The Stranger is about a guy who thinks the universe is absolutely pointless.
That’s why he’s completely unfazed when his mother dies.
He takes a bus to the city where she had been living.
Meursault rejects the funeral directors offer to open the coffin.
He and the funeral director, keep vigil over her body.
During their vigil, both men smoke and have coffee.
Thisis traditionally thought of as disrespectful.
The director tells Meursault that Thomas Perez, who was close with his mother, will be at
the funeral.
Although Meursault does note that Thomas Perez faints from heat exhaustion, Meursault could
not care less about him and doesn’t speak to him at the funeral.
In Chapter 2, Part 1 The day after the funeral Meursault is back
in Algiers.
The first thing he thinks about in the morning is whether his boss is mad at him for having
a 4 day vacation.
He shrugs it off, and goes the beach where he meets an old coworker, Marie.
They go on a date, and she stays over at his place.
When he makes up, she’s gone and he people watches on his balcony until noon.
In Chapter 3, Part 1 The next day, Meursault returns to work as
a shipping clerk, has lunch with his friend Emmanuel and then heads home.
When Meursault gets home he sees Salamano with his dog.
Next he sees Raymond.
Raymond, who is a pimp, invites Meursault over for dinner.
First, Raymond describes to Meursault about how he beat up his mistress and fought her
brother.
Then, he asks Meursault to write a letter that will lure the mistress back.
When she shows up, Raymond plans on humiliating her.
In typical fashion, Meursault agrees to write it.
In Chapter 4, Part 1 Marie and Meursault are hanging out at his
place when she asks if he loves her.
He replies that he doesn’t.
From the hall they hear Raymond fighting with his mistress.
When a policeman comes, he slaps Raymond.
Later, Raymond’s comes over to ask Meursault to be a witness in his defense.
Meursault agrees Then we have a scene with poor old Salamano
who has lost his dog.
He’s in a love-hate relationship with his furry companion, and screams that he’s not
gonna pay a dime to get a dog back that he hates.
But later that night, Salamano is crying in his room.
In Chapter 5, Part 1
Masson, a friend of Raymond, invites Meursault and Marie to the beach with them on the weekend.
Later that same day, Meursault gets offered a promotion and barely reacts.
His boss dismisses him who is frustrated at his lack of ambition.
When Meursault gets home later that night, Marie asks Meursault if he will marry her.
Meursault replies uncaringly, but accepts the proposition.
Marie says she can’t join Meursault for dinner that night.
So Meursault is eating alone at a café that night when he spots a women robotically flipping
through radio channels.
When she leaves, Meursault briefly follows her.
In the last scene of the chapter, Salamano is waiting at Meursault’s door to talk about
the love-hate relationship he has with his dog.
Chapter 6, Part 1 Is the day that Meursault, Marie, and Raymond
go to the beach with Masson and his wife.
The group swims in the ocean and then has lunch.
After lunch Meursault and Raymond take a walk and are jumped by a group of Arabs, one of
whom is the mistress’s brother.
Meursault and Raymond retreat when Raymond gets his face slashed.
Raymond goes to a doctor, and then after returns to the beach with a gun.
Meursault takes it from Raymond and sends him back to the beach house.
Meursault is going to finish his stroll on the beach alone.
But then, when Meursault continues, he happens to run into the brother again.
The brother threateningly shows his knife, and Meursault shoots him.
Then he shoots his body 4 more times.
In Chapter 1, Part 2 Meursault is in jail when his lawyer and the
judge take a threatening interest in Meursault.
Meursault’s own defense lawyer is repulsed by his lack of remorse after his mother’s
death.
And the judge, who can’t accept that Meursault doesn’t believe in God, calls him “Mr.
Antichrist” In Chapter 2, Part 2
Marie visits once, but then is barred because she and Meursault aren’t married.
Meursault can’t stop thinking about the pleasures he once had, like cigarettes and
Marie, but eventually adjusts and stops craving them.
To escape the boredom, Meursault recounts every detail of his apartment.
His mattress is made partially of newspaper, and one day Meursault finds a story.
It’s of a mother and daughter who accidentally kill their own son/brother.
After they realize what they’ve done, they both commit suicide.
In Chapter 3, Part 2 When the trial begins, it’s packed.
The news picked up the story during a slow summer.
The judge puts Meursault’s lack of remorse at the center of the trial.
Witnesses start testifying, starting with the funeral director.
He testifies that Meursault showed no emotion at his mother’s funeral, and even smoked
at her vigil.
Thomas Perez testifies that he didn’t notice anything of Meursault, as he was too sad.
The prosecution is also notes that Meursault’s relationship started the weekend after the
funeral.
Chapter 4 (Part 2) The prosecution condemns Meursault as a menace
to society, and states that he deserves to be put to death.
The prosecutor reasons that Meursault’s lack of morality makes him guilty of this
case, as well as a case of parricide that they are trying after Meursault’s case.
When Meursault is asked what his motives were for killing the Arab, he stumbles and blurts
out that it was because of the sun.
At the end of the chapter, Meursault is found guilty and is to be decapitated.
Chapter 5 (Part 2) After having been condemned to die, Meursault
is filled with erratic thoughts.
First he tries to grasp onto some hope that he could survive by chance.
Then he talks about a time his father saw an execution.
Later, he thinks about the morality of a victim of a guillotine being forced to wish that
the guillotine “should go off without a hitch.”
(Page 69) Since, otherwise it would cause enormous pain.
The chaplain has already tried to visit 3 times when he visits again.
The priest can’t understand why Meursault would still reject God even in his final hour.
When the priest tries to force religion on Meursault, who is a non-believer, Meursault
gets frustrated and yells at him saying that nothing matters and that he can’t prove
god exists.
The novel ends with Meursault waiting for the guards to come bring him to be executed.