The Stranger By Albert Camus Essay

The Stranger by Albert Camus is without a doubt one of the most iconic French novels to be released. The story begins with main character Meursault being introduced as someone with emotional indifference and lack of care for daily life. From there, readers get to see different sides of his character through interactions with various characters. Like most literary pieces, these small characters help contribute to the major character’s development. One of these characters in the book is one of his neighbors named Raymond. Raymond plays a major role in shaping the story’s plot and main character’s life. Meursault’s submissive and unconscious personality are revealed through Raymond and his heinous acts. Raymond Sintés is introduced in chapter
He himself tells us one of his main motives as to why he does what he does. “I don’t have any reason not to” is a quote that can summarize all of Meursault’s actions. Although Raymond already had the negative reputation, he still accepted his invitation as he didn’t have a reason not to. This interaction continues for a while as Raymond begins to tell Meursault a long story about his girl and how she cheated on him. This transitions to Raymond asking him to write a vicious letter to the woman and once again, he does it as he has no reason not to. From this, we get get a better understanding of his motives. Another interaction between the two occurs shortly after the letter is written. After a brief date with Marie, Meursault returns to his apartment and overhears Raymond aggressively beating a woman. A policeman comes and the situation comes to an end but Raymond visits Meursault a couple hours once the incident died down. He expresses his joy in getting revenge against the girl that had cheated on him and Meursault simply agreed with him as he noticed that it made him happy. They go for a walk and that’s when he tells him that he’s truly happy and as a result, Meursault admits the happiness caused a rare nice moment. This shows how he is completely oblivious to the events unfolding as he now thinks that it is appropriate to bond over the