the stranger and the meursault investigation essay

Paper II Section I – Module A – Essay on The Stranger & The Meursault Investigation

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Essay Rewrite MOD A (Trials): 20/20

Although the texts align in representing society’s impact on the individual, Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation collides with Camus’ The Stranger in its postcolonial reframing of the earlier text.

To what extent is this statement true in light of your exploration of Textural Conversations?

Prescribed texts:

The Stranger (Albert Camus 1942), The Meursault Investigation (Kamel Daoud 2013)

Through the creation of a dialogue, an intertextual engagement, we find new truths that emerge in the commonalities and aligning values across cultures. The recontextualization of individual experience from a different perspective allows for the universal ideas from separate cultures to resonate and be extended; while those which collide with reductive simplification we reframed and form new meaning. Albert Camus The Stranger (1942) and Kamel Daoud’s post-colonial revisioning The Meursault Investigation (2013) form a emergent value, as common-universal themes emerge through intertextuality. Camus work operates in response to the changing modality of French, and by effect Western society as it moved into modernity, extending the values formed in the French Revolution of 1789 of Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite to form a new human, Meursault, the embodiment of these values. Kamel Daoud engages in a post-colonial reframing of these values asserted by Camus, by extending a similar individualist mode of narration through Harun, just as the Algerian War of 1954 – 1962 thought to revolutionise the Algerian identity from a Pied-Noir imposers, while Islamic Fundamentalism would have the same oppressive and axiomatic modality of set social behaviours. It is through the holistic contribution of both texts, the dialogue that is created, that we as an audience gain a better understanding of truth and value across contexts and cultures.

Language constructs and frames our societal truths in a boundary of understanding, forming a set of axiomatic beliefs and social norms that determine the way we live. Camus contextually dissonant novel to his time, The Stranger realises the ennui of solipsist Meursault who loses personal expression and attempts to live in ‘Good Faith’ in a world of complexity and socialised normality. Camus is contending against the socially acceptable, revealing how language, the very mode of communication is fallible and leads to miscommunication and an inauthentic expression of ones interior world. In effect, Camus critiques the reduction in individual agency and expression that the collective society have had on individuals like Meursault. Camus, through the character relationship of Marie and Meursault, forms a microcosm to discover truth, just as Marie’s banal question of “do you want to marry me?” receives the apathetic response of “ it doesn’t make any difference” from Meursault, we as an audience are illuminated to the fallibility of language to authentically portray ones interior state. This is reiterated as Marie argues that these formalities are “a serious thing”, to which the meaninglessness of language is exposed, as Meursault argues “No”, giving no acknowledgement of its value. Camus further extends the breakdown of language in a collective and macro-sphere. Through the court hearing of Meursault, who fells inclined to “blurt out that it was because of the sun” that he committed murder, which in response ‘people laughed”. Camus is reproaching the harmful and inaccurate nature of societal truths to resonate with individual experience. Meursault’s disconnection from the majority of society is embodied in his actions and failure to care for “trivial” matters like his “mothers funeral”. Camus enlightens our understanding of 1940’s Algeria, a location in which a multi-plurality of cultures, language and histories form a reductive breakdown in language that fail to give individual empowerment and agency.

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The Ultimate Guide to Analysing The Meursault Investigation for English: Summary, Themes & Analysis

You’ve clicked on the right article! We’ll walk you through a step by step guide to analyse the text, including the plot summary, context, key ideas, and themes. 

PLUS we’ll provide you with a free sample analysis table (also called a TEE Table ) and a sample paragraph that you can download! 

Let’s get started!

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud Summary Key Characters in The Meursault Investigation Context Themes Explored in The Meursault Investigation Studying The Meursault Investigation for HSC Essay Analysis of The Meursault Investigation

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud Summary

Set in post-Independence Algeria, The Meursault Investigation is a retelling of The Stranger. It is a stream-of-consciousness novel narrated from the point of view of Harun, whose older brother, Musa, was murdered by Meursault in 1940s French-Algeria. 

Harun narrates his experiences and stories to a young interlocutor he met at a bar in Oran. He recounts how he grew up with Musa and Mama in a poor neighbourhood. 

His father left the family years earlier, and as a result Harun looked up to Musa as a father figur e. O ne day, he hears that Musa has been killed by Meursault, the French protagonist in The Stranger . 

Also studying The Stranger by Albert Camus? Check out our guide to analysing The Stranger here !

