Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Review of 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus

Albert Camus, through ‘The Stranger’ creates a thought provoking and spellbinding masterpiece, something that stays with us long after. Such is impact of the ever detached, unaffectionate and incessantly amoral protagonist, Meursault, that the reader is invariably made to wonder whether what is known to be wrong is actually so. The intensely sensory nature of the text and attention to fine details helps us to get to the root of his mindset in a very delicate manner – unwrapping a little at a time. One of the high points of this novel is the very easily graspable plot. Nothing much happens really. In a very uncomplicated and seamless manner it reveals the rather unfathomable thoughts of the protagonist as he sails through a society in which he is a strange outsider.

Meursault knows that he is quite different, queer to be precise, but seems to take it in his stride and never hides what he actually feels no matter how much criticism it may call for. He is an extremely practical man, with a very objective view of life to the point that he has absolutely no emotion in him for anything. Only thing he is actually guilty of is his unhindered honesty, no matter how incongruous and naïve it may make him sound. He is an atheist to his core, but he cannot lie about it because he is true to himself. Similarly, he could not pretend to lament and shed tears at his mother’s funeral because in reality he did not feel a thing. In spite of Mary throwing his way all her love, he could not draw himself to reciprocate because he is constitutionally incapable of love or any other emotion for that matter. He believes in things he has gathered out of experience, which has a palpable feel to it. He simply cannot bring himself into behaving in a manner which is agreeable to the society just for the sake of it.

Throughout the novel it is quite apparent that he is acutely aware that his actions and thoughts are unconscionable at best, but it is the subsequent justification that he poses that makes this character almost plausible. ‘With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her.’ No matter how absurd his theories of life and the way of living it may seem, we cannot completely discard them to be invalid. He advocates that it is our desires and hopes that tend to bind our existence into a closed sad envelope. Once we break free of all such illusionary longings, we will find true happiness. It is this incredibly outrageous outlook of life, which on a very odd level makes sense, that hold us back from detesting the protagonist even though he is charged of cold blooded murder. Although almost all of his theories are rather unfamiliar to the common reader, yet, never at any point he attains a philosophical tone while presenting them. He merely states how and what he feels, not pretending to be anything more or less.

The flavour of the novel is neither that of happiness nor optimism. The closest it comes to either of those is when Meursault contemplates that his imminent death will actually bring him into the brink of a new freedom, a fresh start, something that cannot be obtained by any other way. This is certainly a very engaging novel, forcing us to ponder deeper and deeper with each page. Rest assured, after reading this novel we are bound to come face to face with a type of personality never seen before!


GAURAV BARUAH, 2009ME20660

4 comments:

  1. "The Stranger" by Albert Camus-who is also famous as “philosopher of absurd"- was published in 1942.The key point that the novel makes is that neither life has rational basis, nor the moral orders have a natural basis, and that the life lacks a higher meaning. Through the atheist protagonist, Meursault, who has an indifferent philosophy towards humans, the author has very clearly brought out the absurdist nature of life.It questions one's beliefs in life and how one observes and judges other things as a stranger.Mearsault has accepted the fact that neither he cares nor the world does and one has to live one's life oneself with all its pleasures and obligations. There are many incidents that strike the readers as bizarre like killing of an Arab by Mearsault, rendering Mearsault a disloyal son as he didn't refuse coffee during his vigil, etc. It clearly brings out the futility of a human's attempts to find significance in life. The book in general gives a brilliant message that life's lack of higher perspective should not lead someone to despair.

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  2. PS it is a mini review from my side ....
    Tushar Tuteja
    2009CE10351

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  3. The Stranger is Albert Camus's take on the Absurd. Meursault, an unperceptive man who lives only through the physical, his world defined only through his actions, unaware of the absurdity of human existence. His killing of an Arab as 'his response to the sun's physical effects upon him' forces him to confront the nature of humanity and to delve deeper into his queerness.
    This brings us to the brilliant second part of the book.Leaving out perhaps Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, I have never seen such a vivid description of the death, of its unflinching certainty, its harrowing effects on the condemned. It is through the mask of death that Meursault realizes the absurdity and the farcical nature of life. indeed death is but the a freedom to him.
    To quote Camus :

    One wouldn't be far wrong in seeing the Outsider as a story of a man who, without any heroic pretensions, agrees to die for the truth. I also once said, that i tried to make my character the only christ we deserve.

    Sukrit
    2008TT10709

    PS: Read the Rebel and The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus.

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  4. It's interesting that you describe Meursault as amoral - do you think his morals are poor, or that his concept of existence transcends the idea of morality entirely, making all acts arbitary and neither good or bad?

    I've just finished writing a review and an analysis, and it's really interesting to hear what other readers made of the book.

    Keep up the good work! :)

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