Literature
The Stranger
CevvelaSummary
The story of a Frenchman named Meursault, his lack of reaction to his mother’s death, and the trial that followed his subsequent murder. A portrait of an absurd man who refuses to bow to society’s moral dictates, rejects the rules of the game, and is completely indifferent to life.
Quotes from Cevvela
“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”
“Everyone knows that life is not worth the trouble of living.”
“A person should be what they are and not play a part.”
“In our society, any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.”
“Nothing has any importance, and I know very well why.”
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Reader Score: 7.2 / 10(1.502 votes)
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Camus’s style is starkly bare. There isn’t a single superfluous adjective, not a single attempt to play on the reader’s emotions. Meursault’s voice is so mechanical and honest that it lays bare the reader’s own hypocrisy. Society sentences him to death not because he committed murder, but because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral—in other words, because he didn’t “play by the rules.” While the author hurls the meaninglessness of existence in our faces, he offers us no consolation in the form of a fabricated meaning. Meursault is so faithful to his own truth that he won’t even lie to save himself. This book shatters the comfort zones built on lies by those who crave society’s approval. True essence only becomes a raw and ruthless reality when completely stripped of the outside world’s expectations.