Unable to cope with the grief, Mama dedicates her time to investigate his death and discover more about why he was murdered.

A few months after his death, Mama and Harun leave Algiers in an effort to move on from the tragedy . 

Harun recounts how as he grew older, Mama increasingly saw him as a replacement or ‘reincarnation’ of Musa . 

As a teenager, he is also forced to help Mama continue investigating Musa’s murder. He quickly learns French, the language of the colonisers , and translates old newspaper clippings and stories of Musa’s death. 

He knows the news stories will only worsen Mama’s grief so he creates his own stories , which present Musa as a martyr in the Algerian War of Liberation .

While telling his story, Harun confesses a secret to the interlocutor. During the Algerian rebellion against French colonialism, a Frenchman escaped a conflict in the street by hiding in the courtyard of Harun and Mama’s house. 

They are woken up by the sound and Harun shoots the Frenchman twice . With the killing of the Frenchman, Mama considers that Musa’s death has been avenged .

Following the murder, Harun is arrested by the Algerian army not for killing the Frenchman, but for killing him after the ‘official’ War of Liberation . 

An officer tells him that had Harun killed the Frenchman a week earlier, it would have been acceptable as a part of the war. The officer releases Harun following their conversation with no charges laid, which leaves Harun disappointed as he wanted to be sentenced for the murder.

As he narrates his story, Harun describes particular experiences and circumstances repeatedly, and apologises to the interlocutor for his scattered and out of order storytelling . 

He continues his story and circles back to a woman he loved who he mentioned earlier in the story, Meriem. 

He recalls how he first met Meriem when she arrived at their house to talk to Musa’s family and conduct research on Meursault’s novel.  It was through Meriem that Harun and Mama realised that Meursault had written a book recounting Musa’s death.

The first time he read this book, Harun found himself feeling i nsulted by Meursault’s marginalisation of Musa as an unnamed Arab, but simultaneously captivated by his beautiful writing .

Harun concludes his monologue and asks the interlocutor to forgive his rambling storytelling and his age.  He reflects on his status as an outsider in his community and describes how he lives like a ghost in his neighbourhood . 

Contemplating on religion, Harun reasserts his rejection of religious dogma and recalls getting into a fight with an imam who tried to convert him. 

Like Meursault, he screams and shouts about the meaninglessness of his condition . He too, wishes to be executed with his neighbours watching as spectators. 

Access our The Meursault Investigation Downloadable Sample Paragraph and Analysed Examples here!

Key Characters in The Meursault Investigation

Harun Harun, the novel’s protagonist and narrator, is an old Algerian man . Born in French-colonial Algeria, his childhood and early life is largely defined by the political and cultural situation of 20th century Algeria .  He is particularly traumatised by the murder of his older brother Musa , and continues to obsess over the circumstances of his death.  Harun’s narration is an angry stream-of-consciousness voice that strongly criticises Meursault, the protagonist of The Stranger, and the broader impacts of French colonialism. He especially focuses on how Albert Camus’ novel does not give Musa a name, instead referring to him as ‘the Arab’. However, while Harun passionately hates Meursault, there are strong parallels between both characters . Like Meursault, Harun rejects social assumptions, critiques religious dogma, and embraces the absurdity and meaninglessness of life. 

Mama Mama is Harun and Musa’s mother.  After her husband left the family, she grew very attached to Musa and became financially and emotionally dependent on him. As a result, she was deeply traumatised by his death and never fully recovered from it. Since Musa’s body was never returned to her , she became obsessed with uncovering more informatio n regarding his death and wanted to seek justice for the murder.  After Musa’s death, she began to see Harun as a sort of ‘reincarnation’ or replacement for Musa. Harun grows to resent her and blames her for his tumultuous early life. 

Musa Musa , Harun’s older brother, was killed by Meursault when Harun was 7 years old .  Prior to his death, Musa supported his family and acted as a father figure for Harun after their father abandoned them. Meursault, after killing Musa, writes a novel that describes the murder as part of his larger philosophical struggle.  In this book, Musa remains unnamed and is referred to as ‘the Arab’ (like Camus does in The Stranger). In The Meursault Investigation, Harun gives Musa a name and an identity but he still remains vagu e.  Through this, Musa becomes a representative of the Arab identity and his death becomes a metaphor for the impacts of French colonialism in Algeria .

