In Albert
Camus’ The Stranger, we follow
Meursault around “modern” (circa 1940’s) Algeria. Meursault was a fairly
pedestrian man, ultimately getting lured in by a “bad man” Raymond, and
committing a terrible crime. However, rather than discuss merely the plot, I
would like to discuss the author, the storyline he created, and trying to frame
the story in a larger context.
In class, Mr. Mitchell discussed how
Camus served in the resistance movement in World War II. My initial thought about
the book is that it would provide some sort of commentary on the intricate
politics of the war. More specifically, I figured Meursault would symbolize the
people of France. Throughout Part 1, it was very easy to spot parallels between
European politics and the storyline. For example, if you perceive Meursault as
a symbol of the people one could perceive Meursault’s mother’s death as the
symbol of Nazi Germany “killing” countries (a good example is Poland). In
addition, I saw a parallel between Nazi Germany and Raymond. Both try to
influence the innocent bystanders (in this case Meursault and the French people)
and ultimately lead the innocent to commit unthinkable crimes.
However, Part 2 is drastically different. We see the “innocent”
get put on trial for their actions. Camus frames Meursault as committing a
crime without fully understanding a “rational” reasoning behind it (eg. revenge
killing). Within the Nazi Empire, we saw some ordinary people committing crimes
they otherwise wouldn’t commit for no explicable reason. In this way, Camus is
symbolizing the eventual trial of these people (as this book was written in
1942) in the court of public opinion, similar to the way Meursault is put on
trial.
In final, I believe Camus was trying to send 2
different messages to the people of France. The first was trying to send a
“wake up call” to those who may have been joining the Nazi cause to stop for a
moment and think about the implications of their actions. The second was a
message to those who were impartial. He was trying to say that taking no sides
(similar to how Meursault goes along with Raymond's plan while trying to remain neutral) ultimately makes the
impartial just as guilty as those who are actually guilty. Obviously there are
various different way to perceive Camus’ message in this story. Let me know what
you think in the comments below.
I certainly thought there were parallels between World War II and The Stranger. I saw Meursault's mother as old France and Meursault as Vichy France. The way Camus portrayed Meursault especially made it seem like he was a parallel with Vichy France considering how indifferent he was. The portrayal of his mother also makes her seem like old France as you can see from the final few chapters that she was living life to the fullest before her final days, a huge difference of Meursault.
ReplyDeleteI definitely see the connection to World War II in The Stranger and it was fun to try to see those parallels while reading because looking at the bigger context can bring a bigger meaning to the book and can also bring a deeper understanding into Camus' surroundings and beliefs at the time that he wrote this book. I think that a big idea that Camus was trying to send was that trying to stay neutral is ultimately the wrong thing to do because it isn't actively fighting against bad things.
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