We as the reader only read what Meursault cares to see. We never get to know any specific, intimate, intriguing details of the people in his life. We can only interpret some deeper meaning and gain more insight from the bare, dry information Meursault knows.
Maman we know was an atheist, but for some reason wanted a religious burial. She was at the old folks home for three years till she passed away on a unknown date at a ripe age of... we don't know! Some where in her sixties. She had ten friends and a significant other, Perez.
Marie Cardona we know was a typist at Meursault's office and is now his soon to be wife! She is pretty, charming, and for some reason likes Meursault. We know she is a female and has boobs.
He obviously doesn't give us much information about any of the characters. Off of the scarce details of his mother and partner what can we further interpret about them?
Maman seemed to have a "loose" life, and was fairly easy going. Even though she was an atheist she wanted her last memorable event of her existence to be religious. Many people who are atheists wouldn't want their funeral to have any connection to religion and those who were religious would dread it if their funeral had to affiliation with religion. But, she seemed to not put much stress on her last outing. She created lots of friends and met her new lover in the short stay she had at the old folks home. Creating so many close relationships at an old age in a typically "depressing setting" seems like you need a rosy outlook on life.
Marie seems to not have high standards. Or she doesn't think she deserves more because she has a low self-esteem. She proposed basically twice to Meursault and he responded with "it didn't really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married" (41). And she took that as a yes. She is settling for him and yes, she may genuinely like him but wanting to be in an one-sided relationship is not healthy and there is a deeper rooted issue she has for marrying a man who doesn't love her or care about any of her needs/wants.
This third person limited point of view allows for the reader to accurately interpret characters and even events as we are only given Meursault's thoughts and narration.
I had not really given much thought to the lack of information we receive as a reader. It is true that we only know things that Meursault knows; this is difficult because he is such a detached social outsider! I agree with your interpretations of the minimal information that we gain from Meursault's narration.
ReplyDeleteAfter group discussions in class, it became more and more evident to me that us readers are only receiving a limited point of view on everything that occurs in Mersault's life. Due to Mersault's rather uncommunicative personality, the reader can only assume that they are missing out on much of the details of the characters' lives and many of the conversations that take place throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of Mersault's poor narration, I believe that Mersault is an untrustworthy narrator. Since Mersault reveals to us that he did indeed kill a man and later even confesses to it, it seems apparent that he is not lying to the readers. Though I consider Mersault to be untrustworthy, I don't believe that he is a liar, but rather believe that he is leaving an abundance of helpful information out of the story that would make for better context and more specific characters.