2011.3.

21 L’Étranger (Ward English Translation) 1

AP English Annotations Dan Parker

Part 1
Part 1: Chapter 1
1. (Page 3) Is “Maman” just a French way to say “mother”? “Old people’s home” is a funny way to
say it; a euphemism is almost always used instead. This means there is either very plain diction or a
translation into very plain diction. “Everyone felt very sorry for me”: he feels nothing himself.
2. (Page 4) “. . . I started to explain”: he appears very insecure with himself, prosecuted almost.
3. (Page 5) “Muffled jabber of parakeets”: for me, this imagery reminds me of a pet store, in which there
are rows upon rows of caged birds. This could easily be a commentary on “Old people’s homes”.
4. (Page 6) “sawhorses”: rather funny implements to use to hold up a coffin; a table would be much more
appropriate and respectful. This may be trying to demonstrate the lack of respect for the dead in this
place. “Arab nurse”: what were French views on foreigners at this point? Nowadays, there is a large
anti-immigrant fervor in some political groups there.

5. (Page 7) “Then I remembered that. . . ”: this guy is clearly an unreliable narrator. He already related
that meeting, but failed to mention this entire part of the conversation. He is, therefore, selectively
reporting incidents which occur. This is a very Modernist style.
6. (Page 8) “I like milk in my coffee, so I said yes”: this is not a rational decision-making process.
Normally, one would base this decision on whether he or she likes coffee and then possibly ask for the
milk to be withheld.
7. (Page 9) “It was pleasant; . . . I think I dozed off for a while.”: the semicolon and long sentence
contributes to the drowsy scene being described, but the feeling is abruptly terminated by the short
sentence directly afterwards. Strangely contradictory.

8. (Page 10) “I wished I didn’t have to listen to her anymore”: why is he so allergic to sadness at his own
mother’s death? Out of guilt perhaps? The understated narration leaves the audience to fill in their
own reason.
9. (Page 11) “every cough was like a convulsion”: why use a simile there? A metaphor is much more
natural and appropriate. This may be an artifact of the translation, or perhaps the style of the French
language, with which I am unacquainted.

10. (Page 12) “I breathed. . . and I wasn’t sleepy anymore”: the long sentence again contrasts with the
stated lack of tiredness. Could this be a subtle hint that this man cannot judge himself accurately?
11. (Page 13) “Thomas Pérez”: this is only the second name that’s been given so far. Except for Céleste,
all the rest of the characters have merely been given titles.

12. (Page 14) Finally, a name! This again points to the Modernist style, where the protagonist is so
unimportant that he is not named until more than 10% of the way through the book. Even now,
it appears to be a last name only. This is probably sufficient evidence to view him as an everyman
character.
13. (Page 15) “Strange, floppy, thick-rimmed ears”: asyndeton. This gives the impression of Meursault
(henceforth abbreviated by M.) being extremely nervous, eyes darting everywhere. Could the use of
the word ‘strange’ be significant in and of itself? Who is this Strange anyway? M. could certainly
qualify, he’s a stranger from himself it seems.
“rows of cypress trees”: these populated the Greek underworld and are associated with grief and death
— but there is no blatant description of grief, nor even an understated one.
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AP English Annotations Dan Parker

14. (Page 16) How does M. notice Pérez’ plight without feeling some compassion or taking a move to
help him? How does he know so little about his own mother? This man is completely, inhumanly
self-centered and non-empathetic.
15. (Page 17) “I could feel the blood pounding in my temples”: possibly a double entendré. This could be
from the heat, but it might just as well be from strong emotion such as fear or the like. Cf. Watson
waiting with Holmes in the cellar in The Adventure of the Red-Headed League. The nurse’s statement
is a wonderful no-win scenario, which M. seems inordinately attracted to.
16. (Page 18) The ending sentence of the chapter displays extreme asyndeton, making the events rush
together. This could be because he is feverish from the heat, or that the events are unimportant. How
can M. think the funeral of his own mother is unimportant?

Part 1: Chapter 2
1. (Page 19) The whole thing with the boss is strange. The boss is the first person with direct unambiguous
authority over M., but his views on authority don’t exactly seem to be the focus of his fixation on his
boss’ comment.

