Reading the first part of The Stranger, by Albert Camus, I noticed his surprising lack of emotions in his writing and his preference of describing physical aspects in the book.
These physical aspects are centered around the main character in the book, Meursault, as the story is told from his point of view.
The story begins with a very objective statement. "Manman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." Throughout the story, Meursault seems devoid from feeling any grief for his mothers death. He doesn't know how old she was when she died. He doesn't know her friends, and tell us that he rarely saw his mother. Camus purposefully leaves out many details about the emotions of Merursault.
On the other hand, Camus provides an abundant amount of details of Mersaults physical state and his surroundings. For example, the heat of the sun bothers and hurts Mersualt much more than the thought of burying his mother and only living relative. He describes, “I could feel the blood pounding in my temples.”
Mersault also describes his physical relations with Marie much more than his feelings towards her. When she asks him if he wants to marry her, he simply responds with, “Sure.” He says that he doesn’t care which girl it is with.
By leaving out or simply glossing over many aspects of social or emotional situations, Mersault’s descriptions become much more clear and detailed as he discusses the weather or his actions. This style of narration clearly shows Mersaults preference of the physicals world over the emotional world.
Maybe Camus shared the emotional part of Mersault's world to show that he notices. He might know how to emote the way that people traditionally do, but maybe his descriptions of his surroundings show him the way that he thinks.
ReplyDeleteBy Camus writing in a way that mainly portrays Meursault's physical aspects in life rather than his emotional side, Meursault's actions start to make sense. Meursault shows that he pays attention to details and that he is interactive with the world, different than how he is percieved as showing no emotion at all. Meursault doesn't translate his thoughts into words, but rather understands it in his head.
ReplyDeleteEverything about Meursault is focused on the physical aspects of his life. For example he simply shoots the Arab guy because of the bright glare from the knife. Meursault also appears to mention the Sun quite a bit, which makes me wonder if the Sun symbolizes something throughout the book. The sun appears to control how Meursault acts and feels on a particular day.
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