Deciphering Meursault

The protagonist of The Stranger, commonly referred to as Meursault, makes some very questionable decisions over the course of the novel. Meursault is portrayed to everyone around him as a friendly man that is grieving from the death of his mother, but to the reader he is shown to be an anti-social being that lacks empathy for others and struggles to follow a moral code. Fortunately for us, the narrative is from Meursault's point of view, allowing us to understand the thought process behind his decisions.

Right after getting back home from his mother's funeral, Meursault is greeted by one of his neighbors, Raymond Sintè, who he describes as "living off woman" and "not very popular" (28). When invited to dinner with him, Meursault responds, "I figured it would save me the trouble of having to cook for myself, so I accepted" (28). The decision to have dine with a man not popular in the neighborhood only days after his mother's funeral just because it saves him from having to cook for himself is not a decision many would make in that position. Despite Raymond's well-documented immoral history and low standing within the neighborhood, Meursault is not deterred at the idea of an evening dinner with him. He simply accepts the invitation because does not have any reason not to. This reaction shows how indifferent his mother's death is to him as he does not attempt to hide his lack of emotion. Through this display, Meursault challenges society's accepted views on moral standards of death and grief. It becomes known that Meursault is no ordinary character and that his indistinction between good and bad/right and wrong pave way to his pragmatic outlook on daily life and effects the decisions he makes throughout the rest of the novel.

One such decision Meursault makes is the decision to shoot the Arabian man on the beach. Set right after his pal, Raymond, is slashed with a knife, Meursault goes out for a leisurely stroll on the beach. Unknowingly, he walks back to the same location and finds the Arabian man who slashed Raymond still there. Describing the encounter, Meursault thinks, "It seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver...I fired four more times at the motionless body...And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness" (59). In the passage, Meursault blames the Sun for his lack of awareness about the situation, but this claim can not be taken seriously with how ambiguous it is in the first place. Even if the first shot was an 'accident', his claim does not explain why, after regaining consciousness, Meursault shoots the Arabian four more times. One leading theory that is explained in the novel is that Meursault shot the Arabian in revenge for his pal, Raymond. Meursault does not know how to physically express his emotions, so when he sees the man who hurt his friend, Meursault experiences a surge of rage, which causes him to lose control over himself and leads to the following sequence of events. Meursault narrates the event passively as if he is watching the trigger being squeezed and not if he is the one shooting the gun. The Meursault at that moment is not the same one that has been narrating since the beginning of the novel; the cold, calm, calculated Meursault disappears, his emotional barrier shattered, and is replaced by this rage-induced being that has only one objective: to get revenge.

Do you think the Meursault on the beach is the same one that has been with us throughout the novel? If so, what do you think happened to him for this to occur?