In Albert Camus' The Stranger, Meursault sees the plausibility of the prosecutor's argument that the murder of the Arab was premeditated:
The gist of what he was saying, if I understood him correctly, was that my crime was premeditated. . . . I thought his way of viewing the events had a certain consistency. What he was saying was plausible. I had agreed with Raymond to write the letter in order to lure his mistress . . . I had gone back alone intending to use it. I had shot the Arab as I planned. I had waited. And to make sure I had done the job right, I fired four more shots, calmly, point-blank—thoughtfully, as it were. (Camus 99)
While reading this passage I was struck by how objective Meursault is when describing what the prosecutor was saying. In the passages following, Meursault still does not reveal too much emotional response to the prosecutor's harsh judgement of him. This formed a "go with the flow" type of Meursault in my mind, one that isn't exactly apathetic, but one that sees everything as having a reason.
One example I have that shows Meursault as avoiding conflict by coping with distress is his use of the word "natural" to describe things that normal people don't think of as that.
1). Meursault sees the initial hearing as natural:
As the magistrate had put it, my case was taking its course. And then sometimes, when the conversation was of a general nature, I would be included. I started to breathe more freely. No one, in any of these meetings, was rough on me. Everything was so natural, so well handled, and so calmly acted out that I had the ridiculous impression of being "one of the family." (Camus 70)
2). Meursault finds a Czechoslovakian newspaper scrap under his jail mattress:
The mother hanged herself. The sister threw herself down a well. I must have read that story a thousand times. On the one hand it wasn't very likely. On the other, it was perfectly natural. (Camus 80)
In both cases, Meursault does not have normal-people feelings towards things like his own trial and a family-death story. He labels them as natural instead.
Natural. It carries a similar meaning as "I thought his way of viewing the events had a certain consistency. What he was saying was plausible" (Camus 99), in that it praises something's smoothness when that something isn't normally thought of as smooth. This changes Meursult as a character for me, because now I can see a reason for the sun for having such a big effect on him. I can just picture him thinking: The sun was hot on my face. Pulling the trigger was a disgusting act, but it felt natural...
The gist of what he was saying, if I understood him correctly, was that my crime was premeditated. . . . I thought his way of viewing the events had a certain consistency. What he was saying was plausible. I had agreed with Raymond to write the letter in order to lure his mistress . . . I had gone back alone intending to use it. I had shot the Arab as I planned. I had waited. And to make sure I had done the job right, I fired four more shots, calmly, point-blank—thoughtfully, as it were. (Camus 99)
While reading this passage I was struck by how objective Meursault is when describing what the prosecutor was saying. In the passages following, Meursault still does not reveal too much emotional response to the prosecutor's harsh judgement of him. This formed a "go with the flow" type of Meursault in my mind, one that isn't exactly apathetic, but one that sees everything as having a reason.
One example I have that shows Meursault as avoiding conflict by coping with distress is his use of the word "natural" to describe things that normal people don't think of as that.
1). Meursault sees the initial hearing as natural:
As the magistrate had put it, my case was taking its course. And then sometimes, when the conversation was of a general nature, I would be included. I started to breathe more freely. No one, in any of these meetings, was rough on me. Everything was so natural, so well handled, and so calmly acted out that I had the ridiculous impression of being "one of the family." (Camus 70)
2). Meursault finds a Czechoslovakian newspaper scrap under his jail mattress:
The mother hanged herself. The sister threw herself down a well. I must have read that story a thousand times. On the one hand it wasn't very likely. On the other, it was perfectly natural. (Camus 80)
In both cases, Meursault does not have normal-people feelings towards things like his own trial and a family-death story. He labels them as natural instead.
Natural. It carries a similar meaning as "I thought his way of viewing the events had a certain consistency. What he was saying was plausible" (Camus 99), in that it praises something's smoothness when that something isn't normally thought of as smooth. This changes Meursult as a character for me, because now I can see a reason for the sun for having such a big effect on him. I can just picture him thinking: The sun was hot on my face. Pulling the trigger was a disgusting act, but it felt natural...
That's a very good point. Nature is by no means logical, and Meursault is eminently logical and distant from emotion. As we can see, the two of them don't get along too well: his killing the Arab was due to the sun, and everything he disagrees with is described as "natural."
ReplyDelete