Acting Without Reason

In The Stranger, Meursault goes through his days without giving thought to the larger meaning or purpose he has in life. Yet, he contributes to situations that dramatically alter the course of other people’s lives. He helps Raymond write the letter to the woman he is abusive to, to make the woman feel guilty about leaving Raymond, even though he hurt her. Meursault, “tried his best to please Raymond because [he] didn’t have any reason not to please him” (32). To Meursault, it appears that life just goes on, so helping Raymond continue to be a manipulative partner does not phase him. I find it interesting how Camus situates Meursault in a position such as this one, where he is setting the woman up for more abuse, without a care in the world. I think Meursault feels removed enough from the situation that he knows the repercussions of these actions will not directly affect him, so in his selfish way he doesn’t care.

Yet, by the end of chapter 6, Meursault puts himself in a position of not only harm, but also criminality by agreeing to help Raymond fight the Arabs, and ultimately killing one of them. Meursault weighs his options by knowing that he has no reason to help Raymond, but also no reason not to help him, so he just goes along with it, because it doesn’t matter anyway to him. But if nothing matters, how does he let it get so far as to murder a man he has nothing against? When deciding to engage with the Arab or not Meursault noted, “It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it. But the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back...It was this burning which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward” (58-59). For a man where so little matters, it surprised me as a reader that he would let something as unimportant as the weather become what pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to fight the Arab. Sweat temporarily blinds him, making the trigger simply give way, but then he goes on to shoot the victim 4 more times. Camus explains Meursault’s character as a man with no real cares or convictions, because to life is meaningless anyway. So why then, does something as little as the hot, beating sun make him excessively shoot and kill an innocent man, especially this time when he must know that his actions have consequences?