2. (Page 20) “Besides, you always feel a little guilty”: this is the first (unless I’ve missed something)
emotion he’s mentioned the whole time. Unless he’s deliberately lying, when he says ‘little’ here, it
means that he had no reaction whatsoever to what happened through the whole first chapter.
3. (Page 22) “the sky had taken on a reddish glow”: the sky is about the only thing that he has been
mentioned in the passive voice this entire book. Most of his descriptions to be something of the form
‘I saw. . . ’. The syntax shows his self-centered personality, from which little is excepted.
4. (Page 24) “that, really, nothing had changed”: very fatalist view of his mother’s death. The appositive
lessens the strength of the statement, but only slightly. A very grim and morally repulsive statement.

Part 1: Chapter 3
1. (Page 25) “he was sorry but it was only a minor detail”: most of the dialogue is like this — no actual
quotation, just giving the impression of the words. Very unreliable. Of course what the boss actually
said is not provided alongside for comparison.

2. (Page 27) “the dog in terror, the man in hatred”: parallelism. The is again distorted by translation,
but this passage really seems to stand out anyway. This is a comparison of man vs. animal, but I fail
to see the point being made. Possibly that humans at not morally elevated, but only hold more power.
3. (Page 28) “Besides, I don’t have any reason not to talk to him.”: from a logical point of view this
statement is correct, anyone with any feeling with see that the man should be ostracized for his
“profession”, if it merits the name.
4. (Page 30) “It was clear”: is it not clear at all. There could be a dozen explanations. How is M. so
naı́ve to agree with him?
5. (Page 32) “He asked if I didn’t mind and I said no.”: again the same type of decision-making. No
reason not to do something, therefore it’s not bad. It is now certain that this man has no understanding
of emotions or the consequences of his actions. How is he capable of living in adult society?
6. (Page 33) “blood pounding in my ears”: again the blood in his ears. What is the cause this time?
Guilt again?
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AP English Annotations Dan Parker

Part 1: Chapter 4
1. (Page 35) “She looked sad”: he has absolutely no idea why she looks sad. To him, it is no more than
a brief observation of her facial muscles.
2. (Page 38) “because I don’t like that”: so he does have a limit to his depravity. This whole book could
be seen as no more than an exploration of a man with no emotion.
3. (Page 39) “excuse me, excuse me”: this creates such a pitiful and contradictory image, of a man
mourning a dog he hated with all his heart. How could he have gotten into such a situation? I think
it’s an allegory for something, but I don’t see what.

Part 1: Chapter 5
1. (Page 40) “but that wasn’t it at all”: the frequent use of subordinating conjunction relating to previous
sentences make the narrative choppy, which shows how unsure of the world M. is.
2. (Page 43) “robotlike”: is this women supposed to be a foil for M.? She acts out a very specific chore-
ography without rhyme or reason giving no hint of her purpose. ‘Robots’ are, of course, emotionless,
as is M. If she is a foil, then what is the difference? M. does seem to intently notice unimportant,
unnamed people frequently.
3. (Page 45) “run-in every now and then”: respect for the dead. Of course, it is a dog being referred to,
but as real and as lost as any person by its owner. This is most certainly a foil for M.’s own mother,
who is human, but missed not at all.

Part 1: Chapter 6
1. (Page 49) “whitest asphodels”: the name of the flower cannot be a coincidence. Having already read
the book, this is quite obviously foreshadowing, but very subtle.
2. (Page 50) “we felt a closeness as we moved in unison and were happy”: the first person plural pronoun
sticks out. M. is very individual and it seems against his personality to use it. Does he actually have
some feelings for Marie then?
3. (Page 52) “Mason, Raymond, and I”: certainly he feels much less companionship with the men, as he
uses a cumbersome three-part subject instead of “the men” or “we”, or some other alternative.
4. (Page 54) “Mason lunged forward.”, “We didn’t dare move”: short sentences to give quickness to the
action. This makes the fight more exciting, faster-paced and more lifelike.
5. (Page 56) “between the sea, the sand, and the sun, and the double silence of the flute and the water”:
strangely, this is not a usage of tricolon crecens, but a description with four items, the last being longer,
with polysyndeton. It slows down the action considerably.
6. (Page 58) “I could feel my forehead swelling under the sun”: this seems very similar to the blood
rushing in his ears — a vivid description, but not of a type that makes sense in emotional terms.
7. (Page 59) “all the veins in it [M.’s forehead] throbbing under the skin”: there’s his rushing blood again.
It’s certainly a motı́f at this point.
8. (Page 60) “The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; and there, in that noise, sharp
and deafening at the same time, is where it all started.”: a very long sentence with two semicolons and
a large appositive. Camus is doing everything he possibly can to slow down the action of the moment
of the shot, recording every internal sensation. The imagery of the outside world at this point is almost
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AP English Annotations Dan Parker

