The final novel in the “Men are Monsters” senior English unit, this existential tale offers perhaps the most human, and most monstrous, character so far – Meursault.
The final novel in the “Men are Monsters” senior English unit, this existential tale offers perhaps the most human, and most monstrous, character so far – Meursault.
November 11, 2009 at 2:09 pm |
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a dreadful, nonchalant story of a man with no feeling. Have you ever met a person that didn’t care about anyone at all? Chances are you haven’t. Because whether people want to admit it or not, they care about someone or something for some reason or another. The main character, Meursault, lives his life repeating his daily cycle with little to no changes. He’s okay with the fact that he lives in an inner-city apartment while his mother sits in a home. He doesn’t mind the neighbor that beats his dog or the pimp that has befriended him upstairs. He likes watching the people pass by and the birds that come and go. All these insignificant details have nothing to do with Meursault’s story, because there really is no point to Meursault’s story. Just like any other author would, Camus has some rising action leading up to the story’s climax. Then there’s some falling action leading to the resolution, which surprisingly ends in some remorse for the way he has treated the people in his life.
Viviana, senior
November 11, 2009 at 2:12 pm |
Monsieur Meursault is the most passive man in the history of the world. You pick up his story immediately after his mother’s death, and you quickly learn he does not care about hardly anything. The rest of the book is about a series of events that would really test the average human’s wits, but not Meursault.
I really enjoyed this story. It isn’t long and dragged out. It gets right to the point. It is narrated by the main character, Meursault, and the way he evaluates situations will keep you entertained. I recommend it to people who enjoy thinking, because this story leaves a lot up to the readers to figure out for themselves.
Nathan, senior
November 12, 2009 at 2:42 am |
This story is about a man named M. Meursault who loses his mother. Not knowing the date of his mother’s death, he is viewed as a callous, hardened man. His neighbor Raymond asks for Meursault’s help by having him write a nasty letter to a former ex-girlfriend in hopes of getting the girl back. Only to have this plan go up in smoke, Raymond gets the cops called on him for making excessive noise.
Meursault meets a girl named Marie at the pool and they have a thing through the book. Raymond invites the two of them to a summer home of his friend, Masson. At the summer home, Raymond, Masson, and Meursault run into some foes of Raymond and they get into a scrap in which Raymond gets injured. With good intentions, Meursault goes back onto the beach later that day, only the be faced with an unexpected circumstance…
While in jail for his actions at the beach, he awaits his trial. Trying to make the days go by faster, he amuses himself with mind games and observing minor details of his cell. On the day of his trial, he receives an unexpected sentence…
Brandon, senior
November 12, 2009 at 2:50 am |
This book is written by Albert Camus. Meursault is the main character. Meursault’s mother dies, and he had never had a chance to visit her. Meursault doesn’t even look at his mother’s body before it was buried. He then returned to his own personal life. He meets up with this girl named Marie. Marie and Meursault had history together before. Meursault then meets up with Raymond. Raymond and Meursault then have a double date with their girlfriends. Then Raymond and Meursault meet up with Masson. They got into a fight with some Arabs, after which Meursault returns to the beach with Masson’s revolver…
David, senior
November 12, 2009 at 2:52 am |
The Stranger begins with Meursault going to his mother’s vigil, or wake. She lived in a home that he paid for her to stay in. You see in this section of the book that he doesn’t really care about anything, but he gets embarrassed a lot. He doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral; he leaves quickly when it’s over. This comes back to haunt him when he faces trial. He faces many trials, but the biggest trial he faces is himself. The way Camus portrays the character of Meursault is intriguing. Meursault is not a passionate character. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone. He just goes through the motions of life with one attitude. But yet I want to read more, to kind of see how he handles the next dilemma that comes his way. Overall I like this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants an interesting read.
