The Stranger Tone

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In literature the tone of the narrator is a key point when developing a story. Tone is the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, or situation. In The Stranger the author, Albert Camus, creates an unemotional tone throughout the book. In The Stranger the narrator, Meursault’s, unemotional tone develops due to the death of his mother and the murder he commits. The first few sentences draw the reader's attention because of the cold and emotionless start the novel has. "Mother died today. Or, maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: 'YOUR MOTHER PASSED. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY.' Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday" (Camus 1). Meursault’s careless response to his …show more content…

After Meursault had no emotion when his mom died he continued having no emotion later on in the novel, when he murdered a man whom he shot several times while at a friend's beach house. Meursault then had a trial because of the life he had taken, but he did not seem to care that he would be going to jail and could be executed. When he got in jail he had told himself “and I decided that, if ever I got out of jail, I'd attend every execution that took place" (Camus 138). This line in the novel shows the reader how cold hearted Meursault really is that he would go watch criminals die if he ever was a free man once again. Meursault discusses his guilty feeling with himself while in jail but realizes guilt is an emotion and wishes to lose that feeling. "I was saddled with a load of guilt, of which I must get rid" (Camus 148). Albert Camus continues to show the reader the little emotion the narrator has by including his selfishness and also never sparing anyones feelings or beliefs. “I went close up to him and made a last attempt to explain that I'd very little time left, and I wasn't going to waste it on God. I hurled insults at him, I told him not to waste his rotten prayer on me" (Camus 151). Meursault also shows his selfishness when he states "almost for the first time in many months I thought of my mother." (Camus 153). In the last couple

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