The Stranger is about a guy who thinks the universe is absolutely pointless. That's why he's completely unfazed when his mother dies. He takes a bus to the city where she had been living and rejects the funeral director's offer to open the coffin. He and the funeral director keep vigil over her body that night. During the vigil, both men smoke and have coffee.
This is traditionally thought of as disrespectful. The director tells Meursault that Thomas Perez, who was close with his mother, will be at the funeral tomorrow. The only thing that Meursault notes of Thomas Perez during the funeral is that he faints from heat exhaustion. He makes no attempts to talk to him. In Chapter 2 Part 1, the day after the funeral, Meursault is back in Algiers.
The first thing he thinks about in the morning is whether his boss is mad at him for having a four-day vacation. He shrugs it off and goes to the beach where he meets an old co-worker, Marie. They go on a date and she stays over at his place.
When he wakes up the next morning, she's gone and he people watches on the balcony until noon. In chapter 3 part 1, the next day, Merceau returns to work as a shipping clerk, has lunch with his friend Emmanuel, and then heads home. When Merceau gets home, he sees Salamano with his dog.
Next, he sees Raymond. Raymond, who is a pimp, invites Merceau over for dinner. After Raymond describes to Merceau about how he beat up his mistress and then fought her brother, Raymond asks Merceau to write an insidious letter for him. Raymond wants to lure the mistress back and then humiliate her. Merceau basically lives life on autopilot.
and agrees to write the letter, even though it's meant to hurt people. In Chapter 4 Part 1, Marie and Meursault are hanging out at his place when she asks if he loves her. He replies he doesn't.
From the hall, they hear Raymond fighting with his mistress. When a policeman comes, he slaps Raymond. Later, Raymond comes over to ask Meursault to be a witness in his defense, and he agrees.
Then we have a scene with poor old Salamano who has lost his dog. He screams that he's not going to pay a dime to get a dog back that he hates. But later that night, Meursault hears Salamano crying in his room.
In Chapter 5, Part 1, Meursault, a friend of Raymond, invites Meursault and Mary to the beach with them on the weekend. Later that same day, Meursault gets offered a position and he barely reacts. His boss dismisses him, who is frustrated at his lack of ambition.
When Meursault gets home later that night, Marie asks Meursault if he will marry her. Meursault replies uncaringly, but accepts the proposition. Marie says she can't join Meursault for dinner that night. So, Meursault is eating alone at a cafe that night when he spots a woman robotically flipping through radio channels.
When she leaves, Meursault briefly follows her. In the last scene of the chapter, Salamano is waiting at Meursault's door to talk about the love-hate relationship he has with his dog. In Chapter 6 Part 1, this is the day that Meursault, Marie, and Raymond go to the beach with Meursault and his wife. The group swims in the ocean and then has lunch. After lunch, Meursault and Raymond take a walk and are jumped by a group of Arabs, one of whom is the mistress'brother.
Meursault and Raymond retreat when Raymond's face gets slashed. Raymond goes to a doctor and then after returns to the beach with a gun. Merceau takes it from Raymond and sends him back to the beach house.
Merceau is going to finish his stroll on the beach alone, but then when Merceau continues, he happens to run into the brother again. The brother threateningly shows his knife and Merceau shoots him. Then he shoots his body four more times.
In Chapter 1, Part 2, Meursault is in jail when his lawyer and the judge take a threatening interest in Meursault. Meursault's own defense lawyer is repulsed by his lack of remorse after his mother's death, and the judge, who can't accept that Meursault doesn't believe in God, calls him Mr. Antichrist. In Chapter 2, Part 2, Marie visits once, but then is barred because she and Meursault aren't married.
Meursault can't stop thinking about the pleasures he once had, like cigarettes and Mary, but he eventually adjusts and stops craving them. To escape the boredom, Meursault recounts every detail of his life. his apartment. His mattress is made partially of newspaper, and one day, Meursault finds a story. It's of a mother and daughter who accidentally kill their own son and brother.
After they realize what they've done, they commit suicide. In Chapter 3, Part 2, when the trial begins, it is packed. The news picked up the story during a slow summer.
The judge puts Meursault's lack of remorse at the center of the trial. Witnesses start testifying, starting with the funeral director. He testifies that Meursault showed no emotion at his mother's funeral and even smoked at her vigil. Thomas Perez testifies that he didn't notice anything of Meursault as he was too sad. The prosecution also notes that Meursault's relationship started the weekend after the funeral.
In Chapter 4, Part 2, the prosecution condemns Meursault. as a menace to society and states that he deserves to be put to death. The prosecutor reasons that Meursault's lack of morality make him guilty of this case as well as the case of Parasite that they are trying after Meursault's case.
When Meursault is asked what his motives were for killing the Arab, he stumbles and blurts out that it was because of the sun. At the end of the chapter, Meursault is found guilty and is to be decapitated. In Chapter 5 Part 2, after having been condemned to die, Meursault is filled with erratic thoughts.
First, he tries to grasp onto some hope that he could survive by chance. Then he talks about a time his father saw an execution. Later, he thinks about the morality of a victim of a guillotine being forced to wish that the guillotine should go off without a hitch.
Since otherwise it would cause enormous pain. The chaplain has already tried to visit three times when he visits again. The priest cannot understand why Meursault would still reject God, even in his final hour. When the priest tries to force religion on Meursault, who is a non-believer, Meursault gets frustrated and yells at him, saying that nothing matters and that he can't prove God exists.
The novel ends with Meursault waiting for the guards. to come bring him to be executed.