Meursault In Two Places Sparknotes

Also by showing Meursault’s words towards Marie when she asked him if he loved her this shows how Meursault is honest and doesn’t take Maries feelings into consideration when he said he didn’t love her, “ A minute later she asked me if loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” (Camus 35) Also by showing his thoughts about Raymond’s ex girlfriend and when Raymond told him that he beat his girlfriend Meursault didn’t react and thought, “I understood his wanting to punish her” (Camus 32) When Raymond is beating his ex girlfriend, Marie asks him to go and get a cop, Meursault shows no pity towards the woman, “The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her. Marie said it was terrible and I didn’t say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn’t like cops.” (Camus 36). Camus shows again in Part 2 of the book that Meursault still cannot lie when the lawyer asks him to lie to save himself and Meursault refuses, “ He asked me if he could say that day I had held back my natural feelings. I said, “No, because it’s not true.” (Camus

The climax of the story happens when Raymond and Meursault are walking on the beach and come across two Arab men, one being the brother of the mistress Raymond was having the issue with. A fight quickly breaks out in which Raymond gets injured and they all leave the beach. Later the afternoon they again go down to the beach where they find the Arabs laying on the beach. Raymond proceeds to pull out a gun and points it at the Arab men in which Meursault tries to convince him not to do it, and Raymond ends up handing over the gun. Raymond later goes back to the beach house but Meursault decides to stay. Moments go by and Meursault yet again runs into the Arab man. He then pulls out the gun and points it at the Arab man and fires the gun, pauses and decides to fire again, killing the Arab man. It is almost as though the death of the Arab was Raymond’s fault. He was the one that lured Meursault into the drama, which leads Meursault to his downfall. Overall the relationship between Raymond and Meursault is strange. Raymond uses Meursault and ultimately leads him to his rock-bottom, where on the other hand Meursault is indifferent to Raymond and it is just another person he has an interaction with in life.

In his relationship with Marie, Meursault remains indifferent to both love and marriage. His indifference should not however be accepted as an innate, uncontrollable response, rather a radical refuse of both social and religious affairs which authority impresses upon society. This indirect refusal to authority is also a present in Meursaults relationship with his boss. Meursault is offered a job in Paris and to his bosses’ surprise is indifferent to the situation stating that while “it was all the same”(41) that his life was content and “people never change their lives” in fact, “one life was as good as another”(41). Later however discussing the opportunity with Marie instead of displaying indifference describes Paris as “dirty”(42) with “lots of pigeons and dark courtyards”(42) and where “everybody’s pale”(42). Thus, despite his unemotional reaction to the boss, later displays resentment towards the situation. Meursaults relationship with Raymond is also down played in Meursaults narration. Helping Raymond write a knowingly manipulative letter because “he didn’t have any reason not to please him”(32) seems contradictory to his previously apathetic attitude that he “didn’t mind being his pal”(33). When Marie suggest that Meursault call the police he responds that he does not like police, thereby displaying an emotional

Through one of the secondary characters, Meursault illustrates an amoral, yet emotional side through his actions and dialogue with Raymond. For instance, Raymond describes his corrupt plan of writing his

Meursault manager told him that he lacked ambition (41). He was caught up in the monotony of life, and before he knew it all he had taken for granted was soon taken from him. Meursault's imprisonment is physical as it is metaphoric. It's in prison that he accepts death and wishes through his execution that those that watch him will in turn learn that regardless of how one lives their life death comes for everyone. Meursault comes to the conclusion that it is only through an execution that life can truly be valued.

The death of the Arab in itself is not crucial to Meursault's fate. Around that time period in Algiers, Arabs were almost easily dispensed with - they were not high society. Meursault's true undoing comes from his lack of emotion. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault sits at his mother's funeral, quietly picking up the most minute details of the scene: wrinkles on the old men's faces, the way the women's stomachs seemed to bulge out from under their apron strings. Yet their eyes remained a glimmer amid all the wrinkles. Here Meursault was captivated by his mother's friends- their difference sparks his

