Albert Camus Syntax Analysis

The word “syntax” describes the relationships between words in the sentences they form. While in most cases, such as in academic writing, the syntax must be as grammatically correct as possible. However in creative writing the laws of grammar do not necessarily apply, and the syntax is allowed to be as colorful and expressive as the author wishes as long as it contributes to the artistic quality of the work. In Albert Camus’s The Stranger, there are many instances where Camus has no qualms about abandoning proper grammatical structure in favor of creative expression. The novel is narrated from a first person point of view, and thus the main character named Meursault’s tone is visible throughout the novel. Meursault’s syntax changes as the novel

The philosophy that is central to the novel, Absurdism, has elements that are derived from conclusions made on Camus’s own sociopolitical environment and the course of his own life. The political tension and overall chaos of the world in the early 1900s included not one, but two world wars, global economic depression, and the peak of European imperialism and violence. In moments in history in which people felt overwhelmingly helpless to the whims of a chaotic world, some choose to turn to assigning meaning through religion or metaphysical philosophies and analyses that help people explain their situation and thus control it. Camus, like the others that lived during this time, chose to accept the evident pointlessness to the world. Camus projects his own philosophy onto Meursault, and declares, “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world” (Camus and Ward 122), approaching life as how Absurdism facilitates. Nothing matters beyond what is immediate and physical and real, and any attempts to rationalize the chaotic indifference of the world through religion, ethics, or law are as pointless as life