The Stranger Big Question Blog

The big question, "Is humanity inherently good or evil?" is very relevant to this book in that both examine moral standards. It would be better if humans were inherently good, but the fact that in the entire history of humankind, humans have only been completely peaceful for two hundred something years. To put that into perspective, what science considers the modern human has been around for nearly two hundred thousand years. That doesn't put humans in a very good light does it? The Stranger's main character, Mersault, lives his life according to his physical pleasures. He is detached from what other people consider essential emotions such as love, sadness, and regret. He is unaffected the troubling problems that surround him.

The Stranger raises a lot of questions on the subject of morals. The problem with this, is that this book can be interpreted in more ways than is practical to keep track of. It's a very subjective issue. The other problem is defining morals. What is considered moral? Where is the line drawn in terms of immoral and acceptable? The amount of perspective that is presented in this issue is staggering.

There is one thing that is concrete in nature however, that is Mersault's actions. It's obvious that he should have intervened with his neighbor's beatings of their dog and mistress. It's no question that he shouldn't have killed the Arab on the beach. It's also hard to wrap your head around his detachment to his emotions. And then to complicate matters even more, he starts to experience emotion during his time spent in jail and in the days leading up to his execution. This raises the question of "What does Mersault represent?" Is he a role model in that he found emotions? Or is he a statement about the way society functions, about it's faults and strengths?

I think it's a little of both. First, going back to the beginning of the book, Mersault is best described as neutral. He shows no emotion, no opinions, nothing. As the story progresses and especially near the end he starts to feel, and that is good. You should feel regret for killing a man. You should feel love for your fiancé. So he does end up filling the role of the protagonist in the end. It just took him the entire book to figure out how. Now for his trial, the prosecutor's main focus wasn't on Mersault's crime, it was about his mother's death and funeral. The first thing that's wrong with this is that even though Mersault hadn't had normal emotions at that time, that doesn't excuse the prosecutor for bringing up a subject that is really hard for a lot of people to talk about, especially one that has absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand. The second thing that's wrong with that is that he gets sentenced TO DEATH, not jail time, to death, for shooting a man, because he wouldn't cry at his mother's funeral. The correct thing to do would be to send him to counselling. So that's definitely a jab at the society we live in, in that we don't focus on the problem at hand, we focus on the things we want to pay attention to, and people often get hurt because of it.

So is humanity inherently good or evil. Well if we look at it from The Stranger's perspective, no we are not inherently evil. We are however, irresponsible and highly prone to mistakes.