Conflicts that occur in history can affect many aspects of life such as the way of living, the economy, and even in this case, the way novels are written such as The Stranger by Albert Camus. This novel is set in the country Algeria and the protagonist is an odd and peculiar man named Meursault. He rarely shows emotion and doesn’t think that there is much to life throughout the novel. During the time that the novel was written, Algeria continued to be under French rule during World War II. This would cause a huge conflict between the French and Arabs. This conflict is also evident in the novel with the people that Meursault encounters. This is a strong reason for why the Arabs that Meursault meets in the novel are not even given an identity let alone a name. Moments where this is shown in the novel is the scene with Raymond and his ex-girlfriend, the conflict at the beach, and the prison. These moments also give readers the feeling that the Arabs aren’t even people since they have no name or identity. How badly they were treated gives a hint that Albert Camus was in a way a supporter of the war against the Arabs.
Meursault’s first encounter with an Arab person is when he befriends one of his neighbors, Raymond. Meursault helps Raymond write a letter to get back at his ex-girlfriend who had cheated on him. This letter would be filled with cruel and cold words that only Meursault could write. The letter was all a part of a plan that Raymond had in store to get back at his ex-girlfriend. Raymond’s ex-girlfriend was not only an Arab but also a woman which meant that she got treated horribly. Albert Camus never even gave her a name. In the novel, it even states that “He’d even beaten her a little” and “There were some thuds and the woman screamed but in such a terrible way that the landing immediately filled with people. Marie and I went to see, too. The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her.” (Camus 35-36) These two quotes from the novel show how terribly abused she was treated by Raymond. A cop would soon arrive to assess the situation. When he knocked on Raymond’s door, the girl screamed and told the cop that Raymond hit her. The cop would end up slapping Raymond but not for hitting the girl, but for disrespecting him. The officer let the girl leave and just told Raymond to go to the police station later. Raymond wasn’t arrested or anything of that sort. This also shows how corrupt the police system is since they did not do anything to really help the girl because of the fact that she was an Arab. The manner on how badly that the Arabs are treated by the people around them is shown here. This event with Raymond’s ex-girlfriend would soon cause a chain effect to occur in the novel.
Near the climax of the novel, a major conflict occurs with the brothers of Raymond’s ex-girlfriend. Her brothers were also Arab and there were specifically two of them at the beach that Meursault, Raymond, and Masson were at. They were there for revenge for the abuse that Raymond had done to the girl. When the three of them were walking along the beach, it states in the novel that, “We moved steadily toward the Arabs. The distance between us was getting shorter and shorter. When we were just a few steps away from each other, the Arabs stopped.” (Camus 53). Albert Camus continues to refuse to give the Arabs a name or an identity. As a matter of fact, when they were talked about in the novel, all that was said to talk about them was “The Arab” or “The Arabs”. After the conflict, Meursault travels the beach in a rage because of the hot sun that shines on him. He had a gun from the conflict beforehand with the two Arabs. He saw an Arab on a rock. Meursault ends up shooting and killing the Arab for basically no reason other than that he was bothered by the intense heat of the sun and the sand. Even though the Arab died, nothing was revealed about him. Not a name, identity or anything which gives the reader a feeling that this death doesn’t even matter much since the Arab is considered to be just a thing and not valued as an actual person. There is no feeling of sympathy to the Arab that was killed by the reader as well because of this. This gives more proof to how much the French vs Arab conflict has affected the way that Arabs are viewed in the novel.
Towards the end of the novel, when Meursault gets incarcerated, he has an encounter with the novel’s inmates. In the novel it states, “The day of my arrest I was put in a room where there were already several other prisoners, most of them Arabs. They laughed when they saw me. Then they asked me what I was in for. I said I'd killed an Arab and they were all silent.” (Camus 72). One of the main points to notice in this part of the novel is the fact that most of the prisoners were Arab. This point is connected to the conflict between the French and Arab and how badly the Arabs were treated. Even though there is no background information to why these Arabs are in the prison, what can be inferred is that the French treat the Arabs terribly and that they probably incarcerate them for almost any reason. Another main point in this scene is the reoccurring lack of name and identity with Arabs. The fact that there are so many Arabs in the prisoners with no name or identity also gives the reader a feeling that they don’t matter or that they shouldn’t even be given sympathy. This scene is another evident relation to the French and Arab conflict in the novel.
Ultimately, the conflict that occurred in the making of the novel, The Stranger, is seen in many different points in the novel. The conflict between the French and Arab is seen when nothing was done to help Raymond’s ex-girlfriend who was an Arab that was not given an identity or name. The Arabs that Raymond, Masson, and Meursault fought in the beach were not given an identity of name, neither the one that Meursault basically killed for no reason at all. Lastly, would be the great number of Arabs that were in the jail which were not given a name or identity. It is a clear fact that there is a reoccurring aspect in the novel which is that Arabs were not given a name or identity. This aspect causes the reader to view these Arabs as not even people, more like things that show no value. There is no sympathy for them for whatever situation they might be in because the reader knows nothing about them which changes the feeling immensely. All of these points can lead to the fact that the French and Arab conflict affect the way the novel was written in many ways. It is also evident that Albert Camus was a follower of the war who most likely did not like the Arabs because of the way he put them in his novel.