Literary Analysis: "The Stranger" and "The House of the Spirits"

The novels The Stranger and The House of the Spirits have distinctly different plots. The authors of the books have different styles and techniques used to create their vision of a great story. In The Stranger by Albert Camus and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, the characters, Meursault and Esteban Garcia are established as socially distant from their associates. They have neither emotion nor remorse for anything they have done. These characters are only connected to each other through this one flaw aside the difference of individual character. The authors have built their characters in such a way, in order to incorporate an outcast in their novels.

Albert Camus sets the character known as Mersault to be his one outlier. Mersault, the main character, is evidently distinguished as the outcast as of Part 1 Chapter 1. Mersault, in The Stranger, is a difficult character to understand. Within the novel, Camus portrays Mersault as “absurd.” The philosophy of absurdity is too complicated to be explained. In a way, it can be described as to having no care for anything in life because there is no reason. There is no purpose or meaning in life. The idea of it is to be born, live and die. It doesn’t matter what happens seeing that an end result is death. The fact that Camus used the theme of absurdity, Camus had made Mersault an amoral character. Mersault’s amorality kept reflecting on Camus’ plot and technique. In the beginning of The Stranger, Camus sets his characters involved in the funeral process of the mother, Maman. The ordeal moment is focused on Mersault’s reactions toward his mother’s death foreshadows the continuous amoral trait. Mersault had no relationship with his mother. It was obvious because “[he] didn’t know...

... middle of paper ...

...ader with the death of Maman. The death had no effect on Mersault what so ever. It could be due to the fact that there was no intimate or no relationship between mother and son. Since there were no signs of a bond, Mersault developed into an absurd person. The remoteness of him and his mother and death of Maman foreshadowed the death of the Arab and Mersault’s own death. Mersault shows indifference with the universe with his relationship with Marie. Allende created a monster from a rape between Pancha and Esteban Trueba. Esteban Garcia then decided to avenge the Trueba Family by raping Alba. Doing so, he ensures no intimate affiliation with any Trueba family member.

Works Cited

Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Trans. Magda Bogin. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Matthew Ward. New York: Vintage International, 1988.