Meursault's Ignorance to Love and Humanity

Meursault is a blunt character that is honest to the world around him. Through his straightforward reactions to society's order, his position in society, and his emotions, his honesty is seen as ignorance. He is ignorant in a sense that his mindset and his feelings are detached from the norms of society. Furthermore, he is constantly challenging the morals of society and he views life from the outside. His lack of ability to express emotion illustrates not only his ignorance to the meaning of love and human life, but also his unstable person as a whole.

The significant two examples of his emotionless character are when he doesn't express sadness at his mother's funeral and his unawareness of love with Marie. Because of the unorganized structure in society according to Meursault, this causes him to not connect with others and how they feel towards him. For example, in Part One Chapter 4, it states, "A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her that it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so" (35).

Love is felt through emotion. And emotion is part of human life. The fact that Meursault doesn't think love means anything and that he doesn't love someone who is always there for him proves he is stubborn. It also shows that when encountered with someone else and their feelings, his intuition about society and its sentiments is different from the rest of the world. He is a removed individual because he not only has a different opinion on love, but he also doesn't fully understand the degree of importance of Marie's statement. This represents his unfamiliarity with social expectations. Meursault's response to Marie foreshadows his ultimate opinion on society and how he doesn't understand the purpose of human life.