Discussion of The Stranger by Albert Camus
- Scott
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4068
- Joined: 31 Jul 2006, 23:00
- Currently Reading: The Unbound Soul
- Bookshelf Size: 340
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-scott.html
- Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU
- Publishing Contest Votes: 960
Discussion of The Stranger by Albert Camus
What do you think of the book?
What do you think of Meursault? I like him, and I am very intrigued by his calmness. I think his calm and sort of indifferent nature made the story more interesting as opposed to more melodramatic stories and characters.
What do you think of Meursault's refusal to become religious before his execution? It seems to me that he viewed and accepted the way the universe treats him the same way he viewed and accepted the way the legal system treated him. To me, he does not seem to have any melodramatic reaction, but just seems to plainly accept the meaningless events and the direct effects they will have on him.
Please post any quotes or short excerpts from the book that you especially like. And post any questions you have for the rest of the group about the book.
Thanks,
Scott
"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
-
- Posts: 87
- Joined: 08 Mar 2008, 04:16
- Bookshelf Size: 0
does anyone think there was a gigantic metaphor going on? (I'm a symbolism junkie)
- vznojohana
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 13 Oct 2008, 17:48
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Here is the story of a man who has deadened himself. His disconnection with his own emotions and his own sense of reality snowball into an absurd consequence.
glaring light - can represent truth and he can not handle glaring light.
We see that in much of the imagery.
heat - can represent passionate and strong emotions.
He completely short circuits when faced with heat.
He shot a man because the light and the heat were getting to him.
- vznojohana
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 13 Oct 2008, 17:48
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 10
- Joined: 03 Nov 2008, 18:24
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 19 Nov 2008, 18:20
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Camus engages the reader and makes them read between the lines, forcing them to hear what is not being said. Therefore, he accomplishes the governance of the reader’s experience with the use of his narrative strategies.
-
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 01 Apr 2009, 22:03
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 08 Apr 2009, 12:41
- Bookshelf Size: 0
the portrayal of the ideas, that the absurdists believed in, is greatly done in the book. i think the ideas found their culmination in Camus' last work The Fall. however, The Stranger is indeed a masterpiece of the existentialist movement!
- sazzledazzle
- Posts: 9
- Joined: 29 Apr 2009, 15:22
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 32
- Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 21:00
- Bookshelf Size: 0
"I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
Throughout the whole book he doesn't seem to care what others think and doesn't seem to understand why they think that way so I always found the last line incongruent with the rest of the novel. Why now in death does he want to be greeted with cries of hate? Why does he welcome the spectators hatred? I've always wondered why a character like Meursault would care what they thought. Or even taking it a step further would he even think about what others would think.
Don't leave me hanging people - what do you think?
-
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 26 Feb 2010, 02:49
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 13 Mar 2010, 05:21
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Camus once criticized Kafka for not staying true to existentialism because his novels at times offered glimmers of hope for the protagonist at the end. I think you see his theory in practice here.Moe wrote:I know I'm totally late to this party but can we talk about the last line?
"I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
Throughout the whole book he doesn't seem to care what others think and doesn't seem to understand why they think that way so I always found the last line incongruent with the rest of the novel. Why now in death does he want to be greeted with cries of hate? Why does he welcome the spectators hatred? I've always wondered why a character like Meursault would care what they thought. Or even taking it a step further would he even think about what others would think.
Don't leave me hanging people - what do you think?
It could be taken several ways, but the way I took it on first read was that it was his last stand to not buckle under the pressure to change who he was; to not care about what people thought about him because it truly did not matter and would not change anything. It would make less sense for him to wish his friends to be their weeping for him.