The Stranger2

A detailed Summary of The Stranger2

In The Stranger Camus shows that Meursault can find his true identity only through an encounter with death. Meursault goes through some deaths in his life that lead to his own. This awkward, but most entertaining, character discovers himself through the tragedy that occurs in his life. His life is a full one and he faces each situation the same way.

The encounters of death starts here, the death of Meursault's mother. "I wanted to see Maman right away"(Camus 4), this extraordinary quote by Meursault is a side of him that we do not get to see that often. That is one of the few times we get to see his loving side come out and show his affection to his mom. He accomplishes the capability of getting is inner feelings out. Camus expresses the true thoughts of Meursault by saying, "That's partly why I didn't go there much this past year. And also because it took up my Sunday - to mention the trouble of getting to the bus, buying tickets, and spending 2 hours traveling"(5). Meursault tells us that he really didn't want to go through all that trouble just to see his own mom. He has feelings for his mom, as you heard in the last quote, but not enou

The most important part of finding his own identity was the murder of the Arab. Meursault gets out of hand and shoots an Arab dead. "My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver"(59 Camus). Meursault had the revolver in his hand and he claims that because he was so tensed about everything that was going on, that made him shoot the gun. He has some mental problems as you can see, Meursault is normal most of the time, but he defiantly has his moments. Albert Camus tries to show that Meursault is finding himself through this violent act he has done, "I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I'd been happy"(59). Meursault is slowly finding his true self, after you read this quote, you think he has realized the terrible thing that he has done, and that he broke the beautiful day that he was having. He feels the grief of doing this to the Arab. But once again Meursault gets out of hand when he " . . . fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace"(Camus 59). Meursault tries to find his identity by thinking everything over, but then his craziness takes over again. The whole murder scene can be summed up in this simple quote by Bree, " . . . the revolver shot jolts Meursault out of his purely negative state. At this time he is aware that he has committed an irreparable act. . ." (114). Germaine Bree reveals the feelings that Meursault does not show. So

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1000
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English