Guided Discussion: The Nakedness of the Absurd in Albert Camus' "The Stranger"

The Stranger, Albert Camus' masterpiece, tells us the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. For Camus, this novel captured "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

And what did Camus mean by the “absurd”?

As the story opens, Meursault, the protagonist, receives word that his mother has died, but he only wants to know whether she died that day or the day before. Two days after her funeral, he murders an Arab, “stating that the sun was relentlessly beating down on him.”  Later, while on trial for murder, Meursault thinks, "I felt the urge to reassure [the prosecutor] that I was like everybody else ... but there wasn’t much point, and I gave up the idea out of laziness."

Camus believed that neither God, governments, teachers, or other authorities created meaning, but rather individuals themselves. This question will be explored within the context of Camus’s haunting portrait of a young man unknowingly in conflict with his culture.

About the Moderator:  Chris Douglass, a retired Scarsdale High School English department head and literature discussion leader. Douglass will be teaching two workshops intended to elicit group discussions about two writers’ contrasting creations of character and faith.

Note: This is the second session of a two-part seminar illustrating the schism in Western faith after World War I. Enrollment is limited to 15 participants.