The Stranger: Blog Response #2

The first thing the reader notices when reading The Stranger by Albert Camus is that all Meursault mentions are concrete facts. He never mentions his feelings or emotions. Almost throughout the entire novel, such as the scene of Mamam's funeral (page 15-17), he describes everything that is around him – the heat, Thomas Perez's actions, the walk, etc. Yet, there isn't a single sentence where he says his own feelings or opinions on any of the things he describes. He observes them, but makes no analysis or thoughts about them. Instead of Meursault analyzing the things he sees, it is as if Camus is trying to make us, the readers, analyze the things that Meursault says. Therefore, it is the readers who create the meaning of Meursault’s actions and descriptions.

This relates to the whole concept of existentialism where although life is meaningless, just like Meursault’s descriptions of the objects and people are, we, as humans, must make effort to bring meaning/purpose into our lives, just like how the readers need to interpret a deeper meaning to Meursault's words. Through the lack of Meursault’s opinions and analyses, Camus is trying to emphasize his existentialist view.

Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that Meursault never seems to mention the names of the Arabs. "When he told me the woman's name, I realized she was Moorish" (page 32).  None of the Arabs – whether it is Raymond’s mistress the nurse at the nursing home, or the group of Arabs – are given names. Although this novel mainly focuses on the theme existentialism, one can depict the theme inequality of power as well. The Arabs are clearly less than the whites and with their names not given, it emphasizes this point even further more.

I am not entirely sure if Camus did this on purpose to enforce his opinion on white superiority or it just happened to come out that way. Either way, there is definitely some level of discrimination shown.