Relationships. One word with so many meanings. Some relationships can be romantic, friendly, or not so friendly. In this blog, I'm going to show you the different relationships in the book, The Stranger by Albert Camus in part one (chapters 1-6).
The first relationship that I'm going to analyze is the relationship between the main character, Meursault and his mother whom is referred to as, "Maman". Since the book starts out with Maman's death, I don't know much about her personality and how she treats others. I would guess that she's a relatively nice woman since the elderly home that she was at had a lot of people who cared deeply for her. Meursault, on the other hand, didn't quite care about his mother's death. Yes, he was upset, but what difference does it make for him? He's still going to wake up and go about his day the way he usually would when she was alive. This is how Meursault thinks and it bothers me because I grew up in a society where if your mother dies, you would be utterly depressed. But, that's not how Mersault views life. He views life in the "right here, right now" sense, nothing else matters because it's pointless. Everyone lives to one day die, that's it, no further comment.
So, when Maman dies, Mersault is almost unphased.
So, their mother-son relationship isn't the best, and I would say that the love is one sided, for I feel that Meursault is incapable of love with his viewpoint on life and how everything's pointless. That makes this relationship upsetting for me. I, for one, and really close with my mother and I can't imagine being fine if she dies. I wouldn't know what to do with myself and here's Meursault, he falls asleep during his mothers wake, and after the burial, he goes home and acts almost as if nothing has happened. That, to me, is unthinkable. I mean, his mother died for Pete's sake! The next day he goes to the beach and ends up being with a woman for that day and night, the only thing that says that Meursaullt was in mourning (other than other people giving their condolences for Maman) is the fact that he's wearing a black tie. Other than that, he seems fine. He still goes to the movies and makes a move on a woman.Speaking of, this woman is the next person that I'm going mention for analyzing relationships. This woman's name is Marie and she is totally in love with Meursault.
They hang out at the beach, Meursault treats her to a movie of her choosing, and they go back to his house. She ended up leaving in the morning, but that wasn't the only time that she has stayed the night with him. She's been with him a couple of times before she asked him if he loved her. This is where the reader finds out more about Meursault. He says that he doesn't know if he does and that it doesn't matter either way. Without knowing how Meursault thinks, one may think that he only cares for the pleasures of the flesh (shout out to the writers of "Wonder woman") when in reality, he just thinks that love is pointless if you're just going to end up dying anyway and throw that love away, leaving your loved one or yourself depressed for the rest of their life. I'm not saying that Meursault isn't sexually attracted to Marie, he definitely is, but I feel like he may have feelings for her, even if he doesn't realize it. When they were at the beach house, Meursault thought about marrying Marie even though when she asked him to marry him a day (maybe two, I don't quite remember) before, he said that he would, be it wouldn't really matter (eye roll followed by an exasperated sigh). But, at the beach house, in chapter 6 (top of page 50), Camus wrote, "For the first time maybe, I really thought I was going to get married." Meursault also seems really happy with Marie; happy enough to blatantly say it. So, this relationship would be loyal because the two of them don't go off with anyone else (that I know of), and it would also be sexual because of how many times the book hints (or may hint, it's a little vague, so I could be completely wrong) at sex.
The next relationship that I'm going to analyze is Salamano and his dog. This relationship is kind of odd, in place for a better word. Salamano is an old, widowed man who lives in the same complex as Meursault. After his wife died, Salamano got a puppy with a beautiful fur coat, now, the dog is old and lost the majority of his hair due to disease. Whenever we see Salamano with his dog, it's never the loving owner-dog relationship that we, the reader, expect to see. The dog is either pulling Salamano and when that happens, Salamano says, "Filthy, stinking bastard!" and beats the dog. The dog would cower and need to be dragged before it feels better (or forgets what just happened, let's be honest, the dog it old) and it'll pull Salamano again and the process starts over.
Then, one night, Salamano loses his dog at a parade. This is where the abusive relationship goes away and Salamano shows Meursault his kind side. Salamano wants to find his dog and wants to make sure that it's okay. He's afraid that the pound has it and will kill it. After showing Meursault his fears, he immediately says something to put a wall in between them, like asking why he would ever pay to get his dog back, the dog will be better off dead. This relationship is hard to put a label on, because I don't know what happens behind closed doors with Salamano and his dog, like maybe, he's kind to the dog when inside his room, but when other people can see them while on a walk, Salamano shows a rough exterior, otherwise, he'll be vulnerable and people might see him as a fragile old man who lost his wife and has no one else but his dog. He would rather be the tough and aggressive old man that lost his wife and is left with a dog that he must take care of. So, this relationship would definitely be complex, to blatantly sate it.The second romantic relationship that I will analyze is Maman and Perez. I mentioned before that when Maman went to the elderly home, she had people who care deeply for her. Perez, was definitely one of those people, I mean, he was Maman's boyfriend. I can't tell you how their relationship started or what it entailed since the book began with Maman's death, but it was obvious that Perez loved Maman. At the funeral, he was the only person from the elderly home that was allowed to see Maman get buried and we learned that some people even said that the two of them were "engaged" because of the fact that they were inseparable.
