Stranger. Outsider. Foreigner. All three words are synonyms, yet each has a distinct connotation. A foreigner is a traveler from another land, ignorant of local customs because they are away from their homeland. A stranger is a fellow neighbor, but an unknown face, perhaps a friend that one hasn’t met yet.
An outsider is someone who should be normal, who should be a part of society, but is instead alienated because of his beliefs. What separates the word stranger from the word outsider? Implied isolation. Thus, The Outsider is a perfect fit for Camus’ work. In Camus’s The Stranger, through Camus’ description of Mersault’s thoughts and actions, and society’s alienating reactions, Camus conveys his philosophy of death rendering life meaningless, which is best captured through the title The Outsider.
The alienation which Mersault experiences because of his view of life as meaningless is best described with the title of The Outsider, through scenes of society’s judgment of Mersault and Mersault’s own apathy. In the first chapter, Mersault attends his Maman’s funeral, but when his Maman’s friends enter the room, he thinks, “For a second, I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me,” (Camus 10).
Mersault’s thoughts during this scene show that he feels alienated by the friends of his mother, making him an outsider even at his own mother’s funeral. He is alienated because he never visited his Maman, due to his belief that since the action offered him no sensory pleasure, it was unnecessary: A belief frowned upon by society. Society expects him to visit his mother, and in not doing so Mersault becomes a nonconformist and an outsider.
The Outsider implies the alienation illustrated in this scene, thus it is an appropriate title for the novel. Later, Mersault is in court, on trial for murdering an Arab. During the trial, the prosecutor claims that Mersault, “…had no place in a society whose most fundamental rules I [Mersault] ignored and that I could not appeal to the same human heart whose elementary response I knew nothing of,” (Camus 102). The prosecutor’s claim demonstrates the alienation which the judgemental society imposes on Mersault because of his controversial views.
The prosecutor focuses almost entirely on Mersault’s background story during the trial instead of the murder itself, alleging that Mersault is, “…morally guilty of killing his mother…” (Camus 101-102). The prosecutor, and society, find Mersault’s way of life to be so contrary to their own expectations that they deem it a criminal offense. So, his claim is based almost entirely off of Mersault’s previous actions, which betray his contentious ideology.
Mersault is yet again alienated from society based on his beliefs, now through legal judgement. He is branded an outsider because of his ignorance of society’s moral standards, an ignorance born out of his melancholy creed of a meaningless life. Furthermore, near the end of the novel, Mersault feels at peace in his cell despite the absurdity of the trial, saying, “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself- so like a brother, really- I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again,” (Camus 122-123).
In saying this, Mersault realizes that his alienation from society is warranted due to his core beliefs. After experiencing the harsh isolation forced upon him by society, he feels a kinship to the universe itself. The kinship he feels is not shared by the rest of society; He is rendered an outcast, an alien, through his lack of the same affinity with society. Thus, The Outsider is a fitting name for the novel because it reflects Mersault’s true identity in the world.