Interlocutor The interlocutor is a y oung student who wants to hear about Musa from Harun’s perspective . They meet at a bar in Oran over the course of multiple nights and Harun tells his story. Kamel Daoud gives little information about the interlocutor to make the character vague and ambiguous. By doing so, the character represents the reader , which allows Harun to narrate directly to us. 

Kamel Daoud was born to an Algerian Muslim family and grew up speaking Arabic. He later studied French literature at the University of Oran.

Daoud wrote The Meursault Investigation from a postcolonial perspective that criticises colonialism and the marginalisation of the Arab population . 

Post-Colonialism in Algeria

The text is set in post-Independence Algeria but most of the story follows Harun’s life during the colonial period and the War of Liberation .

Following the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 , French rule over the next 132 years was characterised by violence, racism, and very limited economic and political autonomy for the indigenous Arab populatio n.

Algeria’s growing discontent with French colonialism led to the beginning of The Algerian War, which took place between 1954 and 1962. During this war, the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) used guerrilla tactics against the French military and soldiers .

The French army, in retaliation, used violence, torture, and repression. Both sides contributed to the violence, deaths and tragedy of the war.

Eventually, Algeria gained independence from France in 1962 , but political, religious and social conflicts continued between various Algerian rebel groups and factions .

Harun’s character in The Meursault Investigation experienced such violent and traumatic events, and was significantly shaped by this period of Algerian history. 

Themes Explored in The Meursault Investigation

Here are some of the key themes explored in The Meursault Investigation: 

• Postcolonialism
• Political and cultural impacts of colonialism
• Absurdism and existentialism
• The power of storytelling 

Studying The Meursault Investigation for HSC Module A: Textual Conversations

If you’re studying The Meursault Investigation for the HSC, you’ll be studying it as part of Module A , which means you need to study it alongside The Stranger .  

Since Module A is all about Textual Conversations, you need to consider the connections between both texts in order to strengthen your analysis.

Focusing on just the one text throughout your analysis means you’re missing an opportunity to highligh t “resonances and dissonances” between texts, and to explore how texts can “mirror, align, or collide” each other . 

Link #1: Common Issues, Values, and Assumptions

This Module looks at how a ‘conversation’ can take place between two texts as they share similar values, themes and ideas. 

When you are analysing the texts, think about what ideas and values from Albert Camus’ original text are mirrored by Kamel Daoud, and why.  Harun is characterised as very similar to the character of Meursault.

Both characters share a similar approach to life, society, and religion . Through these parallels, Kamel Daoud expands upon key themes of absurdism, existentialism, and spirituality from The Stranger.

So as you study The Meursault Investigation , consider how some themes are carried forward from The Stranger and how these are resonant regardless of social, cultural, or political contexts .

Module A encourages you to think about how and why some ideas are so timeless . 

Link #2: Disparate Issues, Values, and Assumptions

Another important thing to consider is how The Meursault Investigation reimagines The Stranger so that some key themes and ideas challenge and critique the original . 

Kamel Daoud wrote The Meursault Investigation in 2013 within the context of Algeria after Independence.

This means he interpreted The Stranger from his postcolonial point of view and as a result, the text challenges Albert Camus’ colonial ideas and uses this to criticise the long-lasting impacts of French colonialism.

Harun’s narration consistently argues that The Stranger did not give the Arab a name, which marginalised Musa’s identity and mitigated French colonial violence .

Tip : While analysing both texts, compare Harun’s anger and passionate hatred towards the colonial legacy of the French with the detached attitudes of Meursault. 

Of course, this is just one of the major diverging values and ideas in The Meursault Investigation ! As you study the Textual Conversations Module, make note of other disparate issues and think about how they link to broader ideas such as the author’s context.  

Essay Analysis: How to Analyse The Meursault Investigation in 3 Steps

Once you’ve got a strong understanding of The Meursault Investigation and how to study it for Module A, it’s time to jump into your analysis!

This is a super important step that will help you build a solid foundation for writing a great essay and acing your HSC English assignment.

So make sure to spend a good amount of time analysing your text before you start writing your thesis!

Need a refresher on how to find and use quotes? Check out our guide here !

Step 1: Choose Your Example(s)

Choosing good examples from your text will give you the evidence you need to support your argument, which is why it’s the very first step when it comes to analysing texts! 

For this analysis, we’re looking at how Kamel Daoud criticises French colonialism and highlights t he value of narratives and storytelling to overcome absurdity and existentialism . 