Meursault didn't seem to care that much about their relationship because it's pointless since Maman is already dead and basically threw away their love, leaving Perez to be unhappy for the rest of his life. So, I didn't get more information than basically that. I mean, it's pointless anyway, like this pencil: 
So why bother? Even though I view their relationship as love and companionship, I also find it sad. Perez lost his best friend and the woman that he has fallen in love with. Now, he's going to be lonely, hopefully not the same lonely that Salamano faces. Salamano was so lonely, that the love of a dog is enough for the companionship, but not enough to keep him from hiding his vulnerability in a way that physically harms the dog. I don't believe that Perez will share the same fate, but one will never know because I doubt that Meursault will go back to see how everyone is doing, it's pointless. He doesn't need to go back and visit his mother's grave and possibly meet Perez standing at the grave, replacing the dead flowers with new ones from Maman's favorite flower shop that they went to in the village when they went out. Meursault also doesn't need to hear Perez speak to his love about his day and how much he misses her, nor does he need to see the tears silently slide down Perez's cheek and see the nurse with the white gauze around her nose try to make Perez go back to avoid any health problems. Why doesn't he? Simply because it's pointless.Getting back to analyzing relationships, the next relationship that I'm going to analyze is Meursault and Raymond. Raymond, who is he? Well, I'm not completely convinced that he's not a pimp.
When Raymond talks about his mistress he said that he provided her with plenty of money, she just wouldn't work for it. Her monetary situation was tight and she always needed more, so he gave more, but gosh forbid she needed to work for it. Not only did he give her money to "work" for him, he provided a couple of outfits for her as well. Now, I know that I shouldn't assume anything, but I can't help it for this one. I believe that he is a pimp, no man is that generous unless he's looking to marry this woman and that's not why he wants her. He's all for the pleasures of the flesh and that's what their relationship is, along with shallow, because his girl-toy wants to spend his money and get money from other guys as well. 
Their relationship is even more shallow than my paragraph about it.The last relationship that I'm going to analyze is the relationship between Meursault and Raymond. This relationship kind of hit me like a train...
It seemed like Raymond just randomly invited Meursault over for dinner and suddenly trusted him to get advice and boom! They're friends. I mean, it doesn't matter to Meursault, he was hungry and didn't feel like cooking, so why not do Raymond a favor so that he didn't have to feel like he owed Raymond for his kindness. I don't even know if Meursault would feel like that since he lives in the present and doesn't really look forward to anything because it's pointless. So, maybe plans in the future are irrelevant, so owing Raymond for dinner is also irrelevant since it will have to be in the future. The one thing that really gets me though, is the amount of trust that Raymond put in Meursault. I mean, Raymond just opened up, that's kind of the same for Salamano, too. He opened up to Meursault about his wife and dog. For someone who thinks that life is pointless, a lot of people trust him. Salamano doesn't surprise me as much as Raymond though. Raymond is (might be) a pimp, and he's half letting Meursault in on his secret. That is a big deal and can get Raymond into a lot of trouble if authorities find out and yet he trusts Meursault.Okay guys, here's a very rare thing, you get to see my thought process. I just realized that what I said is irrelevant now. Of course Raymond trusts Meursault, Meursault doesn't truly care because he believes that everything is pointless. No matter what, Raymond is going to keep being a pimp, so why bother ratting him out if he's just going to go back to being a pimp? It's pointless. So, this whole paragraph could just be trashed, but I'm going to keep it just so I can go back and see how I originally thought.
So, starting over, Raymond and Meursault's relationship is based on Raymond's trust in Meursault because of his beliefs. They are neighbors, so of course they're going to know who each other are and probably small talk a little here and there. But, when Meursault writes the letter to Raymond's mistress, their friendship truly began. The formalities have been dropped and they end up hanging out later on at the beach with Masson and Marie. Another important point in this relationship is when Meurasault shoots the mistresses brother whom was after Raymond. This is significant because when this happened, Meursault did it without anyone around, just him and the other man. He also made sure that he wouldn't be charged with murder, so he stepped closer, making the man go at Meursault with a knife before shooting him. That way, it was in self defense and plus, it doesn't matter anyway. The man was going to die one day, what's the difference between dying now than later? Age? Who you know? Yes, but that won't matter when you're dead. (Wow, I sound heartless. I'm not this heartless, I promise, I'm just trying to see this relationship in Meursault's eyes). The death proved that he was Raymond's true friend, even though it is pointless, he still did what he thought would make Raymond happy, even though he didn't mention Raymond when it happened. I feel like once Raymond finds out, he'll be a little upset at first because the man didn't die at his own hand, but he'll also be relieved because he doesn't have to worry about that man and he has a true friend. But that doesn't really matter, either. So, their relationship is definitely complex, loyal, and indifferent.
Anyway, it's getting late, I hope that you liked my blog! Have a good night :)
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