by Saint Fang

Created on: December 28, 2009

Though in The Stranger Mersault seems to view human interaction as weakness, if he had worked harder on his interactions with humans, such as with his mother, Raymond, and Marie, he may have come out the stronger person in the end, instead of the stranger sentenced to death.

Through the entire book, Mersault views his interactions with other humans as unimportant. He only interacts with other people when he either has to or wants something from them. He does not try to really 'connect' with other people. It can make the reader wonder, if Mersault had just tried harder to interact and connect with the people around him, would his fate have been different? The answer would be a resounding yes.

"Indeed," he loudly exclaimed. "I accuse this man of burying his mother with crime in his heart!" (Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York, 1988.) This quote is just an example of how the prosecutor used the lack of interaction Mersault had with his mother, or Maman, as an example of being almost inhuman. Mersault had very little interaction with his Maman, sending her off to a nursing home and basically never seeing her again. At the time, for him, this was no big deal. Why interact with his mother, learn her age, even mourn for her at her funeral, when none of these emotional human needs really mattered? He soon found out how much they really did matter during his court trial, where he listened to the prosecutor use this lack of interaction to set the jury against him and paint the perfect picture of a soulless murderer. One could say that this lack of interaction helped in sentencing him to death.

"Now you're my pal, Mersault." and said it again that it struck me. He repeated his remark and I said, "Yes." (Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York, 1988.) The lack of caring Mersault has for human interaction extends farther than just not interacting with humans. He also does not care about who he interacts with when he does. Many other people would have thought twice before becoming 'pals' with the shady Raymond, but Mersault does not think it matters either way. If he is just going to die anyway, it does not matter who he spends his time with. Of course, if he had thought twice about becoming friends with Raymond, he would have never gone to the beach. He would have never seen the fight. He would have never killed the Arab. Finally, he would never have ended up on death row. In the case of Raymond, a lack of interaction would have been the better idea, but, of course, Mersault

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>