No Momma´s Boy

In the story ¨The Stranger" by Albert Camus, the main character Monsieur Meursault is presented as an awkward social outcast, whose mother just died. From the beginning, the reader was able to feel his awkwardness, but it reached a new point when Meursault gave a strong impression that he did not care about his mother´s death.

¨The blood-red earth spilling over Maman´s casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front of the cafe, the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers and I knew I was going to bed and sleep for twelve hours(18).¨

In this case, Monsieur Meursault was more happy about the bus coming than he was sad about his own mother´s death. He got over his mother´s death easily- in fact he never seemed to be that upset about it in the first place. ¨It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed (24).¨ Meursault regards his mother´s death in a very nonchalant and laid-back way, and the reader can tell that there was a very little emotional connection between him and his mother-if any at all. This implies that him and his mother were not close, which brings up a blaring question...What could have happened between him and his mother that could have created such an estranged relationship? or is the main character just emotionally disconnected from everyone in general to the point where he cannot even connect on an emotional level with his mother?