I re-read this classic again and as with the others I could look at this with new eyes. The story starts with a bang. 'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I don't know.' We can see that the protagonist Meursalt is very objective about life and will report it like it is.
He does not feel more than he feels and remains true to that. So he does not show any extra emotion than is required on the passing away of his mother, not even bothering to look at her one final time. He goes back to his girlfriend who asks him to marry her and he says he will. But when she asks him if he loves her he says he does not know. When she asks him if he will agree to any other girl, he says he might. Such is the stuff he is made of. Not capable of deceit or any subterfuge. Now when Meursault gets involved in a murder - he shoots an Arab that his friend, the degenerate Raymond gets into a scuffle with, quite by mistake (because the sun got into his eyes!) - his life is examined and its found that he is not normal. i.e., he shows no false remorse or regret - he is true and matter-of-fact about the whole thing including his sentence to death.
Mersault is a character most writers think of creating sometime or the other because he is so deceptively simple and therefore difficult. He is honest, cannot lie, doe snot fall into patterns and therefore the outsider. The neighbor's relationship with his dog, the girlfriend Marie and her love for him, his unusual relationship with Raymond are all interesting and riveting. I loved reading 'The Outsider' again. (It is originally called 'The Stranger' and in some versions 'The Outsider'.)
Albert Camus (1913-1960), is of Algerian-French descent (this book is set somewhere near Algiers) and was the second youngest recipient of the Nobel prize. He died in a car accident along with his publisher.
Mersault is a character most writers think of creating sometime or the other because he is so deceptively simple and therefore difficult. He is honest, cannot lie, doe snot fall into patterns and therefore the outsider. The neighbor's relationship with his dog, the girlfriend Marie and her love for him, his unusual relationship with Raymond are all interesting and riveting. I loved reading 'The Outsider' again. (It is originally called 'The Stranger' and in some versions 'The Outsider'.)
Albert Camus (1913-1960), is of Algerian-French descent (this book is set somewhere near Algiers) and was the second youngest recipient of the Nobel prize. He died in a car accident along with his publisher.
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