apocalyptic, with “the sky split open. . . to rain down fire”. It is curious that the effect of the shot is
never explicitly described. The man clearly dies from the first shot, but M. doesn’t tell us that.
“four quick times on the door of unhappiness”: again four, not three. Camus could be making some
sort of point that this was sort of an unholy death by avoiding the usual auspicious number of times
for doing something.

Part 2
Part 2: Chapter 1
1. (Page 63) “my arrest”: a very passive way of describing the situation; more naturally he might have
said “after I was arrested”, especially to remain in keeping with the style of the first half.
2. (Page 64) “I was even going to shake his hand but, just in time, I remembered that I had killed a
man”: this rhymes, which may or may not be intentional or present in the original. At any rate, there
is more faulty logic of the type used with his boss and the coffee. Why is it that being a murderer
prevents you from shaking hands?
3. (Page 68) “that part he couldn’t understand.”: ‘understand’ jumps out from being at the end of the
paragraph, and I’d bet it’s the same in the original. M. doesn’t explain to the audience why he paused
either. I’m not certain if he expects it to be clear without an explanation.
4. (Page 71) “Monsieur Antichrist”: well, a good thing the magistrate isn’t biased against atheists or
anything. I don’t clearly understand Camus’ message about religion. He has these very religion French
people and a plot that superficially confirms their view that atheists are evil people, but he doesn’t
make it seems like M. is evil. Piteous is closer.

Part 2: Chapter 2
1. (Page 74) “We stopped talking and Marie went on smiling”: if it were anyone but M. they would be
wildly in love, it seems.
2. (Page 76) “ ‘Goodbye Maman’ ”: here is another foil for M. — even in the depths of a prison, everyone
is kinder to the people they know than he is. Did he know at this point that it would be the last time
Marie was able to visit? It sounds as if he’s forcing himself not to leave the visiting area.
3. (Page 78) “and it wasn’t a punishment anymore”: maybe it’s a factor of the time of writing, but surely
M. and everyone else at that time would have known about nicotine withdrawal. His description is
curiously childlike. It reminds me of Gump more than anything.
4. (Page 81) “all that time I had been talking to myself”: but what did he say? It’s extremely frustrating
not to know. Incredibly imagery of his facial expression; it brings a very clear and depressing picture
to mind.

Part 2: Chapter 3
1. (Page 83)“I was even interested in seeing a trial”: the gerund makes the situation quite impersonal
and shows how removed M. is both from himself and from the proceedings. I should have asked far
before this, but is he crazy?
2. (Page 86) “She was staring straight at me.”: this other women is back. Unlike many books this year,
this one does not seem to be sexist, so the women are characters in and of themselves. There is nothing
in the plot advanced by her presence, so Camus must be trying to make some specific point. Is she
supposed to be some biblical allusion somehow?
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AP English Annotations Dan Parker

3. (Page 87) “it irritated me”: an emotion! He seems to have no idea of the rhetorical style being
used against him, in which the judge seems complicit (which strikes me as unjust, but I don’t fully
understand Algerian court proceedings so many he was asked to engage in this line of questioning by
the prosecution).
4. (Page 90) “I could feel how much all these people hated me.”: again a childlike way of looking at
things. He picks up on this hate, but regards himself as a passive receptacle for it, not an active cause.
5. (Page 91) “a stranger may offer”: very close to the title of the book. There are lots of strangers. Many
of the characters have no names. M. is a stranger from himself and a stranger from the world. The
man he killed was a a stranger.
6. (Page 95) “you must understand”: the word ‘must’ is singularly emphatic. I can almost hear Salamano
pleading with the court to empathize with this man who has no empathy.
7. (Page 96) “ ‘I accuse this man of burying his mother with crime in his heart!’ ”: this must lose
something in translation, because to me it means absolutely nothing, yet it turns the tide against M.
enough that he finally seems to realize what’s going on and that it is bad.

