Thursday, October 5, 2017

Meursault, a murderer

In The Stranger, Meursault displays an intense lack of emotion and becomes very irritable to small details and in many ways these tendencies contribute to his detachment to society and relationships.

Throughout the novel, the short and choppy sentences personify his real interactions with other people. His relationship with his mother, Marie, and Raymond seem like a liability for Meursault instead of something that has any real value to him and the decisions that he makes seem to be motivated by the convenience and not his own personal reasoning.

His relationship with Raymond however, intrigues me the most. Raymond seems like the complete opposite of Meursault. An abrupt, male chauvinist who needs Meursault there so he can gloat to him. However, Muersault seems to be connected to Raymond in unusual ways.

Every decision Meursault made did not seem to serve a meaningful purpose. He wrote the letter for Raymond without knowing if he really agreed with him or not about his treatment of Raymond's mistress. He agreed to speaking with cops for Raymond as well even though he mentioned not being a huge fan of authority. He was also hesitant about attending the gathering at the beach with Raymond and his friend but went anyway.

At the time of the murder however, Meursault seemed more vivid and reflective on that day and shortly before the act of him shooting the Arab, his sentences were longer and he dwelled more on his actions and feelings, "I knew I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I'd been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace" (59).


Q: What do you think influenced Meursault's decison to kill the Arab and what changes in him seemed to serve as his motivation to shoot him more than once?

2 comments:

  1. I like your descriptions of how the syntax enforces the meaning of the story so far. I agree but would like to add that I think that the choppy sentences represent the normal, routine way that Meursault views the world whereas once we get closer to the murder scene it is obvious that something is off, not right because the syntax has become longer and more drawn out. The reflective sentences right before he shoots emphasize the difference of that day.

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  2. I kind of feel that Meursault and Raymond are a lot more alike than it seems on the surface. They both are "outsiders" in comparison to the vast majority. Raymonds shady and stays aloof from society, acts on his own; Similar to Meursault, different from society and lives life uninhibited from social norms. But I agree with you about the difference in sentence structure and the content of the story in those certain short or long sentences. But also Lydia's point on the short sentences exhibiting his concise, bland routine.

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