Post #3

Although Violence does not show up very frequently in the Stranger by Albert Camus, it certainly plays a large role. The two main types of literary violence, as talked about in Foster’s book, are both brought up. There is character violence and there is accidental death and suffering. Some examples of character violence are as follows; Raymond beating his mistress, "He'd beaten her till she bled" (31). and Meursault shooting the Arab. There is also some death and suffering, like when Meursault’s mother died. Both of these types of violence play major roles in the book. The significance in the different types of violence within the story lies in the characters reactions to each type of violence. The character violence, the one that has an actual perpetrator and would actually be seen as a specific person’s fault, doesn’t get nearly the same kind of attention and punishment that it usually would. For example, Raymond never really gets in trouble from most of society for beating his mistress. In fact the main character of the book helps Raymond get away with it, "Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (32). In addition, Meursault never really gets punished or blamed for shooting the Arab. However, the accidental death and suffering evokes the opposite reaction from society. Everyone is incredibly judgemental of Meursault for his supposed mistreatment of his mother. When he is put on trial for murdering the arab, he is actually convicted because of the way he treated his mother and because he didn’t really feel that sad that his mother died. Both of these types of violence help to portray the absurdity that plays a huge role in the Stranger. The point of this absurdity is to help prove Camus philosophy of absurdism.