I just finished The Outsider by Albert Camus and I loved it but it really felt like one of those books that I had to sit and think with for a while. The biggest question I had from it was what the main characters biggest flaw was. I first thought that maybe it was the fact he only spoke when he thought was necessary and never lied, even small ones to save himself, because this is what is stated directly in the book. But then I thought that is his biggest problem the fact that he gives in to the things he enjoys the most?
For example at his mothers funeral he has coffee and cigarettes and he even says how much he couldn’t pass up the coffee because of how much he enjoys it. This is then used against him in the trial to show indifferent and unaffected by his mothers dead he was. They also use the fact he went on a date with Marie the day after visiting his mother against him, to show what kind of person he really was. Is it possible that after firing the first shot, he gave in to firing the other four, (which seemed to be the main issue) and there was a sense of enjoyment from it?
by Etanu_