The Stranger Essay Topics

This sample paper on The Stranger Essay Topics offers a framework of relevant facts based on recent research in the field. Read the introductory part, body, and conclusion of the paper below.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus portrays the main character of the novel, Meursault, as a largely apathetic character. Right from the beginning of the novel, when his mother passes away, something most people would think of as extremely tragic, his apathetic attitude is made apparent. This attitude continues throughout the novel, and can be clearly seen in Meursault’s interactions with the other characters.

One such interaction is between him and Marie, when she attempts to talk to him about marriage. The most prominent example of Meursault’s apathy, however, is seen when he kills the Arab.

This apathetic attitude of Meursault’s persists throughout the novel, and is apparent in his relationships with strangers, to his romantic relationships, all the way through to his relationships with his immediate family.

Right from the first two sentences of the novel, Camus already paints readers a picture of Meursault as being apathetic. “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 3). The fact that he talks about his mother’s death so nonchalantly is an obvious expression of his apathetic nature.

While it is true that Meursault sincerely does not know the details of his mother’s death, for all that was said in the “telegram from the home” (Camus 3) was “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow” (Camus 3). Because of this, one would assume that Meursault would be having racing thoughts of what the circumstances were surrounding Maman’s death.

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This is not the case, though, as his first thoughts are how he will “take the two o’clock bus and get there in the afternoon. That way [he] can be there for the vigil and come back tomorrow night” (Camus 3).

Why Does Marie Want To Marry Meursault

The fact that his first worry is being aback home as soon as possible is a clear insight into his apathetic nature. Once Meursault gets to the funeral home and talks to the director, his apathy continues to show and it becomes apparent to readers that he was apathetic to his mother even while she was alive, as he says to the direction, ” … I didn’t go [to visit Maman] much this past year… It took up my Sunday – not to mention the trouble of getting to this bus, buying tickets, and spending two hours traveling” (Camus 5).

Then, as the director continues to talk to him, Meursault admits that he “wasn’t really listening anymore” (Camus 5). It appears as if Meursault Is not even taking his mother’s death seriously at all, which is also seen when he “dozed off for a while” (Camus 9) during Maman’s vigil. Thereby, readers are able to see, through his relationship, or lack of relationship, with his mother, and his indifference towards her death, that Meursault is a fundamentally apathetic person.

After returning home after Maman’s vigil, Meursault “decided to go for a swim [so he] caught a streetcar to go to the public beach” (Camus 19). Then, while at the beach, Meursault “ran into Marie Cardona… whom [he’d] had a thing for at the time” (Camus 19). It appears as if he was focusing a lot of attention on her, as he notes small details about her, such as that “her hair was in her eyes and she was laughing” (Camus 20), that a random passerby would not have noticed. It starts to seem as if Meursault finally met someone who is able to bring some sort of emotion out of him.

This can be inferred by Meursault’s actions towards Marie, such as when he “let [his] head fall back and rest on her stomach” (Camus 20), and when he “put [his] arm around her waist, and [they] swam together” (Camus 20). After they spent the night together at his house, Meursault “tried to find the salty smell Marie’s hair had left on the pillow” (Camus 21). It is actions like that which leader readers to believe that Meursault is sincerely developing feelings for Marie, and that he will finally be able to learn how to openly express emotion.

It turns out, however, that this is just not the case. As Meursault’s relationship with Marie develops, readers start to see his apathy again, though Marie apparently doesn’t. “Marie came by to see me and ask me if I wanted to marry her” (Camus 41), Meursault says. The fact that Marie proposed to Meursault can signify that she felt that they were ready to take their relationship to the next level, but had no indication from him that he was going to ask for her hand, so she had to take the initiative.

Then, Meursault’s answer, “I said that it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to” (Camus 41), confirms this assumption. He goes on to say, “I probably didn’t love her” (Camus 41). That signifies that Meursault actually did not have any intentions of marrying Marie, but rather was using her for his own pleasure. Their relationship, according to him, was little more than physical. Also, the fact Meursault had such a casual attitude towards marriage shows that he does not really care much about it.

Thus, the first impression that readers get about Meursault’s attitude towards Marie is wildly misleading, as it made readers start to believe that Meursault might actually have some type of emotions within him that he was able to express. In the end, however, Meursault’s relationship with Marie is ultimately another example of how much of an apathetic person Meursault truly is. The most prominent example of how Meursault’s relationships with others allow readers to see his sense of apathy, however, is his confrontation with the Arab.

Meursault originally claimed that he was stepping towards the Arab in an attempt to get away from the gleaming sun, though he then says, “I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. But I took a step, one step, forward” (Camus 59). It was only after seeing Meursault move towards him that “the Arab drew him knife and held it up to [Meursault]” (Camus 59). So, Meursault possibly knew that by taking that single step, he would be causing a problem between the Arab and himself.

Nevertheless, he still did not care, and continued to take that step. It is then that Meursault’s apathetic disposition becomes even more visible in his relationship with the Arab, when he shots the Arab, especially because he seems as if he is shooting the Arab not because of their previous problem, but rather because of his anger towards the heat. Meursault uses the analogy of a knife to describe the sun. In regards to the sun, he says “It was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead… that slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes” (Camus 59).

Though this was due to the fact that the Arab raised his knife in the first place because, after he rose it, “the light shot off the steal” (Camus 59) towards Meursault, it is not as if the Arab deliberately intended for that to happen, since he was just raising his knife in self defense. It was simply Meursault’s apathy getting the best of him, so much in fact that, even after he shot the Arab once, he “fired four more times at the motionless body” (Camus 59). Relationships that most people would hold near and dear to their hearts, such as that with their mother, or with their significant other, seem to mean nothing to Meursault.

Though Meursault does not have a personal relationship with the Arab, the idea of taking the life of another human being does not seem to faze Meursault, either. Therefore, it is these relationships that Meursault has with others throughout the novel that demonstrate Meursault’s apathetic nature. They are essential aspects of the plotline of the story, as they allow for the whole theme of existentialism to be established, using Meursault’s apathy as a prime illustration of this theme.