The Stranger #2

Meursault is very detached from the external world, particularly from the world’s cultural expectations.  Meursault recounts his tale in the format of a sequence, showing very little emotion and using short sentences with no flow.  For example, Meursault begins Chapter Three, “I worked hard at the office today.  The boss was nice” (25).  One sentence has seven words, and the next has four.  They reveal no more than they need to for the reader to know the most basic plot of the chapter.  In fact, these sentences state so little that they do not even explicitly tell the reader that there is a connection between his hard work and the way his boss treats him.  As a result of this lack of cause and effect, while Meursault works hard, he does not seem to see any reason to, and so his work has no psychological or emotional experience behind it.  It is simply an action that is happening to him.  Similarly, his involvement with Marie is strikingly devoid of any emotion or intimacy.  When she asks Meursault if he loves her, he tells her that “it didn’t mean anything but that [he] didn’t think so” (35).  Marie expects because of the standards of her culture that Meursault will tell her either yes or no.  To the contrary, society’s expectations do not concern Meursault, and he chooses not to search for the specific emotion that his culture has arbitrarily named “love.”  Instead, he chooses simply to feel what he feels, and if his wishes can work in harmony with hers then so be it.  By responding indifferently to Marie’s love, Meursault does not make an effort to fit into one of society’s most universal and enduring structures.