Why does meursault shoot the man

By now, high noon is approaching, and Meursault sees shimmers of heat rising from the rocks, the beach deserted, and he tells us that one can hardly breathe. While his attention is paralyzed by the heat of the sun, the glare from the sea, and the intoxicating effect of the wine, Raymond and Masson talk together, Meursault sensing that the two men have known each other for a long time.

They walk by the water's edge, and, one more time, Meursault mentions the heat and glare on the sea as the sun "beats down" on his bare head. The effect is numbing. Meursault feels half-asleep. A moment later, he notices two Arabs coming toward them from a long way down the beach. Raymond is immediately apprehensive, as is his nature, sure that one of the Arabs is his girl friend's brother.

Meursault says nothing, as is his usual nature. Raymond is ready for a scuffle, planning to fight one Arab himself and the hefty Masson taking the other. Meursault is to stand by to help if another Arab appears. The sun broils on the two clusters of men approaching one another along the edge of the sea. And, besides the sun blazing from above them, below them the sand is "as hot as fire.

The confrontation occurs when the men are only a few steps apart. Raymond steps forward and when one of the Arabs lowers his head, Raymond lashes out, shouting at Masson.

Masson throws his appointed Arab into the sea, and Raymond, proud of punishing "his" already bleeding Arab, foolishly breaks for a moment to shout to Meursault that he "ain't finished yet," hoping to beat this Arab the same way that he did the Arab's sister.

In that moment, the Arab reaches for his knife and slashes Raymond on the arm and on the mouth. Frightened by Masson's hulking appearance, both Arabs begin to back away slowly, the knife held before them; when they are a distance from the Frenchmen, they begin to run. Raymond seems to be wounded badly; blood is running from his arm, and when he tries to talk, blood bubbles from his mouth.

By chance, however, once they are back at the bungalow, they discover that the wounds are not deep and that Raymond will be able to walk to a nearby doctor. Masson accompanies Raymond, and Meursault is left behind with the women; Marie is quite pale and Mme. Masson is crying. Ostensibly, Meursault is left behind to guard the women and also to explain to them what has happened.

It is difficult to imagine him as a proficient guard, and, as he admits, he doesn't say much about what has happened. He prefers to stare at the sea. Raymond is unhappy when he returns, even though he has been assured by the doctor that his wounds are not serious, and he is emphatic when he says that he is going for a walk on the beach, that he wants to be alone, and that he wants no one to accompany him.

In fact, he "flies into a rage. He follows Raymond, despite Masson's objections. It is approaching two o'clock now, and Meursault describes the afternoon as feeling like a furnace, the sunlight splintering into "flakes of fire" on the sand and on the sea. Meursault continues to follow Raymond, and Raymond continues to walk until he finds what he has been seeking — the two Arabs, who seem quite docile now, one staring without speaking, the other playing three notes on a little reed flute.

This, then, is Camus' tableau: no one moving and no one speaking. All is hot sunlight and heavy silence, and the reed flute and a tinkling sound from a small stream. The scene seems almost idyllic. Without warning, Raymond asks Meursault if he should shoot the girl's brother.

Meursault explains to us that he says the first thing that comes into his head, which is usually what he has always done. This time, though, his answer is tempered, for he knows that Raymond's ire might well be responsible for a murder. Meursault says it would be a "low-down trick" to shoot the Arab "in cold blood. This was his same tactic with the girl; he wrote a note that so provoked her that he was able to further punish her. Again, Meursault warns Raymond that he should not fire unless the Arab draws his knife, but Raymond is beginning to fidget.

Both of the Arabs watch them, cautious and alert, revealing no emotion or movement, yet watching Raymond and Meursault all the time and observing Raymond's building excitement and Meursault's hesitancy.

When Meursault asks for the gun, we instinctively feel that if Meursault has the gun, he will not use it. We are certain that Raymond needs little reason for using it. The sun glints on the revolver. Again, as though it is a character in this drama of death, the sun asserts itself.

But such explanations are not even brought to their attention. At times, therefore, Meursault's lawyer seems to be a dolt, feeble and ridiculous, especially when he counters the prosecutor's arguments concerning Meursault's soul.

To our dismay, we listen to him return to the matter, once more, of Meursault's mother. This is rhetorical quicksand, a subject that has engulfed the entire trial and has been given a thorough damnation by the prosecutor. The defense says proudly that such institutions as the Home are excellent and are promoted and financed by the government.

His logic is absurd: Meursault's soul exists because he was sufficiently humane to put his mother into a "government" Home. It seems, at times, that Meursault can bear hearing no more, for not only can he not defend himself, he cannot explain his actions. The repetitious recreation of the past sickens him; he feels as though he could vomit because of the rush of memories flooding over him.

And, in his remembering, consider that Meursault remembers the physical, not the philosophical, aspects of scenes — the warm smells, the color of the sky at evening, the feel of Marie's dress, and the sound of her laughter.

These sensations are denied to him, and never before has Meursault been confronted with the disappearance of an entire world. Formerly, his life was composed of warm skies, swimming, and sex, and little thought was given to one day following another and the disappearance, forever, of present moments that he was delighting in.

The trial over, Meursault is so exhausted that he utters a naked, blatant lie; he says that his defense has been fine. His insincerity troubles him a bit, but he is far too tired to judge whether or not it could be labeled, decisively, "fine.

