The Tales of the Two Deaths

Throughout the first chapter of The Stranger by Albert Camus, two deaths take place.  The first death takes place at the beginning of the chapter when Meursault's mother dies in a retirement home and the second comes when Meursault decided to shoot the Arab who was following Raymond.  When Meursault is walking to the funeral the nurse says, " If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke.  But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church"(17).  On a literal level, the nurse's words describe the dilemma that the weather provides during the funeral.  As Meursault realizes, the nurse's words describe human life.  A man is born into a life and their is only one way out, death.  Also, the sun represents the harsh effects of death which is unavoidable for anyone.  Throughout the first chapter, we have learned that death is the one thing that you can not escape.  This helps the audience understand why Camus started and ended the first chapter with a death.  Camus wanted to show us that all men are condemned to death, therefore every life is equal.  He does not react to his mother's death because eventually everyone will be summoned to death.  Camus had a death take place in the start of the story to show that Meursault is indifferent to death.  He knows that it is going to happen to everyone, even if it is his mom.  Camus wanted to show that you cannot escape death no matter who you are.

Towards the end of chapter 1, Meursault decided to kill the Arab.  It says, " The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes...It seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire.  My whole became tense and I squeezed my hand around the revolver"(59).   Meursault feels uncomfortable by the suns shining rays and suffers from it.  When the Arab finally pulls out his knife and the sun reflects off of it, it increases Meursault's suffering so much that it is too much for him to handle.  For Meursault, the Arab is a human but more of an example of his suffering.  By killing the Arab, Meursault is trying to escape his own suffering.  He says that the sun was stabbing at his eyes and he could not escape it. He did not necessarily kill the Arab to protect himself, he did it because his suffering was to much to handle.  He only shot the Arab because the reflection of the sun off the blade was tearing into him.  Throughout this chapter, Camus references the weather a lot as if the weather is acting as Meursault's suffering. Meursault is trying to cope with this suffering by getting rid of the unbearable sun and reaching the cool stream.   Meursault wanted to escape his own suffering and he found that the only way to do that was to kill the Arab and reach the cool stream..