The Sun Made Me Do It

Throughout the novel thus far, we have seem a common correlation between the sun and Meursault´s anger/annoyance. This first appeared while he was walking to his mother´s funeral. Rather than being sad at the fact that he mother recently died, he was upset at how hot the sun was. This, of course, was odd, but it was not remarkable-it seemed to fit in with his off balance character quite perfectly. However, this theme reached a whole new level when the story progressed and Meursault ended up on a beach with a gun and a known enemy.

The sun was starting to burn my cheeks, and I could feel drops of sweat gathering in my eyebrows. The sun was the same as it had been the day I buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the skin. It was this burning, which I could not stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid, that I would not get the sun off me by stepping forward...it seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver (59).

Mersault´s hatred of the sun grew to the point where it pushed him, in a sense, to kill a man. Throughout this whole section, he continues to blame this brutal murder on the sun and its unbearable heat. Is this just because of  his peculiar personality in general or is he too ashamed to accept the terrible act that he had just committed?