Lydia, senior
November 12, 2009 at 2:58 am |
The Stranger is about a man, Meursault, who’s just living life. It starts with his mother dying and him getting a telegram telling him. He doesn’t cry or show emotions, just takes two days off from work. He goes to the vigil, which is pretty much a wake, and drinks coffee and smokes. Thomas Perez is the only man from his mom’s home that is allowed to go to the funeral. Later, he meets Marie. He and Marie sleep together, twice, and then they talk about marriage. Raymond, Marie, and Meursault go to Raymond’s friend, Masson’s, house at the beach. Masson, Marie, and Meursault all go swimming and then come back for lunch. The boys go out for a walk while the girls clean up. The boys get are getting stalked and panic. Raymond has the gun, but Meursault takes it so he doesn’t shoot anyone. They have an altercation with the Arabs and Raymond gets stabbed. They all go back and Meursalt goes back out and…
Ashlyn, senior
November 12, 2009 at 3:38 am |
The Stranger is an all right story. For the most part I think it’s a good book. The main character is Meursault. In the beginning of the story, he finds out that his mother had died. He starts to feel guilty about it because he thinks it’s his fault that she died because he’s the one who had put her in a nursing home. When he arrives to her home, a lot of people greet him in a nice manner. Many people tell Meursault about his mother, like how nice she was and that she was a wonderful person. They also told him that he shouldn’t feel guilty about this because his mother didn’t mind living in the home because she had many friends and people who she knew cared for her. Later on in the story Meursault and his friend Raymond were on the beach and they ran into some Arabs. Right then they knew there was going to be trouble because Raymond was seeing an Arab girl and he had beaten her and now he knew he was gonna get it. One of the Arabs had stabbed Raymond and then Meursault had took his gun and shot one of them. Meursault ends up going to jail for shooting an Arab. I don’t think that Mersault should be in prison for the rest of his life because if you look at the situation it was kind of self defense. But then again, he wasn’t the one that was in trouble in the first place. It was his friend, but I would have probably done the same thing because I wouldn’t be able to just sit there and watch my friend get stabbed and not do anything about it.
Mollie, senior
November 12, 2009 at 3:49 am |
Meursault is a single man whose mother dies. He goes to her funeral and seems to feel no grief, no remorse. He returns home and befriends a woman named Marie. They spend time together and Marie soon asks him to marry her. One day, Marie and Meursault decide to go to the beach. Meursault brings his friend and neighbor Raymond. Raymond has problems with some Arabs who seem to be following the 3 friends. They arrive at the beach and one of the Arabs stabs Raymond. Meursalt shots the Arab and finds himself in a world of trouble.
Anthony, senior
November 12, 2009 at 4:13 am |
If you are looking to read something that you can easily depict visually in your head, please read “The Stranger.” When Meursault wakes on a subtle morning, he comes to find that his mother has passed away. His emotions become obvious through his rich vocabulary, depicting how he really couldn’t succumb to his mother’s death. Meursault is a very calm and realistic man. He doesn’t bother arguing, because it means no importance to him. He meets his dream girl soon after her death and he begins to realize that she is the key to letting him feel again, after being bottled up living with his mother for so long. This a truly compelling tale of a misunderstood ordinary man.
Chad, senior
November 12, 2009 at 4:16 am |
The Stranger by Albert Camus is an excellent short story. It is about a man named Meursault. The story opens up by him getting news of his mother passing. Meursault is a very reserved man. He has no care about anyone except himself. He later meets up with a girl named Marie. She likes him a lot but he once again doesn’t care. In the story he comes across a man named Raymond. They do very bad things, and it gets Meursault into a good bit of trouble. I feel that the story was very well put together. The ending is a bit slow and boring, but the rest of the book is worth your time. I strongly suggest to read this book.
Khris, senior
November 12, 2009 at 4:21 am |
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of existentialism. At the beginning of the story, the main character Meursault’s mother dies, and Meursault doesn’t really seem to care, because he just sees it as death and it’s just a part of life. He is forced to go home to where he grew up. After he gets there, he becomes friends with a few new people, for instance the pimp Raymond next door, and his new love Marie. Later in the novel Meursault is faced with the challenge of a fight between two Arabs and his new friend Raymond and Masson. After a crime is committed, Meursault is sentenced to prison and the reader follows him through the trial process and Meursault’s thoughts on life in prison. This story begins as one that a reader would not think is something they would like to continue reading, but as he or she continues, the book becomes more interesting and it pulls the reader in to want to finish. Also, it is a quick read which is also helpful because reading it is not a difficult task to take on.
Christina, senior
November 12, 2009 at 4:49 am |
In this novel, M. Meursault is introduced as a single, middle aged man who has a job, an apartment, and a few friends. His business life was put on hold one day when a letter had came saying that his mother had passed away at her nursing home. M. Meursault tells his boss he is sorry that she had to die today and not another day. M. Meursault goes to see his mother in Marengo, for the vigil held in respects of his mother. At the vigil, he then asks the caretaker for a cigarette and white coffee. Normally people don’t smoke and drink white coffee at a vigil. After the vigil, he returns home to return to work.
