and death and leaving him “feeling like [he] had been happy and that [he] was

happy again.” (123) The discovery of his own existentialism saved him from a painful death.