The Stranger

At this point in time, I have just finished reading The Stranger, by Albert Camus, which in my opinion is a very strange little book. The way Meursault's character acts has bothered me from the start of the book, to the very end of the book. I feel like his attitude at first glance is very distanced and uncaring, and that he was supposed to be described that way. Every time he acted with indifference, it made me feel irritated that he wasn't acting differently. I feel like I acted more because he wasn't feeling at all, and that that was what Albert Camus' goal was. If you look at the other characters in the book, they also seem to feel a lot to make up for or to show the contrast between themselves and Meursault. Deep under the surface though, I feel like Meursault may have actually cared about things, but that even he did not acknowledge his own emotions.

Meursault started to change in part one of the book, right before he and Marie went with his friends to the beach. Jacara had pointed out the scene from chapter six, where he said "My cigarette tasted bitter" (top of page 47). Before this scene Meursault had constantly chain smoked without complaining about the taste of the cigarettes. At the time when I was reading this chapter I didn't think much of this quote, but I can now see that this was foreshadowing that something different was going to happen in the chapters to come. So much happened in chapter six, and very quickly. They arrived, they ate, they swam, the 'Arab' man cut Raymond, the women cried, then.. Meursault killed a man. That scene on the beach from page 57 to page 59 was very confusing, and packed with many similes. "The cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead", the sunlight reflecting off the blade ("the scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes"), and after he fired the last four bullets, how he said "and it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness." This scene was very difficult to understand because it moved so quickly and some people may not of known that these were similes. I know that some readers thought the blade really did slash at his face -I can admit that I had to read that sentence over again once myself- while Meursault was actually talking about the sunlight attacking his senses. My favorite of the similes was the one about knocking on the door of unhappiness, because of wording, as well as because it described what was to come in the second part of the book.

Somewhere in the last few chapters, I remember predicting that Meursault would start thinking and feeling right before it is too late. It said "It was only after Marie's first and last visit that it all started.. from that day on I felt that I was at home in my cell and that my life was coming to a standstill."(page 72) Some reason when I read this I felt like his life was changing from there on, in a positive way. Last week I can admit to reading a chapter ahead -I read chapter five- because chapter four ended with so much suspense that I just had to read the next chapter. As predicted, the last few chapters showed a turning point in Meursault's life; at the wrong time. He kept laying around, thinking, hearing his heart beating and staring at the clouds. I thought it was weird how Marie said "you'll get out and we'll get married!"(page 74). I know that some people may refuse to acknowledge what is really going to happen. I read a lot of murder mysteries, and whenever the homicide detectives have to notify the next-of-kin the family members or lovers always say something like "no you've got to be wrong. Maybe it was someone else that got killed", when really, they know the detectives are professionals and have not mistaken who got killed. Even though Meursault was in jail, Marie still thought they were going to have their own happy ending. At this time there was a possibility that he could be bailed out of jail (maybe).

The chaplain had a very bad approach to Meursault. He was heaping his beliefs onto Meursault and feeling like only his beliefs were the correct ones. Just because I may believe something different from what you believe, doesn't necessarily mean that one of us is wrong. It just means that we have different views and different opinions. Like Meursault, I got really annoyed with the chaplain. I don't think there was a big deal that Meursault was a non-believer, and that he didn't care for what the chaplain said. I know I didn't see what the big problem was when the chaplain constantly got angry and upset. Especially at the very end of the book, Meursault is about to be executed and what does the chaplain tell him? He tells him to pray. Like that is going to save Meursault when his death sentence is already written in stone.

I feel like the whole courtroom was set up wrong. The judge didn't really listen to Meursault, and Meursault didn't really say anything to begin with. I found the days of Meursault's trial to be very frustrating. The judge said that Meursault had committed first degree murder, meaning that he had planned ahead to kill the man who had cut Raymond. This is because Meursault had the gun in his pocket already, and that he was walking along the beach "looking" for that man. Even though I feel like Meursault just hadn't given Raymond back the gun after Raymond gave it to him before because everything had happened so quickly. The reason he had ended up with the gun in the first place though was to make sure Raymond didn't kill the guy. But then the guy cut him, and they rushed him to the doctor. I think Meursault committed murder in the second degree, meaning that while he was walking on the beach, he happened to still have the gun and he killed the man that hurt Raymond. I'm not even sure if it was an intentional murder. Meursault was walking, and all of a sudden he killed the guy. I'm not sure what year this book was supposed to take place in, but I know that sometimes people can be bailed out of jail, or do hard work to make up for their 'sins'.

When the witnesses testified, it made me wonder if something was wrong with me because I didn't think the way the judge was thinking. I did not notice that the day after Meursult's mom had passed away, he was starting his "affair" with Marie. I know that I would of spent the day after a loved one's death in my room crying, or with other family members. But maybe Meursault was so upset that he needed to be cheered up, and that could of been the reason he went with Marie to the movies. Or maybe that's just the way he is. For some reason I can't find a great wrong in what he did. The judge did not consider that maybe Meursault is just an emotionless person, and that his emotions do not ever come to the surface. Instead the judge said that Meursault does not have a soul and that he is evil because it seems like he doesn't feel anything. Sometimes I may seem like I don't feel anything, while I am thinking and feeling a lot inside. Like when I have gotten my ears pierced, in the past I am so scared at the time that all I say is "oww" really softly right after it has happened. Just because of those short moments where it does not seem like I'm feeling anything, it does not mean I am heartless. I know that I am anything but heartless, I care about people, and I feel emotions; because I am human.

For definitions of first and second degree murder, I looked at these websites:
http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/murder_first_degree.html
http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/murder_second_degree.html