The Stranger #

Author Albert Camus
Date March 5, 2025
Rating 4/5

Maybe some spoilers?

This is the first book I’ve fully read in French. For that reason, there are likely to be a number of holes or issues with my reading of it, as my French is not very good, I will need to re-read this book in English one day.

This is really interesting. I came across this book when I first fancied myself learning French; I didn’t get so far back then and each attempt after also ended in failure. The book was recommended to me at one point by a teacher of mine back in high school (hello if you are reading this! sorry my writing skills have drastically worsened since then, it’s the fault of a degree in engineering) and by a few others. Luckily, my French skills have improved since then, certainly not enough to where I want it to be, but enough to be at least somewhat able to read this book.

Meursault, being someone who always lives in the present, will by that very nature not be someone I can easily understand. I live far too much in the past and especially in the pretend future. It is probably for that reason that I could not understand him for the first half of this book. I can’t say why I felt he made more sense in the second half, though. To some degree, he felt happier (for a short period of time) and it seemed like he had more emotions. Certainly that was true in the final few chapters, where it becomes clear that he has lost his freedom, which I surmise is just about when he also figured out what freedom means (at least to his purview). These emotions maybe had given me some level of empathy towards him, even with the murder.

I fear that me not being able to understand Meursault at the beginning of this book, or at least not being able to emphasize to some degree, makes me the same as all the people in the court who could not comprehend him either. Certainly, I feel the reason he has lost his freedom and put to death is a poor one (not being sad enough for an unrelated incident), but might I also mis-comprehend someone so as to result in a conclusion that is also drastically irrelevant? Maybe that lack of sadness is just a convention, and to that same degree so too would be my convictions towards people who have peeved me.

Camus, here, is probably giving reason to how our societal expectations (or societal queues) really have no necessary meaning to them. There’s no meaningful connection here between Mersault’s lack of sadness and him killing a man, but there was a societal expectation that he broke, a societal expectation so fundamental it paints him in such a light so as to make any level of guilt easily thrown towards him.

I’m not the best at reading philosophy, so apologies on the very rusty two cents here. Regardless, I really liked this book, even if I read it in French. Hopefully, one day or another, I will revisit it in English!