Oh, The Irony...

From the beginning of the book, it is easy to pick up on Meursault's lack of emotion. Throughout various parts of the book, he is shown to be perfectly comfortable with the abuse that he witnesses. At one point, he mentions how his neighbor, Salamano, beats his dog on a regular basis. Directly following the explanation of this horrible fact, Meursault says, "[Raymond] asked me didn't I think it was disgusting and I said no]" (28).

This is where the irony starts. Raymond, another neighbor of Meursault's, is utterly disgusted at the behaviors that Salamano demonstrates towards his dog when he, himself, is known to beat his own mistress. It is as though he recognizes the pain that his neighbor's dog is experiencing more than his human lover. Raymond brings his own set of problems to the table. He asks Meursault to be "pals" and then goes on to tell him that he needs help punishing his mistress emotionally. At this point, Raymond has already told Meursault about how he beats his mistress, but Meursault does not seem to be bothered by it. Raymond decides that the way he will be able to punish his mistress to the extent that she deserves is by writing a letter. Meursault continues to surprise us when he says, "But Raymond told me he didn't think he could write the kind of letter it would take and that he'd thought of asking me to write it for him. Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (32).

Emotionless Meursault strikes again! He not only has no problem with animal abuse, but domestic abuse as well! You would think that he would never feel anything for another human being, right? Wrong! Here is where more irony in the story is brought into play. When Meursault is talking to Raymond about killing the Arabs at the beach later on in Part 1, he says, "'But if he doesn't draw his knife, you can't shoot'" (56). It is almost as though Meursault wants the Arabs to be treated fairly, even though he doesn't know them.

Meursault is extremely hard to read at this point in The Stranger. He has shown that he is able to turn a blind eye to horrors that surround his daily life and affect him directly, but doesn't want to hurt the Arabs if they mean no harm. Is it because they are men? Does he not notice the domestic and animal abuse that he is around on a regular basis because they have become so routine to him? At this point, we really don't know why Meursalt acts the way he does. He continues to surprise us with each page turn.