The Stranger: We Must Begin at the Start

     The opening lines of the novel are very reflective of the text as a whole. We immediately learn that the narrator's mother has deceased, and he seems very robotic and non-sentimental about the event. This is the tone in which Meursault narrates the entire novel, and we come to understand that he chooses to view the world in a very straightforward and unemotional manner.
     Meursault's conversation with his boss in the second paragraph of the novel outlines the detached feelings that carry through the rest of the book. When Meursault asks his superior for time off, he apologizes. He then realizes that his mother's death is not an apologetic moment, and he says, "I shouldn't have said that. After all, I didn't have anything to apologize for" (3). Our society is very quick to say sorry, and many times, the apology is often used unnecessarily. It is a habit to which we are accustomed, and Meursault recognizes the absurdity of this habit. The quote demonstrates how Meursault is aware of many social customs, but he is not in agreement with them. Soon after, the narrator lies to a soldier "just so [he] wouldn't have to say anything else" (4). Camus most likely chose the character to be a soldier because soldiers represent tradition, uniformity, and the government. Meursault's decision to avoid conversation with the soldier is a metaphor demonstrating how he chooses to follow his own set of morals and beliefs. The first few paragraphs of the novel are used as synecdoche for the text as a whole because they represent the direct and blunt way in which the narrator views the world, and they introduce the reader to the existentialist manner of Meursault.