We’ve chosen the following quotes as an example: 

“I’m going to do what was done in this country after Independence: I’m going to take the stones from the old houses the colonists left behind, remove them one by one, and build my own house, my own language” “Do you find my story suitable? It’s all I can offer you… it’s your choice, my friend”.

Step 2: Identify Your Techniques

After you pick out the best examples to support your argument, the next step is to identify key techniques within that example. 

Make sure to find techniques that add depth and complexity to your argument, not just a random technique! The key is to identify one or two relevant techniques that actually illustrate and support what you’re trying to say. 

In this example, we’re focusing on metaphors and the second person perspective .

Need some help identifying techniques in The Meursault Investigation ? Take a look at our literary techniques cheat sheet here ! 

Step 3: Carry Out Your Analysis

Once you’ve picked out your examples and techniques, it’s time to put it all together in your analysis!

Make sure your analysis really unpacks what the example is trying to communicate and the effect of the technique.

Flesh out your discussion by connecting your example to the text as a whole, including themes, context, and the author’s purpose. Your analysis should also stay relevant to your argument and thesis.

Don’t forget that the rubric always encourages you to “express a considered personal perspective”, so think about how you personally responded to the text and incorporate that in your analysis!

Once you’ve put it all together, you’ll end up with an analysis like this: 

From the very first chapter, Harun uses the metaphor of construction and rebuilding as he states, “I’m going to do what was done in this country after Independence: I’m going to take the stones from the old houses the colonists left behind, remove them one by one, and build my own house, my own language”. The purpose of Daoud’s retelling thus, is very explicitly to achieve “the justice that comes when the scales are balanced”. Harun’s commentary here establishes political tensions within his postcolonial context by noting the injustices and immorality of French colonialism. 

And, that’s a wrap!

Looking for another prescribed text for Module A?

• The Stranger
• All the Light We Cannot See
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Past the Shallows
• Wild Grapes by Kenneth Slessor
• The Crucible
• The Merchant of Venice

Check out other texts we’ve created guides for below:

• Romeo and Juliet
• Run Lola Run
• In Cold Blood
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Book Thief
• The Tempest
• Blade Runner
• Things Fall Apart
• Mrs Dalloway

Are you looking for some extra help with studying The Meursault Investigation for English?

We have an incredible team of english tutors and mentors.

We can help you master your analysis of The Meursault Investigation by taking you through a summary, its key characters and themes. We’ll also help you ace your upcoming English assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or online!

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Maitreyi Kulkarni is a Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Public Relations and Social Media) at Macquarie University. She loves writing just about anything from articles to poetry, and has also had one of her articles published with the ABC. When she’s not writing up a storm, she can be found reading, bingeing sitcoms, or playing the guitar.

• Topics: ✏️ English , ✍️ Learn

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'The Meursault Investigation' cleverly builds on 'The Stranger' by Camus

The events of 'The Stranger' are revisited, seen through the eyes of the brother of the once anonymous victim.

• By Terry Hong Contributor

Updated June 03, 2015, 1:02 p.m. ET

In a "New Yorker" interview this March, Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud spoke of reading the iconic 1942 classic, ”The Stranger” by Albert Camus – in which a man arbitrarily commits murder and is tried and sentenced without remorse – for the first time in his 20s.

“I have to admit that I didn’t like the novel: it is dry, hard. It inspires discomfort, not pleasure. It is fascinating but morbid,” he says. “Like everyone else, I read the story of the murder and I didn’t even think about the murdered Arab. I ignored him. [Camus’ protagonist] Meursault’s genius is to make you forget the crime. Even if you were a victim of it!”

Two decades later, Daoud reclaims that murdered Arab, erasing the anonymity of “The Stranger” with his debut novel The Meursault Investigation . Originally published in Algeria in 2013, “Meursault” made the 2014 shortlist of the enviable Prix Goncourt – France’s highest literary honor. Although Daoud missed the academy’s top nod (Lydie Salvayre’s “Pas Pleuer” won), he earned the life-threatening attention of the extremist Islamist Awakening Front whose leader issued a fatwa against Daoud via Facebook last December. For now, Daoud remains safe, and took the Goncourt podium in early May when “Meursault” received the 2015 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (for first novel).

