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.
