The Stranger Essay

This Study Guide consists of approximately 57 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Stranger.

The Stranger Essay

This Study Guide consists of approximately 57 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Stranger.
This section contains 3,675 words
(approx. 10 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Stranger Study Guide

In the following excerpt, Feuerlicht analyzes the transformation of the protagonist's psyche— from indifference to an understanding of the world. He concludes that Camus's novel conceals a variety of possible interpretations.

The ambiguity of the novel starts with the title. With regard to whom or to what is Meursault a stranger or an alien? The word étranger is only used twice in the récit, but not for Meursault. Alienation or estrangement is said to be the mood of Camus's L'Etranger, and this short novel allegedly demonstrates a person's complete lack of relatedness to other human beings. Meursault, however, is not like Baudelaire's "Etranger," who has no friends, like the "stranger" in Schnitzler's short story "Die Fremde," or like the outsiders in Thomas Mann's early writings, who create an atmosphere of cold estrangement whenever they meet other people. Meursault is not odd, certainly not...

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This section contains 3,675 words
(approx. 10 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Stranger Study Guide
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