In order to be able to read this book and have a better
understanding of it, one must start to understand how Mersault thinks. For him,
there is no future, there is no past. He lives his life day to day, living a
life completely void of memories or dreams. For him, everything simply is what
it is. He doesn't need any reason to motivate his actions, and he prefers to
just go with whatever is happening because in his eyes, tomorrow, none of the
things you did today will matter.
When I
got to the part where he killed the Arab, at first I didn't understand what had
happened. why had he decided to pull the trigger? Did some past experience set
off his impulse and encouraged his finger to squeeze? After some consideration,
I realized that this was not the case. Mersault had no underlying reasons as to
why he did it. He pulled the trigger because he had no reason not to. However, after coming to this
realization I realized that there is actually very little the reader knows
about Mersault, or any of the characters for that matter. All Camus gives us
are small scenes of their lives at random intervals, what we make of them is
entirely up to us.
"Nevertheless I answered that I had pretty much lost
the habit of analyzing myself and that it was hard for me to tell him what he
wanted to know. I probably did love Maman, but that didn't mean anything."
(pg. 65)
In this
passage Mersault says he "lost the habit" of considering his actions,
which implies that he did so at one point. What is Mersault's history? What
events in his life led him to this existentialist lifestyle? I questioned
similar things in my last entry but as the book progresses, we don't seem to be
getting any closer to finding these answers. In the same way as Mersault lives,
Camus tells us only what he wants us to know, leaving much room for
imagination. We as readers are forced to infer what was really going on in his
life, and what will happen to him because although he doesn't care what tomorrow
may bring, we do.
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