Summary of The Stranger

 

“Today, Mother died. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”

🌅 A Desert-Like Reality — Meursault's World

The novel begins with Meursault receiving the news of his mother’s death. His reaction is strikingly indifferent. He doesn’t cry. He feels no grief or sorrow. At the funeral, what bothers him most is the blinding sunlight and the discomfort of sweating in his suit. He just wants to leave.

This event marks the first clear rupture between Meursault and the rest of society. He refuses to follow its norms, expectations, or emotions. And so, Meursault becomes an “outsider.”

🌊 Sun, Gunfire, and the Irrevocable Day

After the funeral, Meursault returns to his ordinary life. He spends time with his friend Raymond and begins a casual relationship with a woman named Marie. But one day, under the burning Algerian sun, the ordinary collapses.

After a scuffle, Raymond flees from an Arab man. Later, Meursault stumbles upon the man again. The sun is unbearable, piercing through his eyes like a blade. Breathless and dazed, he draws a gun. He fires once. Then four more times.

He doesn’t give a reason. “It was too hot,” he says. “The sunlight was in my eyes.”

⚖️ A Trial Where Emotion Is the Crime

At his trial, the focus is not on why he killed, but on who he is. The courtroom scrutinizes his lack of emotion. The fact that he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral. That he went swimming and watched a comedy the next day. His crime, in society’s eyes, is not murder — but emotional detachment.

He is sentenced to death. Not because he pulled the trigger, but because he didn’t play the part of a grieving son. Because he didn’t feel what he was expected to feel.

🖤 Realizations at the Edge of Death

In prison, Meursault finally begins to reflect on life and death. He realizes that life may have no inherent meaning — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth living. The sun, the sea, Marie’s laughter, the smell of coffee — he remembers them all. And he believes he truly lived.

Facing execution, Meursault feels at peace. He finds the world beautiful. Only by accepting its absurdity does he become truly free.

💬 What This Book Tells Us 

• The Stranger reveals how quickly society condemns those who do not conform to its emotional and moral expectations.
• Through Meursault, Camus shows that life is absurd — but even within that absurdity, one can find freedom and peace.
• What we should fear is not death, but a life where we are disconnected from our own feelings.