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How is Justice treated in 'The Outsider/The Stranger' by Albert Camus?


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Haha I almost feel absurd saying this, but Sparknotes.com doesn't mention justice on its "Themes and Motifs" page for this book, so it can't be tooo beaten-into-the-bush. [Sparknotes's The Stranger] However, when in doubt, try to find a new twist on an old subject. I haven't read the book, but instead of going for the obvious examples, if you can find smaller but relevant examples, that would help you out.

I haven't read the book myself, so I can only be generic. :P

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Write about for what?

Justice is a huge theme. The second half of the book is about justice/lack of.

I was thinking of comparing the treatment of justice between Solzhenitsyn's "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and Camus' "The Outsider/Stranger" but I'm guessing that I would be better off using the topic of 'authority' or 'freedom' since they're a bit more broad... What do you think?

This is for WL1 by the way :P

Edited by Ib_slave
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think that Camus never introduces "justice" as a serious subject, because it is all part of the illusion that humans have created to mask life's futility. Therefore, he doesn't focus on it so strongly. Justice only exists in the Outsider as part of a generally irrational system, but not as a focus of the author, I think (as, for instance, it happens in Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter").

However, if you choose to compare it with Solzhenitsyn, you could focus mainly on the different approach of each author to the subject of justice (Solzhenitsyn makes a critique of the injustice, while for Camus it is all a part of absurdity).

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