'The Outsider' - A Critique

Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ (The Stranger) is a novel projecting the dilemma of man in post-industrial society. He has not been carved out to be an ideal. On the other hand, he is just one of the ordinary, simply the run-of-the-mill member of humanity. He can’t lead the life like the heroes of the old. He accepts his destiny, compromises his lot, lives in isolation and tries ot be human in theory and practice. Ultimately, he is snubbed by the civilization (state) by means of law. His life remains absurd. He is totally indifferent. This is how Meursault leads his life.

To put briefly, we may say that he is a clerk, his father is dead and he lives in Algeria. His mother lives elsewhere. Occasionally, he sees her. She dies. He goes for her cremation. The funeral ceremony is over. He comes across Perez, who is the friend of his mother. He is not happy over this. He lives in a shabby house. Raymond is a pimp. He develops friendship with him. This happens just by the way. Raymond seeks his help. He has a quarrel with certain girl. He pretends that she has been unfaithful to him. Infact, he desires to write the girl a letter so that she may come back and he can get an opportunity for revenge.

Following this, there is a quarrel in the apartment of Raymond. He beats the girl. She is an Arab woman. The police appear on the scene. Meursault says that his friend has acted under provocation. The girl’s brother begins to haunt Raymond. Next week, Raymond invites Meursault and his girlfriend to spend the day at the beach. The two Arabs come up. There is a quarrel between the Arabs on one side and Raymond and Meursault on the other. They both teach the Arabs a lesson. Time passes, then one day when Meursault is walking all alone on the beach. Suddenly, he meets the Arabs a third time. There is scorching heat of the sun. The Arab pulls out a knife and dazzles Meursault, who then gets nervous and fires at the Arab. After a moment he shoots four times into the dead body.

In the second part of the novel, Meursault is tried before a court of law. Meursault is indifferent to his fate. Even after being provoked by the magistrate and his lawyer, he does not repent. The argument switches over to his not expressing grief over the death of his mother. Meursault has no religion. He says that all men must die whether they are guilty or not. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how he spends his life or whom he kills. He begins to feel why at the end his mother “had taken on a fiance”. She wanted to make a fresh start. She was alone. He too feels that he is ready to start life afresh. He knows that at his death “people will denounce him”.

The novel is certainly a displacement from hero to anti-heroism; from the ideal to the real, from rejection to acceptance of the futility of existence.