The Stranger Analysis

Literary Devices in The Stranger

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Perhaps more than facial expressions, the sun is an apt indicator (and perhaps, predicting device for us, much like Punxsutawney Phil). However, also like Punxsutawney Phil, these predictions are v...

Setting

The Stranger ain't your run-of-the-mill philosophical novel (is there such a thing?). It's a philosophical novel that delves deepity-deep-deep into the Big Questions surrounding colonialism. A...

Narrator Point of View

Come on—you thought someone as solipsistic, narcissistic, and (sure) sociopathic as Meursault would yield the narration to anyone else? This is the Meursault show, and the POV highlights this fac...

Genre

How do you know what "philosophical literature" is? Easy-peasy: it's not easy-peasy. In fact, it leaves you scratching your head and wondering (uncomfortably) "What is life, maaaan?"The Strang...

Tone

You want flowery? Check out some Keats, bro. You want straight-shooting? You've come to the right place (or you can check out Hemingway or Raymond Carver, but we digress).The Stranger is written in...

Writing Style

The way Meursault sees the world is kind of like a scientist looking under a microscope: the scientist doesn't look for the beauty or the allusions in the mold or microbes that she's chec...

What’s Up With the Title?

Before you start humming The Doors' "People Are Strange," hold up. We're not just dealing with Meursault being a total weirdo; we're dealing with translation, colonialism, and existential angst.Let...

Plot Analysis

Meursault is detached. Meursault is unaffected by his mother's death, living the same mundane life he always has, clerking at the shipping company, rendezvousing with a new girlfriend, and passing...

Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis

Meursault is judged to be pathetic, dark, and frozen by society. And he couldn’t care less. Deliberately frozen in an isolated state, Meursault is content not making sense of the world he lives...

Three Act Plot Analysis

We experience the everyday life of Meursault through his eyes and narration. Basically, Meursault doesn’t really care for his mother (or her death). He loves to have casual sex on the beach with...

Trivia

We never know Meursault’s first name in The Stranger. His last name, however, is the same as that of Patrice Meursault, the protagonist in A Happy Death, another book by Camus. (Recycled, much?)P...

Steaminess Rating

This book is sexy, but c'mon: it's French. That automatically makes it at least 20% sexier. The Stranger stops short at titillation, however. We get some rubbing and some fondling, but that’...

Allusions

Friedrich Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ (2.1.13)Fernandel—A French actor and singer (1.2.2, 2.4.2)