The Stranger’s Connection to Seinfeld

Often times in literature, readers can find similarities and connections to relevant day-to-day themes, movies, or TV shows. In this case, The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, connects closely to the TV show, Seinfeld, episode “The Alternate Side.” In this specific example between two literary connections, there are both general themes and specific events that relate the two closely. These two comparisons show how often literary connections can be made and how prevalent they are in day-to-day life.

In terms of specific events, both have one of the main characters feel no remorse for a bad action they did towards someone. In The Stranger, the main character, Meurseault, murders an Arab man on the beach. Meurseault did not intend to kill the man; however, the novel describes that the trigger of the gun “gave,” taking away any blame from Meurseault. Meurseault then shoots four more bullets into the Arab man, even though he was already dead. “Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. ” (Page 107) This suggests that he did not feel any remorse or guilt by murdering this man, almost as if the murder was subconscious. In the beginning of the Seinfeld episode, the main character’s car is stolen. Jerry, the main character, calls his car phone, hoping someone will pick up. The person who stole the car in fact picks up the phone, and when Jerry asks the man if he is the one that stole the car, the thief blatantly admits to the crime. The thief displays no feelings of guilt and even admits that he plans on keeping the car. The thief reacts very similarly to Meurseault in The Stranger after they both have committed a crime.

In a more general sense, there is also a connection between Seinfeld and The Stranger because both have a character that brings down other people in their mess. In “The Alternate Side” episode of Seinfeld, the character George, Jerry’s friend, carries all of his friends into a mess. George crashes Jerry’s rental car, delaying the set of the movie which Kramer was acting in and also delaying the paramedics that were supposed to help Elaine’s boyfriend. In the end, Kramer loses his job on the set of Woody Allen’s movie and Jerry has to pay for the damage done on the rental car. In The Stranger, one of the main characters, Raymond, also brings down the other main characters in his own mess. Raymond gets mixed up with Arabs who want something from him. He decides to walk on the beach with Meurseault and Masson, unfortunately running in to the Arabs and starting a fight. Raymond almost forces his two other friends to join him. “ Raymond went right up to his man. I couldn’t hear what he said to him, but the other guy made a move as though he were going to butt him. Then Raymond struck the first blow and called Masson right away.” (Page 96) Although they escape this first fight fairly safely, Meurseault returns to the beach, spots the Arab, and engages in a fight with him. Almost subconsciously, Meurseault shoots the Arab four times. Although Raymond did not intend any harm, he brought Meurseault and Masson into his mess, and led Meurseault to murder a man.