The Stranger by Albert Camus is one of the more interesting novellas I have read recently. The first thing that struck me about the book was when I was on page 8 and I realized that everything was in the first person. I thought this was going to be a problem for me but it turned out that it was like one of those movies that have the black line across the top and bottom of the screen, at first I felt it would wreck the whole book, but after the first chapter, I did not even notice. Camus paints a man who struck me to have several of the same qualities as Melville's Bartlby The Scrivener. The main character Maursault has a sort of an aloof take on life, or it would seem. He describes his life and gives a basic setting for the story. Maursault is the type that is upset by the things in life that everyone else can deal with. Things like the sun, the heat, reflection, and other people talking are things that get under his skin. He is however not upset by things like his mother's death, his friend putting a beating on his woman, and his charge of murder.
             In this way he parallels Bartelby because neither seems to care what happens to them and neither seems to be bothered by anything of magnitude. Bartelby reaches a point in his life where he does not feel like doing anything and simply uses the statement "I would prefer not to" when he is asked to do anything by his boss. He does not adhere to the guidelines of his job and is subsequently fired. He refuses to stop coming to work and is put in jail. Bartelby essentially starves to death because he has completely lost the will to live.
             Meursault has not completely lost the will to live, but he has lost the will to adhere to the social dogma. Not because he is an out and out wild man who robs banks, but he like Bartelby, rebels in a very quiet way. Everything that Maursautl takes pleasure in is of a very basic, almost primal nature. He enjoys the f...