Line #1 YMMV/TheStranger


1	!! The Novel
2	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Meursault a hero, a SociopathicHero, or a VillainProtagonist? Or is he just some random guy who shot another random guy for no real reason at all, and to what extent does that put him into one of these categories?
3	* DesignatedHero: Opinions differ whether Meursault is really a good person or not.
4	* DesignatedVillain: In order for the reader to sympathize with Meursault on some level, the authority figures in the book, namely the prosecutor and the chaplain are made into overzealous HangingJudge and hypocrites with CondescendingCompassion respectively, even if they are both carrying out the law, and that Meursault did commit a crime and that in the real world, someone who killed a man like Meursault did and harboured no guilt, would not be treated any differently.
5	* StrawmanHasAPoint: However much the ValuesDissonance of the society of the time, and absurdism of the plot dancing around this fact, there is no escaping that Meursault is a man indifferent to human life who killed a person for literally no reason at all and could do so again at any time without thought of consequence. In the face of these facts it is hard to argue that he is not a danger to others. When the lawyer in the court says that someone like Meursault's rejection of all traditional morality makes him a person who must be destroyed, it's hard to argue he's wrong even if he's RightForTheWrongReasons.
6	* ValuesDissonance: Meursault is a French colonial settler in Algeria who murdered an Algerian man and then waxes poetic about his indifference. Many later critics and writers have taken Creator/AlbertCamus (who did support the Algerian Settlers) to task for using a crime against an Algerian native as a given for his philosophical speculation. But then again, this is entirely intentional. Had his murder been of a Frenchman, the entire trial would be taken much more seriously from the start - the disregard shown to the murder because of the victim being an Algerian is very much a plot point. Due to their prejudice, it takes the jury learning unrelated facts about Meursault's personal life to get them to even care about the trial at all. This is very much a commentary on their hypocrisy and twisted moral standards.
7
8	!! The Film
9	* CompleteMonster: Franz Kindler is a [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi war criminal]] fleeing his complicity in UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust who adopts a new identity as Charles Rankin in a sleepy suburban town. When a [[TheAtoner repentant Nazi]], Konrad Meinike, tracks him down, Kindler promptly murders him and then poisons his wife Mary's dog Red when Red sniffs around where he buried the corpse. When a Nazi hunter named Mr. Wilson tracks Kindler down, he reveals to Mary her husband's complicity in the Holocaust and how Kindler helped to develop the FinalSolution, showing her images of his atrocities. In a final attempt to keep his secret, Kindler tries to murder Mary. When stopped, Kindler protests he was JustFollowingOrders, which Wilson rejects by saying "you ''gave'' the orders."
10	* MoralEventHorizon: For the audience, it is when Rankin kills a repentant Meinike. [[spoiler: For Mary, it is when she discovers that Rankin tried to kill her and may have succeeded in killing her brother.]]
11	* NightmareFuel: The documentary footage of the liberated death camp. It briefly shows a pile of corpses before switching to a big gas chamber, while Wilson calmly explains how the victims were given hot showers in order to open up their pores so the poison gas would penetrate their bodies faster.

Context YMMV / TheStranger