Throughout The Stranger Meursault's description of the weather and other physical elements surrounding him paint vivid and ornate pictures, while he offers plain and brief descriptions regarding his emotions. At the end of chapter one, during his mother's funeral procession the heat causes Meursault more pain than the funeral, he describes how "the sun, the smell of leather, and horse dung from the hearse, the smell of varnish and incense, and my fatigue after a night without sleep--was making it hard for me to see or think straight" (p. 17). Depending on its intensity, the sun seems to dictate his emotions, making him either sleepy, angry, happy, or resentful. It is almost as though Meursault uses the sun as an excuse to justify all the feelings he has.
At the end of Part I we witness a murder committed by Meursault, which the weather plays a role in his actions as well. As he is on the beach he encounters the Arab and just as he was about to turn around he states "but the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back" (p. 58), the sun manipulates his actions by urging him to move toward the cool spring to get away from the smoldering sun. This inevitably leads to the altercation that occurs between Meursault and the Arab.
When reading any of the passages regarding the weather, I get a sense of being in a state of delirium in a way. The way Meursault goes into detail about everything that goes on during any of the passages about weather is like a different world for him, he's so entranced by the weather that everything else seems to fade from his conscious. Its as if Meursault lets go and lets the weather, primarily the sun, take complete control.
I noticed the emphasis Camus places on the effect of weather in Meursault's life as well. I'm not sure that the sun dictates his emotions,however I did notice that at each key event that took place in part one, and even in the beginning of part two, there is an intense heat that occurs. As we only get Meursault's point of view, I was wondering if it really were the weather that made Meursault so hot, or if his anxiety towards whatever situation he was faced with intensified it. The heat is noted at the funeral, at the beach, in the courtroom. Camus does take note of people fanning themselves and other characters being warm, but maybe Meursault feels the burn a bit more because he thinks something bad is about to happen to him.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me back to the fishbowl discussion on Thursday. Somebody, I don't remember who, mentioned that they saw the sun as society's expectations. Meursault did not care much for his mother, so when he felt as though he had to go to her funeral, he was obiding by society's expectations. The second occurence of the sun bothering Meursault is much stronger than the first. The sun is part of nature, and has so much control over man. I think this connects to the theme Meursault not being a member of society, but simply part of nature.
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