With no dialogue throughout the entire book, one of the more mysterious characters in Albert Camus’s The Stranger are the Arabs. Their silent and menacing demeanors create conflict between our main characters and establish them as the antagonists of the story. Since they are depicted as such, Camus creates the binary relationship between the main characters and the Arabs as CIVILIZED/savage. This idea of other-ism was prevalent during French colonialism in Algeria—the setting and time period of the book—with the widespread movement of Berberism. Berberism is an ethnonationist movement in Algeria and Morocco that propagates the Kabyle myth: portraying Arabs as invaders who destroyed late Roman and early medieval civilizations of Algeria and threaten their culture and nation. Algeria has had, and continues to have, a long history of racism against Arabs, so for the time period of The Stranger, this ideology encapsulates the climate of Algeria for white French-Algerian people and Arabs. However, despite this supposed binary of CIVILIZED/savage against Arabs in The Stranger, I believe that Camus attempts to address the situation and break the relationship, rather than enforce it.

I believe there are many examples throughout the book where Camus combats this narrative and attempts to upend it by inverting the savage label. First, the Arabs never talk in the book; rather than interpreting them as menacing beings, this view can instead be portrayed as docile. They only act aggressively because they want revenge against an abusive procurer. Secondly, the only savage actions committed in the book are by white French-Algerian people, rather than the Arabs. Meursault commits the murder that occurs, and Raymond, another white man, commits the abusive acts in the book. Meursault and Raymond’s actions are savage by definition, and the only victims in the situation are the Arabs.

Another example of Camus inverting the binary is after Meursault is arrested for the murder. Meursault is in prison awaiting his trial, and is visited by Marie. Next to him is a blond man talking to a fat woman, and they are yelling to communicate with each other. Meanwhile, the Arab people are talking in a lower, softer tone and are still able to make themselves heard. Showing them in a more docile and civilized light. In the same scene, we see Camus use another method to break the relationship: by humanizing the Arabs. Meursault repeatedly takes notice of a young man and his mother. These characters also never talk, but more importantly, they represent the relationship Meursault had with his mother. Again showing that Arabs can have loving, meaningful relationships with people, and are not total savages.