The Stranger

The Stranger Summary | Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

The Stranger is a story about a young man living in Algiers in the 1940s who accidentally kills a man due to the glare of the sun. He is executed for a crime, but not the one that is expected. As the story begins, a young man named Meursault living in Algiers, North Africa, receives news that his mother has died and the funeral is tomorrow. Meursault asks his employer for two days off. He receives permission for time off but feels that the employer shows no sympathy for the situation. Meursault says that it is not his fault that he must leave to bury his own mother.

In order to catch the early afternoon bus to the village where his mother had lived in a retirement home, Meursault quickly eats lunch at his favorite café and borrows a black tie and armband from a friend. The afternoon heat and the glare of the sun lull Meursault into a state of drowsiness and he sleeps during the entire trip.

The caretaker of the nursing home meets Meursault and shows him to the morgue where the body is lying. Meursault declines the caretaker's offer to remove the coffin lid so that the young man may view the body. The denial surprises the caretaker, but he complies with Meursault's wishes. Eventually, several of Meursault's mother's friends from the home join him in keeping vigil. Silently, Meursault and the friends sit all night until it is time for the funeral the next morning.

A man named Perez joins the funeral procession and the caretaker explains that this man was a very close friend of Meursault's mother. The morning sun begins to beat intently as the small funeral party makes its way to the village cemetery and Perez falls back, taking some short cuts to shorten his walk. The heat is even more intense now and Perez faints from grief and exhaustion. Meursault eventually returns to his apartment, looking forward to twelve hours of sleep.