Literature Analysis

1. The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of an ordinary man that goes through a life changing experience in a short amount of time. The main character's mother dies in the beginning of the story, and he seems untouched from this tragedy. Later on, Mersault is invited to a beach house with some of his friends and he agrees to go with them in order to get away from everything. While walking around on the beach with his peers, he encounters two Middle Eastern men and they start a feud. The feud results in one of the Mersault's peers being shot, and the Middle Eastern men run away. However, Mersault returns to the beach later and he kills the man that shot his friend. Once word gets out, the Mersault is sent to court and he must take part in a trial. The novel ends with Mersault receiving a death sentence, but at this point, he does not care.
2. The theme of the novel is that one's life should be lived purely for enjoyment. Nothing should hold somebody back from doing what makes them happy because nothing matters.
3. The author's tone is completely emotionless. It seems as if the story is being told by an elderly man with a monotone voice.

• "He was moving toward the casket when I stopped him. He said, 'You don't want to?' I answered, 'No.' He was quiet, and I was embarrassed because I felt I shouldn't have said that. He looked at me and then asked, 'Why not?' but without criticizing, as if he just wanted to know. I said, 'I don't know.'"
• "It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed."
• "For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, 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."

4. The five literary techniques I noticed from The Stranger were:

• The first-person point of view

          Any excerpt would work as an example, but here is one that I like - "I acknowledged that that was      their right. It also meant that they must have had time for it. As for me, I didn't want anybody's help, and I just didn't have the time to interest myself in what didn't interest me."

• Imagery

          "The sky was already filled with light. The sun was beginning to bear down on the earth and it was getting hotter by the minute."

• Symbolism

          "All I could see in his slightly lopsided face were his two very bright eyes, which were examining me closely without betraying any definable emotion. And I had the odd impression of being watched by myself."