I read and finished the book without any context. That is to say, I had no idea who Camus was and what he was famous for. I stumbled upon the book after seeing a random tweet from the publisher of an upcoming video game.
I genuinely thought–before going online and reading other’s people thoughts about the book–that Meursault was just a silent guy that doesn’t really like to show his emotions (except when pushed to the extreme, as in the last chapter). I had no idea that the book was supposed to be something about absurdism, or that Meursault was supposed to be some kind of outsider of society. I felt like Meursault was just an unlucky guy who got a tragic ending; an unreliable narrator that failed to cope with the death of his mother.
I initially thought that “The Stranger” was referring to Maman, whom he wasn’t particularly close to. He regretted not spending more time with his Maman, the only parental figure he had, and thus tried to cope with any way he could. He smoked, drank coffee, and did not cry during the funeral, because it would make it too real that his Maman actually died (i.e. doing normal things he would do as if Maman was still alive and well). The day after the funeral he swam, watched a movie, slept with a girl–all so that he could forget Maman. He refused to marry Marie because he was afraid of loving another person and having to mourn another death again when the time comes. He rejected God because God took his Maman away from him. But he couldn’t really move on, seeing as he was still reminded of Maman during that incident with the neighbor’s dog. In part 2, he also could somehow hear “Goodbye, Maman” while also complaining about all the noise that made him dizzy.
And then there’s the shooting. The consensus seems to be that Meursault shot the Arab *just because* the sun was too bright, path of least resistance, absurdism, etc. I agree, but there’s more to it than just “the sun”. I thought that Meursault’s decision to avoid the women crying in the villa was so that he wouldn’t be reminded of Maman’s funeral, since he was still coping. But the bright sun then reminded Meursault of the funeral march, putting him in a fight-or-flight mode against the Arab (in addition to the fact that he was shown multiple times to be very weak to the summer heat). Put yourself in his situation: you have this guy swinging a knife at you, very likely with the intent to kill, you are having a heat stroke and can’t think clearly, and you have a means to protect yourself. I still don’t understand why “self-defense” never came up as an argument during the trial.
What do you think of this interpretation?
by glassmousekey