6/30/2023 0 Comments The stranger by albert camus![]() ![]() He is content to, more or less, just exist. And what does her death have to do with his life? To Meursault, life is not all that important he doesn't ask too much of life, and death is even less important. He lives, he doesn't think too much about his day-to-day living, and now his mother is dead. This admission of a son's unconcern about his mother's death is the key to Meursault's simple, uneventful life as a shipping clerk. Or, maybe, yesterday I can't be sure." The impact of this indifference is shocking, yet it is a brilliant way for Camus to begin the novel. The novel opens with two of the most quoted sentences in existential literature: "Mother died today. Camus juxtaposes two worlds: Part One focuses on subjective reality Part Two, on a more objective, faceted reality. ![]() ![]() Part One is full of mostly insignificant days in the life of Meursault, an insignificant man, until he commits a murder Part Two is an attempt, in a courtroom, to judge not only Meursault's crime but also to judge his life. In Part Two, covering about a year, we are present at a trial that recreates those same eighteen days from various characters' memories and points of view. In Part One, covering eighteen days, we witness a funeral, a love affair, and a murder. The Stranger is a very short novel, divided into two parts. ![]()
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