The English translation by the ever-laudable, multi-lingual John Cullen arrived stateside last week. With exponentially increased accessibility, more accolades and prizes are sure to follow (the death threats hopefully not so much). Although familiarity with Camus’ “Stranger” is not necessary – “I’m going to outline [that] story before I tell [this story] to you,” the narrator promises – context, of course, is always an illuminating addition to any reading.

From his first line, “Mama’s still alive today,” Daoud both pays homage to and negates Camus’ opening, “ Aujourd'hui, Maman est morte ,” (“Mama died today.”) The narrator is Harun, who asks his unnamed listener, to “please give me your attention.... This is no normal story.” Harun reveals the Arab in “The Stranger” was his brother; in the 70 years since his senseless death, Harun’s “more or less … mission” is to “speak in the place of a dead man.”

To do so, Harun learned French – Meursault’s language, the colonial language. “I’m going to do what was done in this country after Independence: I’m going take the stones from the old houses the colonists left behind, remove them one by one, and build my own house, my own language. The murderer’s words and expressions are my unclaimed goods. ”

Night after night, in a neighborhood bar, Harun parses his story with a drinking companion whose name, ironically, is asked for but never answered. The sole important name is Musa, Harun’s brother. Even Meursault is questionable: “What does ‘Meursault’ mean? Meurt seul , dies alone? Meurt sot , dies a fool? Never dies?”

While Meursault lives on, only Harun remembers Musa. So important is his lost name, Harun admits to naming this bartender and that bartender Musa, as well. “Musa, Musa, Musa … I like to repeat that name from time to time so it doesn’t disappear.”

Just 7 at the time of the murder, for Harun, Musa remains “a simple god, a god of few words.” Harun insists on giving his brother an identity, through clothes, shoes, cigarettes, friends, mannerisms, and habits. The sons of a vanished watchman, Musa “replaced my father, and I replaced my brother.”

For decades, desperate mother and leftover son are forced to become accomplices in survival, revenge, and even murder. “[L]ike a sort of ghost,” Musa, Harun, their mother are trapped between a nameless tragedy and a questionable reality. “Who would have believed us? Who? What evidence could we offer?” Without a name, a body, witnesses, Harun finally entrusts another stranger with not just Musa’s story, but his own confessions, as well.

Like Mohsin Hamid’s revelations-to-a-stranger in his Booker-shortlisted "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," Daoud fills in, explicates, and rewrites what Camus elided. Echoing Daoud’s initial reaction to Camus, readers may find that “Meursault,” too, “inspires discomfort, not pleasure,” but that’s sometimes the price for illumination and epiphany. In just 160 spare pages, Daoud recounts – and challenges – not only the original narrative of Meursualt, the anti-hero created by Camus, but through bestowing a name, family, legacy, to a forgotten victim, he sharply deconstructs the troubled decades of French-Algerian history, explores the erasure of identity and the legacy of colonialism, examines the consequences of violent independence and the ensuing, ongoing reconstruction of a national identity.

To begin to understand all that is surely worth an investment of just a few hours of reading.

Terry Hong writes BookDragon   , a book blog for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center .

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THE NARRATIVE OF THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION: IS IT THE STORY OF THE STRANGER, TOLD BY CLAMENCE’S DOUBLE?

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The Meursault Investigation

Kamel daoud.

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

The novel is narrated as a stream-of-consciousness monologue from the perspective of Harun , an elderly Algerian man. Harun’s older brother, Musa , was murdered by a Frenchman in 1942, while Algeria was a French colony. The murderer, Meursault , evaded punishment and eventually wrote a novel about his experiences in Algeria, in which he names Musa briefly and dismissively as “the Arab.” Meursault corresponds to the protagonist of Albert Camus’ 1942 novel The Stranger , and Harun’s narrative is a response to that book.

Harun is telling his story to a young interlocutor he meets at his favorite bar over the course of several nights. Little information is given about the interlocutor, but he seems to be a student of some sort, interviewing Harun as part of his research.

Harun tells the interlocutor that he and Musa grew up in a poor neighborhood of Algiers. Their father had abandoned the family years before, and Musa supported Mama and his younger brother by working as a handyman at the port. As he was only seven when Musa died, Harun has few memories of his older brother, but he remembers riding on his shoulders at the end of the work day, and looking up to Musa as a father figure.

