In The Stranger, some of the most significant events, for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness, are mental or psychological. Albert Camus manages to give Meursault’s internal events the sense of suspense and climax associated with external action through stream of consciousness, the narrator’s conflict with other characters and subtle inferences into existentialism and absurdity.
Meursault is an honest character and tells the story of his life from the time of his mother’s death to his own death as it happens. The author uses stream of consciousness to inform the reader about the internal and external events that affect Meursault. Meursault’s most important discoveries and inferences into his character come to him after he kills an Arab and is sent to prison. “There are some things I’ve never liked talking about. A few days after I entered prison, I realized that I wouldn’t like talking about this part of my life.” This excerpt marks the beginning of Meursault’s psychological awakening because it is one of the first references in the book to the narrator’s past and future. Up until this point the reader has only known Meursault to accept life and death without looking for a deeper meaning, he lives only in the present and makes no conclusions nor has any personal convictions. Stream of consciousness is random and makes no distinction between different levels of reality and Camus uses this literary device to keep the reader’s attention and create suspense by making the reader search for clues about Meursault’s persona.
The author uses Meursault’s relationships and conflicts with other characters to create suspense in the story and show how one person can be defined by other people. Throughout his trial for murder the narrator is characterized as being heartless, cold, insensitive, apathetic and detached. The jury and prosecuting attorney are more concerned with his relationships than with his having committed murder. Some of the arguments against Meursault are: his reaction to his mother’s death, his friendship with Raymond, his affair with Marie and his relationship with God. The narrator realizes that he is really on trial for whom he is not the crime he has committed; this realization is provoked by the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney. The reader sees that Meursault is not unfeeling and sympathizes with the narrator when he says, “One thing bothered me a little, though…they seemed to arguing the case as if it had nothing to do with me. Everything was happening without my participation. My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking my opinion.” In this part of the book the author uses the members of the judicial system to provoke Meursault, his thoughts continue to get deeper and deeper creating suspense and eventually peak at his disapproval of the law.
The author uses absurdity and ideas about existentialism to create excitement and suspense in The Stranger. Most readers know nothing about the ideas of existentialism before reading The Stranger and this lack of knowledge results in confusion and frustration with Meursault. It also results in making the reader seem like the prosecuting attorney and jury members at Meursault’s murder trial. In the book, they judged him because of his reactions and relationships and ideas about life and death which ultimately resulted in his execution and condemnation. But, the reader that has a basic understanding of Camus and his philosophical ideas sees that Meursault was the ultimate existentialist and an honest atheist. The principal theme in Camus’ novels is the idea that human life is meaningless. Camus believed that the “absurd” was created through conflict – a conflict between our expectation of a rational world and the reality of a world that doesn’t care about our expectations. The author creates this conflict in The Stranger between the reader and Meursault through the narrator’s internal events; this creates suspense in the novel and provokes curiosity in the reader. Meursault accepts that life is irrational and doesn’t make judgments about others; this explains his friendship with Raymond. Meursault is a trooper, he continues on no matter what happens and when faced with idea of death he opens his mind to the meaning and absurdity of his existence. The author uses these ideas to map Meursault’s life up until the time of his death; this creates suspense by making the reader wonder what Meursault thinks about the path his life has taken. The big question in the novel is Meursault’s ideas about God and religion. A widely accepted idea amongst religious followers is that they must find their value through their religion. Religion is believed to be a “quick fix” to summarize the nature and point of human existence; existentialists like Camus reject religion because they believe the human psyche is too complicated to be categorized. The author creates suspense when the chaplain goes to visit Meursault in his cell and reveals existentialist ideas about death. When the chaplain says that the narrator’s “heart is blind” because he won’t accept that he was born a sinner and accept that God is in control of his life – Meursault snaps. Meursault says he is the only one who knows what is going on in his life and that absolutely nothing mattered in this life. What did other people’s deaths or a mother’s love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we’re all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privilege people like him who also called themselves my brothers?” His internal thoughts reveal many of the fundamentals of existentialism such as taking responsibility for the choices one makes and understanding that nothing in a person’s life is fixed.
In conclusion, Albert Camus uses stream of consciousness, the narrator’s conflict with other characters and subtle inferences into existentialism and absurdity to give Meursault’s internal events like self discovery and change in consciousness the same suspense and climax of external events.
