Just finished the stranger – mouth agape. The last chapter with the interaction with the priest was just incredible.
Here’s one of my takes. I’m with the whole existentialism/absurdism perspective of the book but I haven’t seen much discussion further about the character’s peculiar relationship with the world. To me it was clear that Meursault either had an autism spectrum disorder or perhaps less likely antisocial personality disorder.
Throughout the whole book he can’t relate to people. Doesn’t feel emotions or connections to people on the same way they do towards him. He just does whatever seems logical to him. Furthermore he constantly told us he was overwhelmed with sensory stimuli that clouded his ability to “check in with himself.” He killed the Arab “because of the sun.” This is what Salomono was trying to tell the jury- that they weren’t seeing him- he was never malevolent, he was just him. He was never really on trial for murder- he was on trial for being neurodivergent.
And this adds to the absurdity of it all in two ways. 1) Putting someone to death for premeditated murder when we the readers know it was not premeditated at all because the jury can’t relate to the accused’s logic/actions/relationships. 2) we the readers are given this at times very profound philosophical insight to the nature of existence and what it means to be human- but from kind of an unreliable source. One that throughout the course of the book is at times more robotic than human. So are we supposed to agree with his philosophical insights or discount them? Does that make us absurd?
Would love to hear your thoughts on the book in general or anything I’ve brought up here.
by shalurkdows