Meursault is Emotionally Detatched From the World Around Him

In the novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Meursault is depicted as emotionally detached from everyone else, and is much more invested in the physical world than the social or emotional world. Camus presents the physical as a much more important world by showing Meursault's perception of the physical world as much more prevalent than his perception of emotions. This is shown when Meursault claims that the sun made him kill the Arab. "Fumbling a little with my words and realizing how ridiculous I sounded, I blurted out that it was because of the sun." (103). If the sun tormenting Meursault was his reason for killing the Arab, it shows that there were no emotions that drove Meursault to kill the Arab. In this case, Meursault's focus on the physical world has wronged him, driving him to kill the Arab. This just shows the absence of Meursault in the emotional world, and his great interest in the physical world.