Should W. have to write an essay on “L’Etranger”?
In class, we discussed how Camus’ The Stranger critiques the deteriorating state of French/Algerian racial, social, and political relations in the 1940s. As it turns out, President Bush has likewise been discussing the book with his White House cabinet. In Maureen Dowd’s New York Times editorial entitled “Aux Barricades!” she notes the President’s recent studies, and compares the current United States/Iraq conflict to the French-Algerian War. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the Pentagon screened the 1966 movie “The Battle of Algiers,” and President Bush’s reading list has of late has included The Stranger and Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace. Henry Kissinger himself supplied W. with his reading list, but did not require him to write any essays in response to the texts. Liberal Dowd ends her editorial with a tongue-in-check jab at the President by suggesting he move on to reading Sartre’s No Exit, which you have also had the privilege of studying. In her editorial, Dowd seeks to draw parallels between the permanence of hell and the United States’ occupation of Iraq. Are the underlying conflicts of the United States/Iraq war similar to those presented in Camus’ The Stranger and Sartre’s No Exit? Why or why not? Cite specific quotes and examples from the text.
