- tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their labor as the Algerian city of Oran is swept by a plague
- generally taken as metaphoric treatment of the French resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII
- story is told through the narrative of main character, Dr. Rieux
- explores the philosophy of existentialism - emphasizes the idea that we ultimately have no control and that irrationality of life is inevitable
The Fall
- set in Amsterdam
- consists of a series of monologues of a self-proclaimed "judge penitent" Jean-Baptiste Clamence
- tells of his success, upstanding role in society and his ultimate fall from grace
The Stranger
- Meursault goes to his mother's funeral where he is unaffected by it
- He befriends his neighbor Raymond Sintes who is a notorious local pimp and helps him dismiss one of his Arab mistress
- Later the two confront the woman's brother "The Arab" on a beach and Raymond gets cut in the resulting knife fight
- Meursault goes back to the beach and in a fit of lunacy shoots the Arab five times
- at the trial the prosecution focuses on the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral - the killing of the Arab is less important than whether Meursault is capable of remorse
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