Scapegoating in ‘The Stranger’ By Albert Camus

Abstract The present paper intends to discuss the amount to which scapegoating (as understood by René Girard in ‘The Scapegoat’) can be applied to Camus’s novel ‘The Stranger’. While issues arise when we are trying to apply Girard’s definition of scapegoating to the famous novel by Camus, this paper shall try to prove that they are only apparent issues, and that the novel is a perfect illustration of Girard’s theory.