The Stranger

Camus’ The Stranger is a fascinating story that forces us to confront nihilists from their perspective. We watch the story unfold and from Mersault’s nonchalance about his mother’s death all the way to his killing of another man, I could not find it in myself to find Mersault completely monstrous. From our discussion, it seemed much of the class shared my feelings. That’s why it’s so important that Camus told this story from the first person perspective; we not only see his actions, but the bizarre and careless attitudes behind them. Mersault does not think the we often think one should. He is self-absorbed, lives entirely in the moment, and has little or no motivation to connect with people in a way that even resembles empathy. He truly embodies a “stranger.”

Yet, much of the discussion was spent trying to justify Mersault. He just sees things a different way, perhaps he’s been through something that made him so disconnected. Why did I find myself and my classmates trying so hard to find some good in a killer? A character who would never return that empathy?

It seems the class, to some degree or another, related to Mersault, and maybe in a small way we envy Mersault. It seems Mersault has no ability (or perhaps no desire) to “bullshit” as one student put it. He lives in the moment, accepts it, and makes little effort to exert control over his circumstances. He accepts that whatever happens in his life, the ending will be the same. And maybe to a degree those are desirable traits. We spend so much of our day to day just putting on a show for people. We wear black and cry at funerals to let everyone around us know we’re grieving the “right” way. We say “I love you” even if we’re not sure we mean it to preserve our relationships. And Mersault will not participate in that, and he won’t feel sorry for not participating. Maybe we try to rationalize not because we really think he’s a good person, but because we wish we could refuse to participate.

But of course the genius of Camus is that he forces us to see the consequences of this callousness. One student pointed out the hypocrisy of the nihilist in this story; Mersault does not care about anything, but shoots a man five times. He goes beyond just accepting his lot in life; he takes direct action to harm another person. There is some debate over whether he initially shot in self defense. But the four shots he fired after that first one indicate that he wanted to feel something, and that he enjoyed the action he took. The end of the story shows a softer side than before. There are moments when it seemed as though he was looking for meaning. He wants to live, he feels dread at the idea of having no hope of surviving his execution. He vows that if he somehow survives, he will go to every execution. If he truly did not care, why would it matter whether he dies at the guillotine or of old age?

In the end, he is not saved. He does not seem to find some greater meaning. We know he has rejected religion, a meaning that had been laid out for him. This rejection contrasts his mother, who we know came to religion as she came closer to death. The great thing about this story is that in the end there is nothing to hold onto but the nothingness. His only value is his lack of values. This is an end that nobody would want for ourselves, but if we accept Mersault’s viewpoint, why would it even matter? So Camus forces us to look at Mersault like a mirror. He forces us to examine the meaning in our own life. This is the alternative he presents to caring and empathy and meaning, and we are forced to decide whether any of it matters.