THE OUTSIDER

by Albert Camus

Released :17/10/2020

Reviewed : 15/10/2020

Reviewed by : Shushanti Mutum

An Individual’s perception makes the world a different place, unique of its own….
Should we judge a person according to our perception or should we just understand like any other glass of wine?

Such a sensational work is “The Outsider” by Albert Camus. It is about a man who rejects to oblige conformities and literally too logical. The man who lives a comfortably balance life, is also the one who possesses the slightest chance of emotions. Everything to him falls in a spreadsheet of rationality mostly. His unaware, uncaring attitude towards emotion has suddenly become an object, which expresses him as a stranger in the eyes of law and the society. It is the moment, when he hits a violent mistake on a scorching beach that takes him to a new turn. His trial in court and the point he gets condemned to death for the lack of penitence is the juncture that explores- 1) The absurdity of human world 2) The indifferent world that seem to be different vividly 3) A tacit clash of Rationality Vs Emotion and many others.
Every single thing he has ever done which includes going out with his girlfriend for movie, swimming, not shedding tears on mother’s funeral, have eventually turned out baits for him. This has posed several queries on- what should be the standard degree of emotions which makes a human being? What type of soul is considered in the making of a human? Amidst of all the wonderings, I’d like to put one of my favourite lines from there-
“For a long time, I had believed-though I don’t know why- that to reach the guillotine, you had to walk up some steps to the scaffold. I think it was because of the 1789 Revolution; I mean because of everything I’d been taught or shown about it….it was much narrower than I’d imagine. I hadn’t realised this before, which was rather odd.” (Camus, 1942, p. 101)
So guys, the novel is short yet the experience is indeed refreshing. Despite being old and written in 1940s, it still occupies a relevant place especially among the youths of third world countries as many of us are still consuming and tries to embrace the product of 1789 Revolution in some way or the other.