Outsider? Or Stranger?: Simmel in Camus' L'Étranger

In L’Étranger, Albert Camus chronicles the life and death of Meursault: a disinterested and taciturn shipping clerk. In part one of the novel, Meursault falls asleep during his mother’s wake, tells a lover that their relationship doesn’t “mean anything”, and kills a man because of the brightness of the sun (Camus 1988: 41). In part two, Meursault is tried, imprisoned, and punished for murder. 

In addition to its title, Camus’ description of Meursault exemplifies several facets of Simmel’s conception of the stranger. In terms of intimacy, Meursault is entangled within several intimate relationships (e.g., friends and Marie, both of whom are representative of the group/community that Meursault is situated within), but he is never intimate unto the point of mutual understanding. In terms of generality, Meursault shares many common traits with his friends (e.g., masculinity, passion for swimming/movies), but he is not too similar to any one friend (e.g., he is taciturn, whereas his other friends are talkative). In terms of objectivity, Meursault is often asked for advice in relation to the work and/or ‘love life’ of his friend Raymond. Raymond asks Meursault for advice because Meursault is a stranger: he is simultaneously ‘near’ (Raymond calls him “pal”) and ‘far’ (Meursault is generally insouciant towards Raymond’s problems). Lastly, Meursault is mobile and intermediary because of his job as a shipping clerk, which entails trips to Paris from Algiers (mobility) and trade deals with various companies (intermediary).

Given that Meursault exhibits behaviors that are representative of each component of Simmel’s definition of the stranger, it may come as no surprise that his story is entitled L’Étranger, particularly in light of the fact that Camus often thought himself a stranger (especially in relation to his parents, grandmother, friends, wife, intellectual contemporaries, and fellow Algerians). Although fictive, Meursault’s story is that of the ultimate stranger: he is a man on the margins of every group he belongs to.

Sources: 

Novel: Camus, Albert. 1988. The Stranger. Vintage International.

Image: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/23477/the-stranger-by-albert-camus-translated-by-matthew-ward-introduction-by-keith-gore/