In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, we found the first-person narration to be a very striking feature in the narrative. A reason the first-person narrative stuck out to us so much involves the different occasions and shifts of the narration. We also found our attentions constantly drawn to the inconsistency of Meursault and his oddly strange actions. Meursault’s narration of most events reveals similarities between his certain traits and a sociopath’s certain traits. He shows little emotion, feeling, and/or remorse towards the world and his actions, along with a lack of any type of ambition. He feels most events don’t matter and are of no importance to him; however, the few feelings he does express and comment on are of physical sensations, such as the sun’s heat and sexual relations with Marie. For example, when Marie asks Meursault if he loved her, he said, “It didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her.” When she goes on to ask, “So why marry me, then?” He replies, “I explained to her that it really didn’t matter… Besides, she was the one doing the asking and all I was saying was yes” (40). This scene shows the suppressed dialogue in the conversation between Marie and Meursault, and a first-person narration of their conversation. However, this narration of their conversation is restricted to the extent of what Meursault wants and chooses to express. This scene portrays an example of how Meursault appears to be indifferent, where as long as he is not burdened and his lifestyle is not affected by change, then “it didn’t make any difference” to Meursault.
The feature of a first-person narrative complicates our experience and interpretation of the text, especially the different occasions and shifts of the narration. The shifts of the narration can be seen and experienced during moments where Meursault’s first-person narration jumps between past, present, and future tense in a particular moment he describes. The effects of the inconsistency in a first-person narrative create frustrations for us while attempting to experience the narrative, because these shifts and different occasions of narration result in difficulties that affect and hinder our attempts to follow and interpret the narrative. Even though we found Meursault’s apparent indifference intriguing, we also noticed the effects it had on our ability to relate to and understand him. This feature created much confusion for us while reading and experiencing the narrative. We found it hard to pinpoint any concrete evidence in the narrative that suggested explanations for why Meursault appeared indifferent; thus, we found it hard to relate and identify with his apparent indifference.
As attempts to come to an understanding of our frustrations from the first-person narrative and Meursault’s apparent indifference, we began researching this question: How does Camus’s use of first-person narrative in The Stranger enhance and limit the reader’s willingness to identify with Meursault’s apparent indifference? We found this question worth addressing because our research findings pointed out many suggestions of different ways of viewing Meursault’s indifference. Some of these findings indicated Meursault’s indifference as an effect of Camus’s unique use of a first-person narrative. We also found trends of certain concepts, such as anatraxy, that underlined meanings and explanations for why Meursault appears indifferent. Another trend we found in our research involves Meursault’s mind as a looking glass for the reader, which helped us view the absurdity of the world and understand Meursault in a better way, instead of labeling him as indifferent. We found a few authors who argued that he only seemed indifferent because he cared too much, and was too honest to himself to be bothered by expressing these traits to the rest of society. Another trend that was found is that Meursault expresses indifference towards the world merely because he finds the world completely absurd.
