Mystery Man

While reading The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the main character Meursault seems very distant. The first scene where he finds out his mom died, he seems not to care. I think that he is trying to put up a shield, and portraying this uncaring person. He is trying to act like an emotionless man that is all by himself, and he is supposed to seem careless. Yet underneath all that, I feel like he really is upset. I know if I was in his shoes I would be a mess. My mom and I are very close, and we are also best friends. In the beginning of the book when he kept saying "it's not my fault", I feel like he was feeling really guilty. Maybe he felt like he had abandoned his mom, like he should of worked harder to take care of her and provide better care for her. When he was asked if he wanted to see inside the coffin, he said no. I feel like either he felt like she was still alive, or that he wanted his last memories of her to be from when she was alive, instead of her lying cold inside a wooden box.

At this point in the book he seemed very unmoved, alone. He kept falling asleep, and smoking, doing anything but acknowledging that his mother passed away. Then Meursault was standing outside under the tree, he was just thinking about how nice it was to get outside in nature for a while. All that seemed to be going through his head was how glad he was to have extra time off from work. The scene that I'm mainly focused on though, is how he spent his sunday standing next to the window, observing people. The whole day he chain-smoked, and started out the window. Even then he seemed withdrawn, but I feel like this showed something about himself. I feel like he was standing there, and thinking about how everyone walking on the sidewalk are alive, while his mom had just passed away. The way Meursault reacts to things is sort of surprising to me: "it occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed."(page 24) I would expect from someone that they would be really distraught if one of their family members passed away. He seemed to have had a close relationship with his mom, so I don't know why he is so aloof.

There are conversations with some people where he seems to hold back his opinion, and to just say what people want to hear. When he was talking to Raymond and he (the neighbor) wanted to teach his mistress a lesson, Meursault wasn't thinking anything, and he didn't seem to be feeling anything on the outside either. When he is with Marie though, he seems to express at least a little bit of feeling. While they are swimming around they seem like a happy couple in a romantic setting. Yet when she asks if he loves her, and he said "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't love her." Maybe he is incapable of loving anymore, and that he has purposely distanced himself from everyone else, yet I feel like he should feel something. After this, Marie had asked him if he would marry her; and he said he would, because he didn't feel like it is a serious thing. There are times when he is interacting with individuals where he seems to care, and other times where he is indifferent. When he was at the beach with his friend and Marie, I feel like this showed the inside of him a little bit more. He was concerned when Raymond got hurt, he seemed to love Marie when they were lying on the beach together.

I feel like Albert Camus made Meursault the way he is-detached- to make his readers feel something. Because Meursault is acting so distanced, I feel like it is making me react even more than if he was upset, or showing any other emotion because it bothers me when he does not seem to care. Or maybe he acts so disconnected because he really does feel like a stranger. After all, we have all felt this way at least once in our lives.