Some Thoughts on "The Stranger"

Preface: I've never read "The Stranger". I haven't looked up any background on the author. I haven't finished the story yet. These are merely some thoughts, out of nowhere, on interesting things I've noticed in the first 40 pages of "The Stranger."

First is the narrator's obsession with the motif of "glossy black." This image of a smooth, black surface has come up roughly five billion thousand times in the story so far. I'm reading this from an e-book, so my pages won't match yours, but the examples of this I have for you are:

pg. 15: "the paving blocks were black and glistening"
"black patent-leather shoes"
p. 16: "the sky showed velvety black"
p. 20: "black pudding"
p. 33: "it lay smooth as a mirror...black reflection"
p. 40: "sleek black hair"

And really that's only to name a few. I didn't take any examples from section I of Part One because it's a funeral, and the word "black" is all over the place and an obvious image. To me, this motif is referencing the funeral at the beginning...it's reminding us that the death at the beginning of the story is very much related to everything else that happens. It is a reminder of the dark side of the story. Maybe it will become significant in the second half, I don't know.

Next, I've noticed some sexual imagery in places. I'll give you the example on page 33 of my text (this is just after they take the bus to the beach at Algiers):

"already the hard"
"rose naked"
"full view"
"the dazzling smoothness"

As always there's the risk of reading too much into things, but those in particular didn't really seem coincidental to me.

I think the style of narration is really interesting. At times it sounds almost elementary to me, like a book report or something, "I don't remember much except..." "what I liked most about that was" "what caught my attention most," etc. I'm not really clear on who the audience is supposed to be, and I don't know why he is telling us this story yet. It's not clear to me. At times it seems like ridiculously long journal entries...like he's not talking to anyone in particular or for any particular reason, just trying to be as detailed as possible so as not to forget anything.

So that's what I'm thinking about so far while I read this. Overall I have to say it's not a bad weekend reading, it really holds my interest...I've been having a pretty good time reading it, especially compared to Michael Kohlhaas. This story is WAY more interesting than Michael Kohlhaas, in my opinion. I'm just less sure about where this is going.