The Stranger by Albert Camus Summary: The Stranger is a fantastic novel that centres on the story of a French man. The narrator of the story is named Meursault who is a very young man when he is narrating the story of the novel. He has been living in the Algesires when he is narrating the whole events of the novel in a very fanciful way. The novel starts with the arrival of a telegram for Meursault. Meursault was informed about the shocking news of his mother’s death in a village. He receives the news and immediately tries to catch a bus in order to rush towards the village in order to attend the funeral of his mother. His mother was living in an old home at the time of her death. He kept on sleeping on the way back to the old home in order to reach his mother’s dead body. When he reached there he seeks permission from the director of the old home and entered into the old home. But to his shock, he saw that her mother’s dead body was already packed in the coffin. He seems to be reluctant when he declined the offer of unfolding the coffin by the caretaker of his mother. His caretaker said that he can unfold the coffin so that he can have a look at his mother’s face. But he denied it.
The Stranger by Albert Camus Critical Summary
But he placed vigil over the dead body of her mother in the nighttime. The caretaker of his mother insisted to stay with him all the time. He was much talkative and Meursault did not like his habit of talking all the time. The narrator was much displeased at the stay of the caretaker with him all the time. Meursault seems to be interested in taking coffee and smoking a cigarette all night. He seems to be dozing all night when a caretaker was accompanying him all the time. He went to meet the director of the old home again before the funeral of his mother the very next morning. The director seems to be interested in adding the details about the funeral services of Meursault’s mother. He said that Thomas Perez will come to attend the funeral services of his mother soon. He told him that the person was very close to his mother in the last days of his mother’s life. The funeral procession of his mother was headed to the small local village near the old home. The man who came to attend the funeral services of his mother fainted due to overheating. The narrator of the story claims that he is unable to add more details about the funeral of his mother because he knows not much about the event.
The Stranger by Albert Camus Summary moves ahead after attending the funeral procession he happily yearns to travel back to Algiers. On the very next day, he happens to go to the beach for swimming. He went to meet Caridano who was once working with him somewhere. Both of the friends managed to attend a theatre in order to see a comedy show in the evening. Both the friends spent the whole day in each other’s company and they made merry with each other. Then both fell asleep but when the narrator of the novel wakes up to his wonder his friend was gone from the house. That was quite an astonishing fact for him. After that, he remained to lie in bed till noon in order to feel relaxed. When he woke up from the bed he came to contemplate the different things while sitting on his balcony. He sits there and tried to observe the different things happening in the street and his surroundings.
As so far as, The Stranger by Albert Camus Summary is concerned, on the very next day he decides to return back to his working place in order to resume his work. He took a rest while having lunch with his close friend in the office. After that, he started to do his work in a very passionate manner. When he returns back to his apartment he went to meet an old man who was residential of the same building where the narrator of the story was living. The old man keeps a dog with him all the time and feels pleasure with the dog. He used to call the dog a mangy dog. He then went to meet his neighbour who was named as Raymond, Raymond was assumed to be a pimp by the people of the locality who were living around him and observed his habits of the Raymond closely. Raymond was interested to meet with the narrator of the novel in order to spend time with him. They meet for dinner. While having dinner both of the neighbours chatted in a well and pleasant manner, Raymond seems to be interested in narrating the story about the disloyalty of his wife. He adds the details about her disloyalty and said that he kept on beating her until she did not confess her crime of cheating him. After beating his wife he does not want to stay with her. Her wife does not also want to torment him further. In this situation, there started a quarrel between Raymond and her brother. He pleaded to Meursault that he should write an apology letter to his mistress. Now he was repenting over his crimes and wanted to be forgiven by his mistress. He wanted to bring back his mistress to his home. Meursault becomes agree and manages to write a letter to his mistress.
The following day a girl came to visit the apartment of Meursault. The girl came and asked him that either he loves him or not. He does not respond much and seems to be denying the fact. During their quarrel, both of them seemed to hear a voice from the neighbouring apartment of Raymond. They heard the voice shouting at someone loudly. They witnessed that a policeman has been arrived in the big hall and was slapping his neighbour. The policeman said that he was convicted of beating his wife harshly in the past few days. The policeman informed him that he will have to attend the police station as a punishment for beating his wife.
Raymond pleaded before the Meursault in order to save him from punishment by giving his guarantee to the policemen. Marie and Meursault become engaged after she pleaded before him for marriage. He gave his consent to marry her because she was passionately in love with him. On the following Sunday three of them went to the beach in the city in order to enjoy themselves heavily. They spent whole the day there swimming and enjoyed to fill of his heart. After swimming they managed to have lunch there. Then they went to another Beach that was located nearby. There we came to know a row between Raymond and the brother of his mistress. Raymond gets stabbed in the heavy quarrel between them. He seems to tending his wounds there and then he returned to the beach and they came to find Arabs there. Raymond wanted to kill him with his gun in his fury but the narrator of the story tried to stop him from the execution of the murder there. He managed to take away his gun from his hand because he was burning in fury.
But to our wonder, Meursault managed to kill Raymond’s mistress brother near the spring and was arrested soon after the execution of the murder. He was thrown into the cell after committing the murder of Arabs. His lawyer seems to be irritated and disgusted with the lack of remorse shown by the narrator of the story over his crime. He never depicted any kind of grief over committing this crime or anything else in his life. We came to know about the fact that he never expressed any kind of grief about losing her mother. The narrator of the story seems to be expressing a lack of conviction and lack of belief in gold. Her girlfriend came to visit him in jail and she was anticipating that he would come out from jail and they will marry soon.
While on the other hand, the narrator of the story manages to isolate himself from the cigarette, women and the natural sceneries of the surrounding. He became addicted to the isolation in the jail.
At the end of the summary of the stranger by Albert Camus Meursault seems to be pondering over his fate. He seems to be waiting for his fate and execution in jail. But a sudden change came in his personality that was lacking before this event. He seems to be dreaming about escaping from the cell. He also thinks about his legal escape from that place. Chaplain asked him to turn his beliefs of atheism and turn to God again in order to save himself from persecution. But the narrator of the story went mad in his fury and seems to be attacking the Chaplain in his rage. At that time he seems to claiming that human being exists with no meaning in life. At this time he accepts the uncertainties of life and left all hopes of saving himself from punishment. The idea made him realize the fact that he feels happy now.