Things are as they are, and he is just like everyone else. But of course, Meursault does not see it that way. To be able to say outright what one believes, or doesn’t, is bravery all its own. It is his honesty more than anything that’s shocking. To me though, and I assume to a large contingent of readers of The Stranger it’s not so far-fetched. It is incomprehensible to them to feel as Meursault feels or know the world as he does. They express disbelief in the way he considers life and death and what comes after.

It certainly irks the characters in the novel, such as the chaplain of the prison and the magistrate. He has no real morals or rules to live by, something that’s meant to catch the reader’s attention. I am intrigued by the way he separated himself from the rest of the world and came to the decision that it’s not necessary to overtly care about anything as in the end, it’s meaningless. When asked about his mother’s death, whether or not he cried or felt grief, he said he’d rather his mother not have died, but that’s all he can say about it. But on the inside, how he sees and feels, or doesn’t feel things, is different. Rather, more often than not he’s trying to explain how he’s just the same as everyone else. There’s much to be said in regards to absurdist philosophy, Camus’s other writings, and The Stranger, but interpreted on its own terms Meursault comes across as someone who has chosen a very specific way to deal with his own life. It might not seem that way, but his point of view, distaste for emotion and religion, are a kind of coping strategy, as well as a world view, that I find relatable. Now, with some distance between this current reading of the novel and the previous, I feel that there’s something deeply human about the way Meursault reacts to his world. I don’t think I was old enough or experienced enough to understand the absurdity of the entire situation as he moves through his days, unconcerned by major life decisions. I remember reading The Stranger for the first time and being surprised by Meursault’s bluntness. There’s the death of his mother, but he also experiences violence, what should’ve been, or could’ve been, love, happiness, and grief, all alongside freedom and imprisonment. We encounter him as he deals with some of life’s major changes and curveballs. He goes on a condensed journey through The Stranger. Who is this person that speaks so frivolously about the death of their own mother? What is the rest of their life like?

It is this line that draws you in and makes you want to know more. Camus’ opening line, declaring from the first-person perspective that the speaker isn’t sure whether or not his mother died today or yesterday, is quite memorable. The story opens with Meursault receiving the news that his mother, who he put into an old age home, has died.

The stranger albert camus cover