Meursault suffers throughout the novel, and fails to overcome the negative events in his life. When Meursault’s mother dies many people who were close to her-for example Monsieur Pérez-were very solemn, but Meursault did not show much emotion; “... Pérez’s face… Big tears of frustration and exhaustion were streaming down his cheeks… Then there was the church and red geraniums on the graves in the cemetery… the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers” (18). Meursault speaks about Pérez’s pain in short sentences, and then quickly describes the environment around him. He emotes joy when the bus comes, even though it is still the day of his mother’s funeral. Camus’ style of short sentences shows Meursault’s lack of emotion which prohibits him from finding meaning in his suffering; “But, in the first place, it isn’t my fault if they buried Maman yesterday instead of today, and second, I would have had Saturday and Sunday off anyway. Obviously, that still doesn’t keep me from understanding my boss’s point of view” (19). He will not speak about any pain or negative emotions resulting from this event. As the novel continues, he commits a murder, is put on trial, and then sent to be executed. Meursault is constantly suffering, but he continues to stay unattached to his emotions and suffering. When he is about to be executed, he states that the only thing he has left is the end of

Meursault cannot make a decision. When he is given a gun by Raymond he did not know how to react to holding the gun. When he murders the Arab, the situation does not affect him in any way. This shows that Meursault doesn't know the meaning of life. This shows someone who is unable to do a meaningful act. Meursault killing of the Arab was an act out of no reason. He states the sun and heat was his motive for killing the Arab. He does not show any emotion toward the situation. This also shows that he is an anti-hero.

In Albert Camus’s novel The Stanger, Meursault possesses rare characteristics. In several instances, he is unable to make a decision for himself. Meursault does not see where it matters if he loves Marie or not. Next, he does not care about his mother’s death. When attending her funeral in Morengo, Meursault feels no emotion towards the passing of Maman. Then, he is overly honest and straight forward. Meursault chooses not to lie in a situation that would have saved his life. Although Meursault is the protagonist of the novel, his actions and qualities make him and anti-hero.

Meursault is then put in jail for murdering an “Arab”. Meursault’s investigators have looked into his private life and claimed he was insensitive at his Madame Meursault’s Funeral. Meursault’s lawyer asked Meursault him why he was not sad about his mother’s burial. Meursault said he probably did love his mother: “that didn’t mean anything”. However, he can’t analyze himself. Meursault’s own defense lawyer is offended by his response and after the lawyer departs and Meursault says to himself: “I felt the urge to reassure [the lawyer] that I was just like everybody else.” (“SparkNote on The Stranger”)

Meursault’s character from the point of introduction establishes himself to be a deviant from society, as he reveals that his mother has died, stating that it “doesn’t mean anything,” while contemplating it may have been “yesterday” (Camus, 1). Meursault does not react in the same fashion in which one would expect a person to, by showing a lack of emotion towards the news. Instead, he imparts an indifferent attitude, inciting a reaction that makes one wonder: what ever happened to make this individual so cold to his own mother? However, this is just Meursault’s way of being,

Realizing that life is condemned to be pointless and meaningless may have quite a negative effect on most ‘normal’ people, but Meursault uses this to his advantage, living his life to the fullest each day. Meursault does not follow social standards, but does what interests him and how it affects him. He tries to live as honestly as possible, only getting to know getting to know and friending those he likes and has interest in. Meursault’s absurd outlook on life, choices through the novel, and his realization promote the idea that he is the Absurdist Hero.

As the novel progresses, the reader gathers a clearer and clearer vision of Meursault’s amoral outlook on life. Meursault’s view on the situation with Raymond and his girlfriend is one prime example of this amoral outlook. When Raymond, Meursault’s neighbor, explains to Meursault that his girlfriend has cheated on him and so he consequently beat her, Meursault takes an entirely objective approach to the situation, stating that “he’d beaten her till she bled. He’d never beaten her before…he wanted to know what I thought of the whole thing. I said I didn’t think anything but that it was interesting” (Camus 32).

After Meursault killed the Arab he explained to the prosecution that he had “never been able to truly feel remorse for anything” because his “mind was always on what was coming next, today, or tomorrow” (Camus 100). Instead of accepting his wrongdoings, he embraces them and refuses to admit what he has done. It is frightening knowing that Meursault has no sympathy or regret for all the bad decisions he has made. The only explanation he gave for killing the Arab on the beach was because the sun had been bothersome. There is nothing preventing Meursault from killing again, which is why he is seen as such a serious threat to others.

He alienates him as he drifts away from the shore where society is living on making him an “Outsider”. Meursault cannot turn back now after murdering a man, he cannot go back to society, he alienates himself from societies moral standards. He cannot make peace anymore after disrupting the nature and says, “I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach”(Camus, 59). The main character knows his actions hurt nature, and the harmony of the day, when he committed an awful act and he is unable to create peace with the world. Society tests the protagonist with the option of killing an Arab or letting him go, however, when Meursault is faced with this event he is unable to distinguish right from wrong which further enhances absurdism in the main character and alienates