From the very first paragraph of the book, the reader immediately gets a sense that Meursault has trouble showing emotion. There is no sense of urgency or mourning when he found out his mother died. He actually seemed more laid back and nonchalant about the whole situation than anything. From the first paragraph and on, the evidence becomes overwhelming. He admits he does not love Marie, he does not seem to care about Raymond abusing women, and lets not forget he killed a person with barley any motive.
However, as one gives the book a closer look, there is some evidence to show that Meursault is empathetic: "For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning"(39). Meursault admits that he was indeed thinking about his dead mother but than immediately suppresses the feeling with a directive. This creates a sense that he is indeed capable of emotion and empathy but he seems to have an internal battle with himself on whether or not he wants to show it. This brings me to question if he had a traumatic childhood experience leading to the suppression of his emotion in his adult life. I am curious to see throughout the book if we uncover anything from his childhood and if Meursault shows anymore hints of emotion and empathy.
I am curious too to see if he becomes more empathetic. I feel as if he isn't really thinking about how his life could be, instead he thinks about how its going in the moment.
ReplyDeleteThere is a line that said that Mersault used to have ambitions when he was a student. But says, "...when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered." So I am also curious to learn if this is why he became less emotional or he always was empathetic.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good point. Another example is he clearly had enough initiative to send his mother to the home in the first place because he believed that he could not care for her enough. That was his own emotional decision that he had to make, perhaps out of love and empathy for his mother?
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