One day when Harun is seven, Musa doesn’t come home from work. At first Harun is unaware that anything has happened, but eventually news reaches the neighborhood that an Arab has been killed by a Frenchman at the beach, and Mama finally realizes that it’s her son who has died. In his book, Meursault attributes the fatal altercation to a fight over Musa’s sister, who was a prostitute; however, as Musa doesn’t actually have a sister, Harun suspects he was trying to avenge the honor of a woman with whom he was having a secret relationship. Finally, amid the clamor of neighbors coming to give their condolences and Mama’s collapse into incoherent wailing, Harun realizes that his brother is dead. He’s distraught, but no one pays attention to him.

Soon after Musa’s death, Mama and Harun decide to leave Algiers and its bad associations. They stay with an uncle who treats them poorly and then move to the rural town of Hadjout, where they work on a large-scale farm. The work is hard and there is little food, but eventually Mama improves their situation by getting a job as a housekeeper to a family of French settlers. Eventually, when the Larquais family flees after Independence , Mama is able to claim their house for herself.

However, in the months before they leave, Mama conducts a relentless investigation into the circumstances of Musa’s death. She’s anguished because the authorities have provided no explanations and haven’t even returned Musa’s body. All she has are a handful of newspaper clippings, which she’s unable to read. For his part, Harun is confused by his mother’s mental decline and feels that she resents him for outliving his older and more beloved brother.

Harun tells the interlocutor a bit about his own life. Although he’s very old, he doesn’t have a wife or family, and he lives alone in his apartment in Oran. From his balcony he can look out on the mosque across the street. He deplores Algeria’s increasing religious conservatism and he mocks his neighbors’ devotion to religious dogma, saying it contrasts with the sordid hypocrisy of their actual lives. Harun’s rejection of religion has made him an outcast in the neighborhood, but it allows him to feel personally free.

When Harun is a teenager in Hadjout, he gains admission to a local school, where he is one of two Arab students. Harun does well in school and quickly learns French, motivated by the desire to investigate Harun’s murder in the language of the people who control his country. As soon as he can read French well, Mama forces him to translate her newspaper clippings over and over again. Harun knows she will be upset with the paucity of information they actually contain, so he makes up elaborate stories in which Musa is a hero and martyr.

During Harun’s twenties, Algeria rebels against French rule and ultimately secures its independence. It’s during this time that Mama’s employers flee the country and she and Harun settle in their house. One night, one of the previous occupants’ friends, a Frenchman named Joseph , flees some conflict in the street and takes refuge in the courtyard. Harun and Mama wake up to the noise of his entrance. Guided by Mama, Harun takes an old gun down to the courtyard and shoots Joseph several times, after which he and Mama bury the body and obscure all traces of the crime. Mama feels that, with the Frenchman’s death, Musa’s murder has been avenged. From this point onward she’s much more tranquil and affectionate towards Musa.

Although the Algerian army, now in control of Hadjout, quickly figures out that Harun murdered Joseph, they summon him to the town hall and arrest him not for committing a crime but for doing so outside the auspices of the “official” fight for liberation. Harun spends a few days in jail, after which a young officer berates him for refusing to join the resistance army, as almost all the young men have, and for killing a Frenchman after the end of the war. After this, he is released. Harun is somewhat disappointed because he wanted to be judged and sentenced for his crimes.

The next year, a young woman named Meriem arrives in Hadjout; she’s doing research on Meursault’s novel and wants to talk to “the Arab’s family.” Harun and Mama were unaware that Musa’s death has been recorded in a book, and they are astonished by this information; reading the novel for the first time, Harun is both overwhelmed by Meursault’s literary genius and incensed that he has treated Musa’s death as part of his personal philosophical explorations, rather than as a serious crime.

Moreover, Harun immediately falls in love with the beautiful, educated, and independent Meriem. Throughout the summer she visits Harun, explaining to him the context surrounding Meursault’s novel and introducing him to French literature. At the end of the summer Musa asks Meriem to marry him; however, she soon stops visiting Hadjout, and their correspondence dwindles away. Harun has not had a meaningful relationship with a woman since then.

Harun ends his monologue in the present day, musing on his pariah status in his neighborhood. He feels that he’s already like a ghost moving among his fellow inhabitants, but because he has rejected the absolute dictums of religion he feels that he has access to a sphere of truth that they do not. He once gets in a violent fight with an imam who tries to convert him, shouting that his certainties are worth nothing. Harun often fantasizes about climbing the mosque’s minaret and shouting blasphemies through the speakers; he wishes that he could do so and then be executed by a swarm of his neighbors, who would be “savage in their hate” as they watched him die.

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