The Stranger Rhetorical Analysis

In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator’s monotonous tone makes the reader experience a lack of emotion and feeling. The novel starts off describing Mersault’s current job and how he must go on leave in order to attend his mother’s funeral. He and his mother have been disconnected for some time as they had come to a mutual agreement with her staying in an elderly home. Mersault, the main protagonist, did not have the money or time to tend to his mother. The elderly home was the best option for the both of them. When he returns home from the funeral, Mersault gets caught up in external affairs he should not be in. He ends up writing a break up letter to Raymond’s girlfriend, which drives the rest of the story. Raymond beats his

Mersault ends up shooting the Arabian brother and is tried in court. Mersault’s insensitivity and ignorance regarding his mother’s death, Raymond’s abuse, and the murder leaves the reader in a bleak mood after experiencing such a dry, emotionless tone. Mersault’s attitude towards his mother’s death exemplifies and introduces the reader to his lack of remorse. The opening sentence of the novel shows how indifferent he is as he has no guilt for not being there for his mother nor grief for her passing when receiving the telegram notifying him of her sudden death, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know” (Camus 3). He is very direct and his diction offers short, little details, evoking the attitude of disregard in Mersault. When approaching his boss for two days off, he does not show any sign of emotion, but tries to justify the reason for his leaving as his mother’s fault. The funeral director takes him to his mother’s coffin, to find that it has already been sealed. To the caretaker’s and director’s surprise, Mersault does not want it to be opened. He does not mind that they have skipped past formalities of allowing close family members to view their deceased relatives by sealing

By writing this letter, Mersault gets himself into an ironic situation where he ends up killing the man that Raymond was supposed to kill. Moreover, Mersault does not feel guilty for his actions dating back to his mother’s funeral to now as he is put on trial for the murder he should not have been involved in. At the point in the novel, all the events that have happened are being brought up against Mersault in his murder trial. Attendees of his mother’s funeral are present as witnesses to describe Mersault’s actions at her funeral. Mersault was in total acceptance of the situation and did not think much of it as the witnesses on the stand describe him to be careless and unloving. One begins to feel sympathetic and understanding of Mersault’s situation after all this evidence is being wrongly used against him. The tone of the novel shifts to a more serious and concerning mood. By contrast, Mersault’s emotionless tone stays constant as he is being falsely accused, without bursting into an outrage. Marie is brought to the stand and the prosecutor begins to explain uncorrelated events based on fallacious beliefs in an order that makes it seem as though Mersault murdered his own mother and the