Meursault’s dimensions: beyond boring

In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes Meursault’s outlook on the physical world as belittling and violent in order to foreshadow and push Meursault towards committing murder. This sharp, intense vocabulary, as well as poetic prose and style, parallels Meursault as a human. These parallels extend to the development and unfolding of Meursault’s true emotions. Furthermore, the murder scene starts with Raymond walking with Meursault, who was, “naturally” (58) gripping the gun firmly. Meursault has the thought that “…all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it. But the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back.” (58). It seems as if he is using the heat as a motivation to commit this crime. This can be seen more when he says “It was the burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid…” (60). At this point Meursault’s morality feels strong, but nature is exerting physical pressure to tempt him into murder. At this moment in the book, Camus starts to speak with forceful words and extremely vibrant images. “All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and, indistinctly, the dazzling spear flying up from my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes… The sea carried up a thick, fiery breath. It seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire.” (60). Camus uses words like “crashing, dazzling spear, stabbed, stinging, fiery, split, and rain down fire.” All of these words have violent connotations, both foreshadowing the murder, and implying that the simple, boring Meursault has more layers than previously thought. After witnessing his gun shoot the Arab, Meursault flashes a few minutes back to the happiness he had on the beach. Old uninteresting Meursault now seems psychotic because he is thinking about what makes him happy after murder; immediately after, he felt the need to fire “four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.” (60). Not only is this written with more verve than usual for Merusault, but he is also having strong enough feelings to the point where he feels the need to shoot this dead body, not one, not two, not three, but four more times. Moving to Party Two, Meursault does not immediately recognize the severity of his actions. He even finds that the fact the court will provide an attorney was “very convenient” (61). After some short questioning, Meursault finally remembers that he had killed someone. Meursault seems to not make very much of this murder; he acts as if it was not that big of a deal. Merusault’s spike of feelings certainly decline when asked about his mother. “… I would rather Maman hadn’t died.” (65). As the reader, it certainly is nice, and expected, to know that if he had to choose, he would choose her to be alive; however, he strays from normality with the word “rather” and with his dismissive tone. He has no passion, no feelings for his mother; anyone else would beg and trade anything to get their mother back. Meursault, in my opinion, is guided morally correctly, but he just is not in touch with his feelings enough to recognize that what he says may cause others confusion. Meursault, again, forgets that he’s a criminal, and admits “It was an idea I couldn’t get used to.” (70). The reader can tell that he recognizes his wrong doing, but the reader, nor Meursault, nor anyone in the book, can understand why he did what he did. The reader, at this point, is skeptical about Meursault’s emotions, and questioning whether they exist at all. That being said, he saves himself by recognizing “the tone of the questioning gradually changed.” (70). Meursault is able to recognize the change in tone, thereby implying that he may be more attentive and analytical than previously thought.

First paragraph. The Stranger

In (italics:) The Stranger, Albert Camus uses stylized sentence structure and suggestive quoting mechanics to (change:) emphasize Meursault's glum view on the world.

Camus emphasizes this blandness by paralleling his writing style to Meursault's feelings.

When the narrator portrays to the reader that Meursault, the protagonist,  has finished sleeping, Camus writes. "The night passed." (11). This description lacks verve and creativity. However, when other characters are present, he says that "... the sun was overpowering. It shattered into little pieces on the sand and water." (55). Camus takes a simple act of nature, and gives it more life than Meursault. Another example of short, boring, to-the-point sentences; Meursault's mind gives us his point of view, and his thoughts flow from: "They got up." to "I was tired." (12) in seconds. These short sentences demonstrate and parralel Meursault's attitude to the world.
But, Camus' does not only shorten sentences, he also, often, takes away Meursault's voice. "'I'm going to ask them to seal the casket. Before I do, would you like to see your mother one last time?' I said no." (13). Not only is his response phrased with three (uninteresting) words, but Meursalt's doesn't actively say 'no.' Camus allows the caretaker to ask a question, but when the main character is given only a hint at what he actually says. Although this does not happen every time, it happens frequently. On an occasion where Meursault does 'speak,' he answeres in one word: "What?... Yes.... Yes.... Fairly..." (16). When reading this, the reader can easily detect a grey tone in his voice. Even besides Meursault's boring tone, he answers questions about the weather and his mother in one word. He is answering the questions, but with no flair or personality.
This lack of flair really does does become a pattern with Meursault, and eventually leads to Marie becoming irritated (marriage part).