In part 1 of Albert Camus' "The Stranger," he develops an unusual and unemotional protagonist in Mersault. A character that is overly-agreeable and appears to be without an opinion on anything. Throughout part 1 of the story, Mersault appears relatively watchful, though he gives the readers very little detail on the events around him, this leading the readers to have only a partial view of Mersault's world. The only details that Mersault openly expresses, are those of the least importance, such as the weather and its effects on him. Mersault's agreeability leads him to being engaged with a woman he doesn't seem to know all to well and who he certainly does not love.
Toward the end of part 1, Mersault uses this excessive agreeability and the minute details as a form of justification and an excuse for his murder of the Arab man. When Mersault, Raymond, and Masson are walking on the beach, they run into the Arab man and Mersault is ready to defend Raymond's honor; assuming that the the groups would end up fighting. Mersault doesn't know Raymond very well, but he is so willing to get into a potential fight with people he is not associated with, this represents a dangerous willingness of Mersault's to simply do as people ask him. I doubt Mersault knew that it would end up being a knife fight and that Raymond had a gun that he intended on using, but he was still too ready to join in on the fight. What's even worse than Mersault simply joining this disagreement, is that once the groups split ways for the second time, Mersault made up his mind to shoot him with Raymond's gun, while he was no longer in danger. Mersault shows his guiltiness through this move alone.
Mersault demonstrates a lack of ability to justify his actions, as he appears to blame his environment and the affects of the weather for his murder of a man. While this reasoning is just ridiculous, Mersault appears to believe that the sun was actually creating the negative conscience that motivated such an egregious act as killing. Though I'm sure Mersault doesn't actually blame the sun for these acts taking place, I can tell that he uses it as some form of an excuse for executing his murder.
I agree that Meursault exhibited an excess amount of agreeability, but I think that agreeability isn't spontaneous - it comes from his belief that the things he is agreeing on simply don't matter in the scheme of things. That is Camus' existentialism shining through. Also, I would contend that the reason he cites the sun as the the reason for killing the Arab is because the sun is a symbol for something else. I'm not sure what, but perhaps the sun symbolizes reality, something that is not socially constructed?
ReplyDeleteMeursault doesn't seem to directly blame his murder on the sun but I understand what you mean by his accounts for the weather before he shot "The Arab". I don't think he's motivated to justify his murder, in fact since he has no morals he has no inclination to clear his conscious and prove anything, unlike the vast majority us non sociopaths. I agree he has a lack of ability to justify himself, since he has no reason to do so.
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