One day he runs into an old friend named Marie. The two of them get together and become best of friends. Marie asks M. Meursault if he will marry her. Meursault is non-committal. Marie was disappointed but didn’t give up. M. Meursault and Marie get together another day to go to the bungalow on the beach where they would meet up with Masson and his wife. Masson and Meursault take a stroll along the beach where they come upon Arabs. Both groups get into a scuffle. Meursault becomes dizzy and things seem to become a blur to his eyes as to what happens to him. See why everything becomes stranger…
Ben, senior
November 12, 2009 at 4:54 am |
The stranger is a book written by Albert Camus. We are introduced to the main character Meursault. The book begins with him attending the vigil and then funeral of his deceased mother. Though he claims to love her as much as anyone, he shows little emotion and even smokes a cigarette with one of the “inmates” at the home. Throughout the course of the book, you’re introduced to minor characters who play roles in the rising action in which Meursault commits a crime. In court much of his trial is based around his lack of emotion towards human life including his own.
Matt, senior
November 12, 2009 at 5:03 am |
The Stranger is a thrilling novel that shows you the life of a simple man named Meursault. He makes many life-changing decisions throughout his journey in this novel. From going to a funeral home, to days by the waterside, he is confronted by prison time, to what could be the end of his road. Death is a major part of this novel. People that are close to him die or come close to death’s door.
What seems to be his day-to-day life is going to work, eating lunch at Celeste’s, and finishing up the work day – dining with his girlfriend or other friends. This is all changed by one hot day at the beach. He races from fights at the shore to cleaning up at the bungalow. The Arabs cannot be trusted by him or his friends. The people that surround him would say he is an honest person, like Salamano the man with the dog, his pimp friend Raymond, his beloved girlfriend Marie. When judged by others, the words of a few friends cannot help save your fate. The Stranger is a quick read. It is easy to follow by any interest because of Meursault’s personality. I personal enjoyed the read because of its easy vocabulary. Also I found Meursault to be an interesting person. At first you don’t understand where he is coming from but toward the end it all comes together.
Meursault starts out as a jerk, and is still a cold-blooded, ruthless jerk towards Marie. Meeting Raymond is what started this whole mess. Raymond’s a pimp. That pretty much spells it out. Raymond wanted to pay his girl back for cheating him out, so he had Meursault write her a letter so he could meet up with her and pay her back. Her brother must have found out, because Raymond kept on having an Arab spying on him and when he and Meursault go to his friend Masson’s beach bungalow, the Arab’s there too. A fight between a few Arabs, Masson, and Raymond breaks out while Meursault stands back. Meursault never wanted this whole mess to start, but Raymond ends up getting injured and they all leave the Arabs. Raymond and Masson go to a doctor and when they get back Raymond wants to go after the Arabs. He doesn’t want anyone going with him but being a good friend, Meursault goes along. The two find the Arabs and Meursault takes Raymond’s gun so Raymond can fight them, but they disappear, and Raymond and Meursault go back to the bungalow. While Raymonds climbs the stairs up to the bungalow, Meursault decides to stay on the beach. He then sees Raymond’s Arab and takes one wrong step. The Arab takes out his knife and holds it up to him. Meursault grips the revolver he still has from Raymond, and it fires. He then fire four more times. Meursault should never have taken the gun from Raymond. He should never have helped him write that letter. Meursault’s life changes after making that one friend. What will happen to him? Will he change his ways or fall deeper and deeper?
Andrew, senior
November 12, 2009 at 5:05 am |
I wouldn’t say The Stranger by Albert Camus was one of my favorite books. Talking about the death of Meursault’s mother, I thought was the wrong way to start off a book because it kind of lost my interest right in the beginning. I also didn’t like how the main character, Meursault, had a rude personality through the whole book in most situations. He acts like no one really matters, including his own mother. He had no idea she died until the day after it happened, and he didn’t know how old she was. Him smoking at her vigil and not even wanting to see her before they closed her casket shows how little he really cared about her. He acts as if he doesn’t really care about his girlfriend, Marie either. Some of the events and characters are very random throughout the book which I don’t like. The scene on the beach with the Arab sets a completely different mood for the book after talking about death, and all the fighting going on back at his apartment building.
Danielle, senior