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A review by dejnozkova
The Stranger by Albert Camus
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A pretty thoughtful piece about how we are often quick to accuse the “other” just for being different rather than considering the facts fairly. That said this one didn’t quite hold my attention and it was a bit slow to start. Or maybe it only felt too slow because the protagonist was purposely devoid of intense emotion which made it difficult for me to tightly cling to the story. I’m an emotional reader so take that bias into account.
I notice that some people kinda miss why this story is “special” and one comment highlighted this but I can’t find it again. But the whole thing is that this white settler shot an Arab man dead because the Arab man brandished a knife. And so the case could be made for self-defense and the white dude should’ve got off on this easily considering the time period; in French-occupied Algeria the settler would’ve been favored and this case would’ve been shut. Even in the story the protagonist remarks that the majority of the people in prison tend to be Arabs —a mark of the oppression of the locals. The thing is the protagonist is sentenced to death on the grounds that his behaviors are strange, he lacks conviction, and he doesn’t exhibit strong feelings about much of anything so he MUST be a cold-blooded murderer. And for his strangeness alone he is sentenced to die rather than receiving an “unbiased” trial. So he, a white man who should have privilege in such a system, is grouped with the locals who are also misunderstood under the authority of the colonial power. Highlighting that Otherness is more of a threat than objective criminality. Deviancy is the sin of this story, not murder (even though the murder should’ve been the focus, but a court such as the one in the book couldn’t care less about the death of an Arab).
Of course there’s a lot to be said about the racial and colonial politics at play here but that was the general gist I got.
I notice that some people kinda miss why this story is “special” and one comment highlighted this but I can’t find it again. But the whole thing is that this white settler shot an Arab man dead because the Arab man brandished a knife. And so the case could be made for self-defense and the white dude should’ve got off on this easily considering the time period; in French-occupied Algeria the settler would’ve been favored and this case would’ve been shut. Even in the story the protagonist remarks that the majority of the people in prison tend to be Arabs —a mark of the oppression of the locals. The thing is the protagonist is sentenced to death on the grounds that his behaviors are strange, he lacks conviction, and he doesn’t exhibit strong feelings about much of anything so he MUST be a cold-blooded murderer. And for his strangeness alone he is sentenced to die rather than receiving an “unbiased” trial. So he, a white man who should have privilege in such a system, is grouped with the locals who are also misunderstood under the authority of the colonial power. Highlighting that Otherness is more of a threat than objective criminality. Deviancy is the sin of this story, not murder (even though the murder should’ve been the focus, but a court such as the one in the book couldn’t care less about the death of an Arab).
Of course there’s a lot to be said about the racial and colonial politics at play here but that was the general gist I got.