Meursault's Role In The Stranger

Meursault’s character is best revealed by his murder of the Arab at the end of part one because it portrays his detachment from both himself and society by demonstrating how delusional and removed he is from reality. Meursault is characterized as detached when he loses control of himself as he murders the Arab. When Meursault is walking along the beach before the murder, he battles against the sun beating down on him, until eventually he can no longer stand the heat and tries to get out of it. When he finally sees the Arab on the beach, the “burning [...] made [him] move forward. [He] knew that it was stupid, that [he] wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. But [he] took a step, one step, forward” (59). Meursault’s action of stepping
He consciously knows that these actions will bring “unhappiness” into his life, and yet, he does nothing to stop himself from shooting the dead man again. However, when he shoots the Arab for the second, third, fourth, and fifth times, he takes agency of his actions, which juxtaposes what happens when he shoots him the first time. When he fires the initial shot, Meursault says that “the trigger gave” (59), which implies that the gun fired all on its own, without conscious effort from Meursault. However, when the final four shots are fired, Meursault says “I fired four more times” (59). The first shot allows Meursault to break away from his detachment, revealing to the reader for the first time that Meursault is capable of controlling his actions, and for the first time, Meursault reveals his emotions (specifically his happiness and unhappiness). By finally showing that Meursault is capable of feeling emotions, Camus emphasizes how detached Meursault truly was before, because after finally taking agency of his actions, it is made clear that all the other irrational things that Meursault did could have been controlled but weren’t because he was so detached. Taken together,