Part 2: Chapter 4
1. (Page 100) “he acted without realizing what he was doing”: but this seems to be precisely what he did
do. Except we as an audience don’t really know. How can we know with such a narrator?
2. (Page 101) “According to him”, ”And also according to him”: denoting subtle disagreement with the
position taken — indeed M.’s most severe disagreement with the prosecution the entire time — but he
says nothing, just lets events take their course.
3. (Page 102) “monster”: or, perhaps, a dog. If the dog and Salamano are a foil for him, then is he
Salamano or the dog? At any rate, the prosecutor makes the blunt point that anyone reading this has
been thinking for chapters: he’s not really human.

4. (Page 107) “ bizarre language”: does this mean legalese, or that it was bizarre to hear such a thing?
He didn’t even look at Marie as he was being sentenced to death? WHY NOT?
“ ‘No’ ”: this seems to be the ultimate point of his passivity. He has no opinion to press upon the court,
nothing to add or detract from his fate but what was given to him. He has passed beyond passive to
become weak.

Part 2: Chapter 5
1. (Page 110) “I would get so cold . . . I couldn’t make them stop”: fear by any other name. But he doesn’t
say fear. Surely he recognizes it! Anyone who has read a book or seen another person afraid would
know this is fear, even is they themselves have no emotions.
2. (Page 111) “I would make up new laws”: when was the death penalty abolished there? This paragraph
seems to be a bit out of place a political commentary. It also contrasts with his natural meekness and
inability to do anything. M. seems to recognize this when he says “you can’t always be reasonable”.
3. (Page 114) “to be rational”: this is a very clever internal argument. He’s rationalizing with himself
to chase away fear so he is not incapacitated by it, but at the same time the reasoning is so confident
that one can be sure it is ineffective.
4. (Page 118) “human justice was nothing and divine justice was everything”: interesting place to insert
an argument on religion. I’m so used to it being the other way around — atheists explaining that there
is no god — that it seems bizarre to see a chaplain arguing that there is. The phrase “human justice”
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was mentioned several times, I think, during the trial. There is a faint implication that human justice
is not just.
5. (Page 120) “That got me mad”: the most emotion he’s ever given off.
“I started yelling at the top of my lungs”: whoa! Was he only pretending to control himself this whole
time? Purposefully denying himself emotions? Or is it due to the imprisonment and his impending
execution that he has developed them at all?
6. (Page 121) “Through the whole absurd life I’d lived”: a connection to absurdism probably. Except I
fail to see the absurdity in anything that has happened.
“a dark wind”: is this supposed to be the angel or death or something? He is convinced that his own
future is destroying his present. Time doesn’t work like that. These seem like mere ravings, but might
contain something deeper upon further analysis.
7. (Page 122) “Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her.”: the repetition, used extremely rarely in
the plain style of this book, creates great emphasis. To such an emotionless person, it is like shouting
at the top of his lungs. But why don’t they have that right? Because she is free? I don’t understand.
“Blind rage had washed me clean”: almost like a catharsis, but certainly not one. Catharses don’t
come from rage, but grief. It did purge him, however, and had nearly the same effect. He accepts the
world. This confirms that the book is an irony: it starts on a low note, looks like it’s getting better
when he is enjoying himself with Marie and perhaps falling in love, but then is shattered by the death
and gets worse from then on out.
8. (Page 123) “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there
be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate”: as
the last line, this is intended to close out the novel and resolve the audience’s thoughts on it. The last
words of anything stand out, particularly so the last word of an entire book. Knowing that, “hate”, is
somehow a key message of Camus. One could say that society is hateful and an individual can only
do right by themselves, but there are other probably better ways to say thing I think. What is most
striking to me is how shocking this is and is probably meant to be. This is a radical, despairing point
of view, one that has been clearly evident throughout the novel, but difficult for me to define exactly.
It is something very philosophical, to be sure. Perhaps the “gentle indifference” (page 122) is more
helpful. The message is an acknowledgement of the minute place of a man within the world — but
something more. That there is no hope of the world accepting you, perhaps. I can’t say it exactly.
Excellent book.