The Hot Stranger

The sun and heat are one of the many topics that Albert Camus describes in tremendous detail in The  Stranger. Most importantly, the intensity of the sun is extremely prevalent in two specific situations. The first is Meursault's mothers funeral procession. The "glare from the sky was unbearable," the tar has "burst open," and the heat makes it hard for Meursault to "see or think straight"(17). He also acknowledges that there is "no way out" to escape the sun. The diction used to describe the sun is violent, and the sun makes Meursault extremely uncomfortable and even interferes with his judgment and vision.

Similar but heightened diction is used at another point later in the story as well, when Meursault admits that the "sun was the same as it had been the day" that he "buried Maman"(58). This takes place during the confrontation that Meursault has, involving a gun, with the man following Raymond on the beach. In this intense situation, Meursault uses violent dicton and refers to the sun as sending a "blade of light," and he blames the burning from the sun for causing him to move forward and then shoot the man. He says that his eyes were blinded by the intensity of the heat, which left a "curtain" of tears and salt in a film over his eyes. His senses are, just like at the funeral, clouded by the extreme heat. He even uses passive voice to describe actually pulling the trigger; it "gave." Everything that he describes in the situation blames the intensity of the heat for his actions instead of blaming himself. The heat not only makes Meursault vastly uncomfortable, but actually is so intense that he blames it for driving him to shoot a man five times. It is interesting that, according to Meursault, his lack of control over his own actions is directly correlated to heat.

This adds to the construction of his passive character. Throughout the whole beginning of the story, he does not take initiative for himself in any situation, and just tries to get by without angering people. When he commits murder on the beach, he does not feel like he is in control of his own self, and he blames external sources, like the heat, for making him do it.

It is also important to note one part of the story in which the heat of the sun has a positive impact on Meursault. When he is having fun hanging out at the beach with his girlfriend Marie and Raymond's friend Masson, he is "absorbed by the feeling that the sun was doing" him "a lot of good"(50). In the casual and happy setting, he enjoys the sun, which is bright and pleasant but not overpowering. It is only when he is caught in an intense situation, in which he wants no part of, that the intensity of the sun seems to work against him.