The Stranger By Robert Camus: Novel Analysis

Robert Camus is a famous French author who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus has many famous novels including Le Mythe de Sisyphe, La Peste, La Chute, L’Exil et La Royaume, and L’Etrange or The Stranger. The Stranger is a short novel written in 1942 that details the life of a man named Meursault. The novel follows Meursault as he develops and changes according to dramatic events in his life. The novel shows the changes in his characteristics before any events, after he kills a man and is put in jail, and after he is sentenced to death. To begin, at the beginning of the story, the narrator seems very unemotional. Throughout many occasions he is known to be very relaxed and calm. One example of this could be as Marie asked
He becomes more depressed than ever before and the reader can sense his wanting to give up. At first it seems as if his depression shows a lack of emotion, but I disagree. I believe that these moments of depression highlight his emotion; showing just how much he wants to quit. This is a major step considering that earlier he wanted nothing for himself, but only for others. The depression takes over a large section of the book, but towards the very end one can see the joy that Meursault is overcome with. As he realizes that he was correct all along, he feels content. This really is the first and only time Meursault feels and fully shows his emotions without any distractions. He states “...I too felt ready to start life all over again...To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy and that I was happy still” (154). This quote, from the very last paragraph of the book, is the only incite into the full, unguarded emotion of Meursault. His sentencing first led to many more feelings of distress than ever; then concluded in him accepting himself and showing his true