The Stranger - Study Boss

The Stranger Keys Facts

First published in 1941, the novel went through several editorial changes due in some part to the explosive nature of the times. The looming threat of Nazi censorship impacted everything in Europe during this time. It was eventually published in 1942 in its final form. The 1946 version translated by Stuart Gilbert became the standard … Read more

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Albert Camus’s The Stranger was published in France in 1942. Although it is a slender and seemingly simply novel, the underlying philosophical message is quite complex. Camus was one of the leading proponents of existentialist and absurdist philosophy. This was a mode of thinking which arose during and immediately following the Second World War in which philosophers … Read more

The Stranger Summary

The narrator and protagonist of Camus’s novel is named Meursault, a young man living in Algiers. The novel opens as he receives news that his mother has died. He goes to Marengo to the old persons’ home where his mother lived. After sleeping through nearly the entire bus ride, Meursault speaks to the director of … Read more

Major Themes of The Stranger

The Irrationality of the World It is important to remember that Camus was a philosopher who described the irrational aspect of existence. His belief is that there is no rational meaning or order to life. This tendency to deny order and meaning where there is none is central to Camus’s notion of the absurdity of life. … Read more

The Stranger Quotations and Analysis

“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” These are the opening lines of the novel. Spoken, or perhaps thought, by Meursault, these lines indicate the tremendous indifference he shows toward everything. That … Read more

The Stranger Characters and Analysis

The main character, Meursualt appears utterly detached from other people. He experiences life as a spectator. His emotional indifference makes the stranger in the story. He seems to have no reaction to the death of his mother. His relationships with friends and with a woman who loves him have no emotional depth. He does not accept … Read more

Stranger And Meursault

The way a person reacts to ordinary situations determines the opinions of others based on their behavior. Yet, when this behavior is abnormal or different from the rest of society, it causes society to form an opinion based totally on a persons behavior not their true personality. In Meursaults case, his strange opinions and unexpected … Read more

The Stranger and Waiting for Godot

Albert Camuss novel, The Stranger, and Samuel Becketts play, Waiting for Godot, are both great literary works but has many differences and similarities that distinguish the two. These characters are very different from their society and in that same way the are very similar. To understand in what ways they are similar, there must be … Read more

The Stranger, Albert Camus Research Paper

The Stranger. Camus’s Philosophy of Freedom and Death

In The Stranger, as in all Camus works, Camus views on freedom and death one dependent on the other are major themes. For Camus, freedom arises in awareness of ones life, the every-moment life, an intense glorious life that needs no redeeming, no regrets, no tears. Death is unjustifiable, absurd; it is but a reintegration … Read more

Novel The Stranger vs play A Doll’s House

In the real world there exist many different people, of different races and ages, each one unique. Some live secluded lives with few friends and others live very rich and complex lives surrounded by friends and acquaintances. No matter what type of life is led it is human nature to adjust one’s external personality to … Read more