Bohemian Rhapsody, a song, made by the band, Queen, is an old British hit song from the 1970s. This song has been largely been known as just another popular song from that era, until someone started to look closely at the lyrics. The lyrics show the constant thought of “fantasy” and “reality”. This of course is some of the main themes of The Stranger, by Albert Camus. The Stranger stars the main character Meursault as a young man who despises peoples views of life, and believes in the world of indifference. Bohemian Rhapsody shows relation and even descriptive detail towards the plot of The Stranger.
The Stranger is about a man, Meursault, who doesn't care about whatever's going on in his life and shoots a man for no reason. He rejects God and doesn't show much emotion at all. As you listen to the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody, you can hear Meursault's life being described. For example, in the first stanza, “Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.” This quote is talking about how Meursault views his life compared to everyone else. He feels that everyone lives in a world of emotion and he feels very much different. As you continue down the song you start to find more and more lyrics that have the same pattern. Like, “Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see, I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy.” This pattern of song talks about the indifference of someone. Someone who believes they are different. That someone is Meursault. He believes that he doesn’t care to give sympathy and doesn’t care to receive it. Everything is meaningless to him, so why should he care for others. This remains the theme for both the song and the novel.
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Not only does Bohemian Rhapsody describe how Meursualt from The Stranger thinks, it also gives detailed events of his life. Events like when Meursault decides to kill a man. “Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead.” This quote shows aside from killing the arab, it shows how he has little care toward his action. He just killed a man. For no reason. The song saying, “now he’s dead,” highlights the thought of the Meursault not having any care of any of his actions. The song even shows parts of the courtroom scene in the book. “He's just a poor boy from a poor family, Spare him his life from this monstrosity!” This part of the song is other characters Celeste, Marie, Raymond all asking for his life to be spared in the courtroom. Bohemian Rhapsody continues to suggest and hint Meursault's life which makes you question the true meaning of the song.
Although there are many similarities between the song Bohemian Rhapsody and the novel The Stranger, there are reasons to believe there is no relation. Meursault's mother dies before the beginning of the book, and he shows absolutely no concern for her. Why would he call out for her repeatedly? This is because despite not showing any hint of emotion throughout most of the book, at the very end he has the capacity to relate to his mother. Many questions are raised as if these two pieces are similar by mere coincidence. This is not the case. The song and the novel show too much resemblance between each other to not be based on each other.
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