Plot Overview

About the Author

The Stranger is a story about a man named

Monsieur Meursault and his life after his mothers
death. The story starts off with Mr.Meursault
realizing that his mother passed away but he really
doent care because he never had any good
memories about his mother in te first place,plus ,
he even put her in a home so he wouldnt have to
deal with her anymore.When he arrives at his
mothers funeral he doesnt shed a tear, he doesnt
want to see her and he is so un-interested that he
then falls asleep while his mothers friends from the
old people home sob their life away. After his
mothers death its like nothing ever happened so
Mr. Meursault goes out with friends and likes to
spend a lot of time with his girlfriend Marie. They
always bring up marrige but he always says he
doesnt care about getting married. One day, Mr.
Meursault was walking by a beach with his friend
when two Arab men seemed to be following them.
The four men started fighting and Meursats friend
got stabbed by one of the men so he had to be
taken to the doctor emidiatley. Later that day
Mr.Meursault spotted one of the Arab men so he
came up to him with a gun and he shot him 5 times.
Next thng you know he is in jail and he is being
trialed for murderer. While being in jail he quits his
smoking habits and stops believing in God. To make
matters worse he might be sentenced to
decapitation but he comes to terms with it and
continues to have a careless attitude.Marie is
deeply in love with him so she visits him while he is
in jail and she also sends him letters.When being
trialed in court his friends defend him as much as
possible but everything seems to backfire at him
and slowly but surely he starts to lose hope. In he
end he was found guilty and he faced a death
sentence and his only wish was for peope to gather
around and watch his decapitation.

Albert Camus was a French writter born into a

working class family in Algeria in 1913. He lived
most of his student iife in North Africa where he
worked a lot of different jobs to pay off his classes
at a university.He persude a journalism career and
he turned into one of the leading writers of the
French Resistance during World War 2.He had a
sudden death in 1960 which cut him short of all the
great literary works he had to come. Some of his
Literary works include Exile and the king, The fall, A
happy death, The plague, and The rebel.

Novel Notes
The Stranger
Albert Camus
David Quinteros
3/23/16

Essential Quotes

Historical Context
This story takes place in an old society in France
where poverty isnt a big issue but there are some
instances where people struggle with money. There
is also a split between people who believe and
dont believe in God. During this time period public
death is admitted so when the protagonist is
decapitated the general public is allowed to see.
Another thing that characterizes this story is that
there are certain instances in this place where
some actions made would be pumishable by law
now days and that didnt happen in th story for
example when a man hit his wife in the face a
police officer let him off wih a warning.

Mamam died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't

know...That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was
yesterday(Camus 3).
Anyway,after that,remembering Marie meant
nothing to me. I wasnt interested in her dead. That
seemed perfectly normal to me, since i understood
very well that people would forget me when I was
dead(115).

Add Work Cited Here:Camus, Albert. Stranger. N.p.:

n.p., n.d. Print.

Character Analysis

Mr.Meursault : He is a man with an attitude that you

really just want to smack out of him. He doesnt
care about anything or anyone and even though he
is the protagonist in the story sometimes his
dialouge in the book is so boring it get to the point
where the reader is just annoyed by him and the
only person that he cares other than himself is
Marie, his wife.
Raymond:Raymond the th protagonists main friend
and because of Raymond, he ends up in jail
because Raymond was part of the arab fight ad he
encouraged the protagonist to engage the Arabs.
He ends up getting stabbed and he has to go to the
doctor.
Masson : Masson is Mr.Meursaults insecure
neighbor that is nervousabout everything is very
demading.He abuses of his dog whenever he is
stressed or angry. He is also a wife beater and likes
to moke. He defends the protagonist in court and
considers him to be a good friend even thogh the
protagonist pays no attention to him.
Marie: Marie is the protagonists love intrest and
she is the perfect example of a loyal woman.
Through thick and thin she is always there for him
and even though he is being trialed for murder, she
is still there for him ad never loses her love for
Mr.Meursault.According to him she is a very
beautiful woman.
Chaplain: He is a very persistant persona nd only
wants whats best for the protagonist. He is
basically like a priest and he wants to make the
protagonist accept that God is his only hope to get
out of the sitaution hes in. He keeps trying to force
religion on Meursault but fails completely.

Themes
Man vs. society
This happens when the protagonist is being trialed
for murder and its like everything he says is beig
used against him in court and every action that he
made after his mothers death was taken into
consideration by the jury in court.
Man vs. himself
Meursault has to go through a lot of challenges
within himself to be at peace in prison for example
he had o quit smoking and be able to live without
the cigarettes, he had to learn how to manage his
time in prison so he wouldnt be bored, he had to
undertand that he wouldnt be able to see the
people he cared about like Marie and he had to
understand that he would be excuted soon for his
crimes.
Man vs man:
This happens when the protagonist and his friends
start beating on two Arabs and the protagonist ends
up killing one of them in the future by shooting him
and that is when the whole jail thing and facing
death starts.

Motifs and Symbols

Mamam: Mamam is the reason why The
protagonist just doesnt care about anyone because
she never loved him and she always complained
about him and when she dies or when the
protagonist kills a man, he doesnt feel anything.
Execution: Execution is a problem the protagonist
has to cme to terms with because of the crime he
comitted but he sees this as an opportunity for
people to notice him and as a way to be free from
the life he has.
The beach: This is where the protagonist finds
peace and gts away from everyday stress and he
likes going with his friends, epecially with Marie
because they talk about their future.
The prison
This place signifies the future of Meursault and how
he accepts his future decapitations and how he has
no other option other than to wait for his death and
he is isolated from the rest of the world for being a
heartless criminal that did not care for anyone other
than himself.