Essay Questions

Highlight the autobiographical elements from Albert Camus's The First Man.

The First Man (or Le Premier Homme in French) was the novel Albert Camus was working on before his untimely death. He had a difficult time writing the novel; however, he had associated great importance to it. He perceived the novel as his version of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

The story takes place in Algeria. Camus describes in excruciating detail the emotion and the conflict surrounding his homeland of Algeria. A major chunk of the novel deals with the childhood of the protagonist - Jacques. This description seems to be drawn from the author's own experiences as a child in Algiers.

Camus saw his father's grave for the first time when he was 34 years old. His father had died at the young age of 29. The exact same parallel has been used in the novel to accentuate the tragic lives of Jacques and his father Henri Comery.

What is the writing style used by Albert Camus in The First Man?

Albert Camus makes a somewhat informal use of language. He sails between the present and the past in a whimsical manner. The narrative shifts from the perspective of Henri Comery in the first chapter to that of his son, Jacques Comery, after a gap of forty years.

Camus then uses the protagonist to lay down exposition for the story in a subtle manner. The reader is made privy to Jacques's inner-most thoughts concerning the absence of his father, and his childhood in Algiers. In order to portray his thoughts, Camus uses long paragraphs of contemplative exposition which focuses on the protagonist's emotional journey. This technique is reminiscent of the stream of consciousness, which allows the reader to peek inside the head of the protagonist. Camus makes subtle use of the technique to enable his protagonist to have a more evocative impact on the reader.

Comment on the title of the novel The First Man.

The central conflict of the story is the untimely death of Jacques's father Henri during the course of the war. Henri Comery had died before Jacques had even turned one.

Jacques, now a middle-aged man, vows to visit the grave of his father in France. Upon finding it, he realizes that he is older than his father ever was. His father died at a young age and now Jacques himself has crossed the threshold of that age. This incites in him a realization that he himself is the first man of his family since his father died so young. This realization is accompanied by a feeling of absurdity and condemnation for war.