Pied-Noir in
Algeria
Camus and the
Death Penalty
Emma Alcántar, Fabian Ardaya,
Alec Heikkala, David Howman, Jonathan
Warren
Pied-Noir in Algeria
● Pied-Noir is French for Black Foot
● It was a term used for Europeans that
lived in French North Africa (like Algeria)
● Also used for people who returned to
France once Algeria gained its
independence
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Pied-Noir in Algeria
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Algeria was a French colony
Europeans arrived in Algeria as
immigrants from all over the western
Mediterranean area
Pied-Noirs had a strained relationship with
mainland Frenchies, considered to be
alienated from them
Pied-Noir in Algeria
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Camus was born into a Pied-Noir family and likely
experienced a sense of alienation, leading to
existentialism
Muslims were even more alienated in Algeria
o They had no political representation, could not
own land despite being the majority, and were
required to renounce their religion to gain
citizenship
Pied-Noirs in Algeria
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War broke out for Algerian independence
due to continuous unfair treatment of
Muslims (7:1 vote)
Algeria won her independence in a
referendum
Independence was celebrated by a near
purge of Pied-Noirs from the nation
Pied-Noirs
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Over 800,00 Pied-Noirs left Algeria and
returned to France after independence
France wasn’t ready and it led to
overpopulation and anti-Pied-Noir
sentiment
This led to Pied-Noirs feeling “disaffected”
from French society #existentialism
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz2dTyDfNAw
Camus and the Death Penalty
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From a young age, Camus’s father told revolting
stories concerning the death penalty
This skewed Camus’s view and from then on had a
strong dislike for it.
Camus began a vocal and lifelong opposition to the
death penalty
Executions by guillotine were a common public
spectacle in Algeria during his lifetime
Refused to attend them and recoiled bitterly at their
Camus and the Death Penalty
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Camus expressed his dislike for public executions
and the death penalty in his writings
He does this by relaying the concept of
condemnation of capital punishment as both explicit
and implicit text in his writings
A Quote from Monsieur Camus
“But what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders,
to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be
compared? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have
to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he
would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment
onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is
not encountered in private life.”
Quote Analysis
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Showed Camus’ opposition to the death
penalty
Believes it to be a more barbaric act than any
criminal’s action and that nothing can warrant
it
Says that no one is deserving of such a fate
Believes the factor that carries out the
punishment is worse than the criminal
Camus Works and the Death Penalty
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In The Stranger, Meursault’s long confinement during
his trial and his eventual execution are presented as
part of an elaborate, ceremonial ritual involving both
public and religious authorities
In the Myth of Sisyphus, the would-be suicide is
contrasted with his fatal opposite, the man
condemned to death, and we are continually
reminded that a sentence of death is our common
fate in an absurd universe
Camus and the Death Penalty
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Camus’ essay “Reflections on the Guillotine”
supplies a detailed examination of the issue
“It is an act of vengeance aimed primarily at the poor
and oppressed, and is given religious sanction,
which makes it even more hideous and indefensible”
A direct rebuttal to traditional retributionist arguments
in favor of capital punishment (such as Kant’s claim
that death is the legally appropriate, indeed morally
required, penalty for murder)
Camus and the Death Penalty
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Argued that at the very least, France should
transition into a more humane phase of capital
punishment such as lethal injection
Hoped that capital punishment should be done away
with altogether
Did not live to see the abolition of capital punishment
Is now an essential prerequisite for membership in
the European Union
Close Read
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Now read the passage we passed out from chapter
six of the novel. Then write a thesis statement while
keeping the following questions in mind:
- How does this scene embody the relations between
the pied-noirs and the Arabs?
-Does Camus condemn this violence and the death
penalty with this scene?
-Why does Camus end the chapter with this scene?
Works Cited
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/europe/05iht-kimmel.4.20622745.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/#SSH5c.viii
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/439038-but-what-then-is-capital-punishment-but-the-most-premeditated
http://www.mrbauld.com/camuscp.html
http://www.shmoop.com/the-stranger/mortality-quotes-3.html
http://www.macobo.com/essays/epdf/CAMUS,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Stranger.pdf