The Stranger

The Stranger, by Albert Camus, is a novel that is heavily influenced by philosophical views such as existentialism and absurdism. The main character, Meursault, is an emotionless and unpassive person who spends his life with very little motivation. One day, he visits the beach with his friends, and gets into a fight with some Arabs. This led him with the penalty of death after shooting an Arab. However, Meursault seems remorseless in his life in jail, and even on the day of his execution, he is excited about the day when everyone will cheer for his death.

I was surprised to hear that this novel has been read by thousands of people around the world. To me, it seemed that its themes of the irrationality fo the universe, and the meaningless of human life, had made it quite boring for me to read. There was an interesting article, http://www.slate.com/id/2147662, written by John Dickerson, where he explains that the past president George W. Bush had read The Strager. Since it depicts that George W. Bush's relations with the French weren't going very well, it could be possible that George W. Bush read it and made it public to aid his relations with the French. It seems that by George W. Bush reading The Stranger, he's trying to gain a better image on his enemies. Since I'm not a politician, I can't say what I'm saying is correct. But by how John Dickerson is speaking, it seems that George W. Bush is only reading The Stranger to only impress others. It is actually rather hard to say what George W. Bush would be able to benefit from reading this novel. To me, it seems more as if the life of both Meursault and George W. Bush contradicts one another interestingly. As John Dickerson says, "The main character, Meursault, spends much of his life as the young George Bush did, engaging in escapades that demonstrate little drive or motivation."

It is hard to say whether reading The Stranger is beneficial to the readers or not. I feel that the majority of the people will take the novel as something beneficial. The reason to this is that by reading this novel, people who have moral values (which I believe many people have) would oppose towards Meursault's lifestyle. This novel will allow people to distinguish sharply, what is right and what is wrong. Then again, there might be the minority of the people who see Meursault's moral value and think that that's the life they want to have. They want to be free and have no stress about their life. This may cause people to act against law and commit crimes, just like how Meursault did with the Arab.

No matter what, The Stranger has given the readers a great impression.