The
seemingly arbitrary murder of the Arab in Albert Camus’s The Stranger contributes to the theme of absurdism in the novel.
The
protagonist, Meursault, is walking on the beach when an Arab confronts his
friend Raymond with a knife. Convincing Raymond not to retaliate unless the
Arab strikes first, Meursault does not seem inclined to commit any acts of
violence against the Arab. However, shortly after this incident, Meursault
comes across the Arab again. Feeling the sun pressing him onward, Meursault takes
out a gun and shoots the Arab, not once, but four times when he sees the glint
of the Arab’s knife in the sunlight.
The
murder of the Arab plays a significant role in the interpretation of Meursault
as an absurd man. Previously, Meursault would not have been considered a
violent character. Camus includes the description of Meursault cautioning Raymond
against rash actions to establish that Meursault does not condone nor rashly
engage in violence in moments of passion. This fact makes Meursault’s murder of
the Arab seem even more confusing and unexpected. Meursault gives elaborate descriptions
of the environment, such as the blazing hot sun and the sharp glint of the Arab’s
knife, and explains how he feels the need to reduce the incredible pressure
from the environment acting against him. Since the reader knows that Meursault
is not reacting to the Arab’s actions against Raymond, the reader must conclude
that the only factor influencing Meursault’s extreme act of violence is the
environment.
The
murder demonstrates the effects of absurdist thinking on Meursault. Camus’s
interpretation of absurdism is essentially that life has no inherent meaning,
so one’s actions do not have any significant value. Thus, to Meursault, the
murder should have no lasting significance other than the effect in that
moment. In the moment, the murder succeeded in reducing the pressure of the
environment on Meursault. For an absurdist, the meaning ends here. Meursault
recognizes that he has the choice to either shoot or not shoot, but he does not
consider how these choices will have drastically different consequences. If
life has no meaning, then the two choices do not actually matter very much. Indeed,
Meursault is remarkably indifferent after the murder, stating that it was like knocking
on the door to unhappiness. One would expect a much more dramatic reaction to
an act of violence such as a murder, yet Meursault does not have a typical
person’s point of view.
The
conflict between an absurd man and a non-absurd society manifests itself as a
key theme in the novel with the murder of the Arab as the central focal point.
Society within the novel attempts to explain and rationalize the murder in his
court case. There are many potential explanations, such as self-defense, yet
Meursault will not recognize any motive to his action other than that he wanted
to stop the pressure from the sun. His explanation sounds ridiculous, and
society does not accept it. Instead, during the trial, people point to
Meursault’s relationship with his mother and his reaction toward her death as
justification that he is not an ethically sound person. Society wants to find a
motive for the murder; people want to make sense of it based on their belief that
life carries meaning. They do not accept that Meursault could murder for a
random reason such as the burning sunlight. The murder of the Arab serves as an
enigma that can only be reconciled by the reader accepting Meursault as acting
based on an absurdist philosophy.
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