The Stranger Essay Options

The Stranger

Essay Topics

Assignment:  Write an essay (3-5 pages) that covers one of the topics below.  Keep the following in mind:

Ø Be specific

Ø Have a clearly stated thesis.  Answer your prompt’s question.

Ø Support your thesis with specific facts from the text and from secondary sources, including quotes and page citations.

Ø Use MLA style

Remember!  You have done a lot of work with this novel over the past several weeks.   That work can help you develop your thesis and your paper.  Use your sticky notes and your journal to find specific quotes and passages that struck you.  Use the individual class assignments as guides for your thoughts.

One more thing:  Don’t summarize.  Yes, sometimes you need to summarize a bit for clarity, but spend most of your time doing analysis. 

1.   Research the philosophy of Absurdism (coined by Camus) and analyze its relevance to The Stranger: Secondary sources must come from books, multcoed.org databases or OSLIS.  Cite all sources.

2.   Research Camus’s life and beliefs and write an essay in which you demonstrate how The Stranger reveals and explores what was of importance to the author. Secondary sources must come from books, multcoed.org databases or OSLIS. Cite all sources.

3.   Research the historical relationship between France and Algeria and analyze The Stranger as a postcolonial critique of that relationship. Pay particular attention to the role of Arabs in the novel in your essay. Secondary sources must come from books, multcoed.org databases or OSLIS. Cite all sources.

4.   Read Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, or Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and compare the author’s perspective of Existentialism to that of Camus using your own opinion and secondary sources for support. You must not have read the novel before this assignment.  Secondary sources must come from books, multcoed.org databases or OSLIS.  Cite all sources.

5.     Compare and contrast contemporary Existentialist excerpts from film to Camus’s piece.  How do people today reflect and interpret Camus’s work?  What do they see right and what don’t they get in your opinion?  Possible pieces to consider: Pulp Fiction, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  There are more that I found at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/list/8Iapaxq39RQ/. Check with me before you start this essay. Cite all sources.

6.   Analyze the difference between the concepts of “Justice” and of “Law,” and write an essay in which you explore whether justice is served by the end of The Stranger. You may choose to write this as a persuasive essay in which you attempt to convince your audience one way or the other. (Feel free to pretend to be a lawyer who represents Meursault more capably than the one the court appoints!)

7.   Consider the importance of personal, moral, ethical, and civic responsibility in your own life and analyze how well Meursault handles his responsibilities. The essay asks you to balance personal exposition and literary analysis.

8.   Determined to remain true to himself, Meursault finds himself at odds with a society. Compare and contrast the The Stranger with (an)other literary text(s) you have read. Be sure to keep in mind the historical and geographical origin of the texts as you explore their similarities and differences.

Only Essay Topics Having Further Research or Reading Can Achieve an Exceeds Score (choices 1-4)