The Stranger: Paper Outline

Thesis: Every death in The Stranger serves to demonstrate the same ultimate absurd point: that even death is meaningless and unimportant in the grand scheme of the world.

• The first death, Maman's, illustrates how Meursault reacts to death: very impersonally, as though he were merely an acquaintance of Maman.
• Lack of info p. 1
• "Not my fault" instinct p. 1
•  Does not express emotion towards death of mother
•  Meursault's reaction in this case illustrates how society in general reacts to death.
• Continuing of life shows symbolism - ch. 2 in general compares Meursault to society through juxtaposition of interactions w/ Marie and observation of other lives
• Specifically: "really, nothing had changed" (24).
• Absurdist philosophy: World continues on, even after death that jars one world
• Salamano's dog, although a disappearance rather than an absolute death, serves a very similar purpose to Maman in that Meursault acts pragmatically, stating facts rather than helping Salamano; even after Salamano finds out that his dog is most likely dead, Meursault still only offers condolences.
• Meursault's response to Salamano's distress, showing up at his doorstep: "I told him that the pound ... as they saw fit" (39).
• No compassion in response, merely informing of facts as losing of dog is routine, insignificant occurrance, even though Salamano is shocked by it
• Offers condolences when "I told him [...] that I was sorry about what had happened to his dog" but still "yawned," indicating boredom, immediately before (45)
• In the murder of the Arab, Meursault is an agent of the world, illustrating how random the world is in the people whom it harms and helps.
• Happened to choose to return to beach (57)
• No agency in crime - "the trigger gave" (59) and whole passage
• Illustrates pointlessness of world in action
•  Meursault's preponderance of his own death and his own conclusions illustrates the ultimate point of absurdism - the philosophical if not the narrative climax of the book.
• Paragraph from last blog for points

The Stranger IV: Bk. 2 Ch. 4-5

In the end of The Stranger, Camus directly inserts several of the ideas of absurdism in order to explain not only Mersault's thought process, but the very precepts of the philosophy of absurdism. Camus even goes so far as to have Mersault directly state that he had had an "absurd life," the direct relationship in diction with his philosophy of which cannot be ignored (121). Moreover, he elaborates on the concept of absurdism for any reader who is not familiar with Camus' philosophy. He states that "everybody knew life isn't worth living. [...] Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter. Therefore (and the difficult thing was not to lose sight of all the reasoning that went into this "therefore"), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal" (114). A few specific pieces of this quote explain his absurdist philosophy: he first writes one of its main ideas, that "life isn't worth living." He then explains why that is so - because we will all die eventually. He then defends his idea with a parenthetical elaboration. His statement is essentially that one must accept what logic states, despite what conclusion it might result in - in this way, absurdist philosophy is like science, because it lies upon a basis of logical argument in order to concoct conclusions that some might consider "absurd." In this way, Camus explains what absurdist philosophy states and how it comes to its conclusion, then argues that his logical argument must result in a true conclusion.

The Stranger III: Bk. 2 Ch. 2-3

When Mersault reads the story about the Czechoslovakian, he concludes with a moral lesson - he interprets it as a allegory. He concludes that "you should never play games" (80). To a large extent, this is how he spends his life: he does not play the "games" of society. Whereas society would prefer that he put up a façade of sadness at his mother's death, he does not follow this rule. Whereas society would prefer that he equivocate about some of his deeds - most notable in his discussion of his sexual interactions with Marie - he does not avoid what he has done. There are many actions that society would prefer him to take which Mersault considers to be "games" and does not want to "play." Mersault chooses to ignore the rules that constitute the "game" of society because he considers society to be no more important than the rules of a game: important in context of the game (just as he understands that he is going to be punished for killing the Arab), but this "game" should not determine how he lives his life - ultimately, he, like any game-player, exists outside of as well as within the game, and can choose to ignore those rules externally despite needing to follow them in their context.

The Stranger II: Bk. 1 Ch. 6 - Bk. 2 Ch. 1

Mersault's incomprehensibly impersonal tone in the novel is also evident in his interactions with others. Mersault can see that the magistrate "couldn't understand" why he waited, because this part of Mersault's story is inconsistent with the model that the magistrate has built for Mersault's psyche (68). Mersault's mind cannot be comprehended by the people around him because his absurd philosophy is different from the ideologies of every person around him such as Christianity. He denies that he believes in God, indicative of his absurd philosophy. When the magistrate begins to preach about God, Mersault nods his head, but when the magistrate asks Mersault a second time whether he believes in God, Mersault finds his answer of no "obvious" (69). Mersault believes that his absurd philosophy is perfectly logical, even though it makes no sense to those around him - especially those who believe in a higher power that cares about humans, a god of some sort, which is inherently inconsistent with absurd philosophy.

The Stranger I: Bk. 1 Ch. 3-5

Mersault is pessimistic, having lost all aspirations for anything better because he believes that it will not make him happier. His boss claims that he had lost ambition, but he had said that "I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered" (41). By a similar token, he thinks that it "d[oes]n't really matter [whether they] get married" (41). In both his relationship and his job, Mersault believes that advancement will buy him nothing. Either he believes that progress does not make one happier, or that progress can only cease to make one unhappy. This is indicated by that he "wasn't dissatisfied" with his life (41). The double negative, illustrative of litotes, serves to demonstrate his detached tone as well as offer the possibility that progress may only be able to reduce unhappiness, not increase happiness. Mersault may be correct in this respect, as wealth correlates with happiness below a certain quantity of wealth, i.e. the amount of wealth required to reduce one's unhappiness, but being richer than sustainable does not increase happiness, so you cannot become happier due to wealth - merely less unhappy. Therefore, Mersault's lack of aspiration may be a logical response to the world - but, as with suicide in an absurd philosophy, an unsatisfying one.