Even Marie's presence cannot rouse Meursault now from his stupor as he awaits the verdict. He reveals that he feels as though his heart had "turned to stone," leaving us with an ironic affirmation that Meursault is, indeed, heartless.

When he hears that he is to be decapitated in "some public place," he says that he sensed a respectful sympathy within the courtroom and then he "stopped thinking altogether. We continue thinking and questioning the justness of such a verdict. Previous Chapter III. Next Chapter V. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List.

Marie has to shake him and shout at him. He finally awakens and the two go downstairs. Raymond is relieved when the Arabs do not board the bus. As the bus leaves, Meursault looks back and sees that the Arabs are still staring blankly at the same spot.

Masson, Meursault, and Marie swim until lunchtime. Marie and Meursault swim in tandem, enjoying themselves greatly. After lunch, Masson, Raymond, and Meursault take a walk while the two women clean the dishes. The heat on the beach is nearly unbearable for Meursault. A fight quickly breaks out.

Meursault tries to warn Raymond, but it is too late. Yeah, that book is easy reading for 2nd or 3rd year French stoonts Which reminds me Isn't "Alors" one of those idiomatic thingumbobs that doesn't have any exact trashlation in English?

Camus is one of the key contributors to works on existentialism. Existentialism and nihilism are often confused with one another, but existentialism differs in that it advocates that a person can bring value into their life, they are capable of actions that are of value to others, even though life itself is absurd and meaningless. Nihilism just proposes everything is meaningless and nothing you do can be of any value. The concept of value differentiates the two philosophies,.

Jul 15, AM. Duane wrote: "I mean, you get the impression he probably shot the Arab just to see if the gun would work, and get the sunlight out of his eyes.

Maybe that could fit into nihilism, but then he changes. It seemed to me that the skies opened on their whole extension to let fire rain? Camus' voice accompanies this change of sense in Meursault's discourse. You also said "An existentialist, for instance, is willing to commit suicide to prove how meaningless life is" and I can't help thinking of this when Meursault "alors" shoots 4 more times. Was he owning the absurdity of his life? He could have said it was an accident, that "the trigger gave in" or that he saw the knife and it was self defense, but he consciously shot 4 more times in cold blood, knowing it meant the end of his life.

Did he know he didn't stand a chance in court, because he was a 'stranger', because he knew that things like not crying at his mother's funeral or going to the pool the day after would make him guiltier than killing a man?

That sounds to me like going willingly to the gallows, knowing how absurd his trial would be. And yes, "alors" is difficult to translate even in context, because it would depend on the intention from both Doylean and Watsonian points of view. Jul 15, PM. It was all the same to him one way or another. I think it's like "the whole sky rained fire on me" Kind of like "Dawn Breaks on Marble Head" e.

That untranslatable "Alors" indeed comprises a lot of questions, doesn' it? In fact he could make that out to be an accident, sort of partially maybe - he might get off with 2nd Degree Murder or even "manslaughter" for that.

But when he emptied the magazine There's no way that ain't "Premeditated", nohow. I mean, if your alienation runs deep enough, you're basically living in the Twilight Zone Jul 16, PM. And the change of style is kept through the trial and until the end. I think that's a much more difficult question than simply "why did he kill the Arab". And I think the answer will vary, according to the point of view. If you see Meursault as absolutely nihilist, you will have an interpretation of the alors and the cause of the 4 more shots; someone who goes for full existentialist, will have another.

Did anyone ever ask Camus about it? I mean, if he really did change the style of writing deliberately Which is probably lost in translation Either way though Camus would probably tell you there is no "why", which condition is what makes Mersault whatever he is Looks like somebody edited one of my posts in here.

Jul 18, AM. You're missing the context. No way a halway sane French dude was going to get executed in Algeria at the time for randomly killing an armed Muslim, no matter how many shots were fired. Nothing similar happened in real life I checked the records to make sure. His behaviour with the prosecutor and in court on the other hand, that was suicidal.

Of course if he had only fired one shot, he might not have been asked to account for his actions so I guess you could say the combination of emptying his revolver and then not playing the game was suicidal. As to whether the killing was premeditated, well, if you'd have listened to the French, they didn't come to Algeria in order to kill random Muslims.

Yet somehow they came fully prepared to do exactly that Camus wrote against it and was even kicked out of the CP over that stuff. For all this spur of the moment thing, Meursault had laid down what he would do long before he went looking for the Muslim: if he pulled his knife, he was going to get shot.

This book features quite a few characters who make up convenient stories. Meursault is committed to honesty but if someone's lying to themselves, that's not the same thing as being committed to the truth. Jul 18, PM. NTS as an American knowing nothing of contemporary French politics and meanwhile seeing Camus touted by the "Literati" as an apostle of existentialism, it would never even occur to me that there was some sort of socipolitical background theme in the killing of the Arab.

If in fact that was what Camus was doing, though - and particularly if he was portraying a premeditated killing based on race or culture or whatever - it nearly derails any possible theme of existentialism, except possibly for Mersault's "suicide by jury" In such case, really it just makes Mersault look like he's gone completely off the rails, not like he's beset with some sort of existential dilemma.

He altered his appearance to look "satanic" and insisted on conducting his own defense, and then deliberately portrayed himself as a remorseless killer - and sure enough, got the death penalty. Then he appealed the conviction on the basis that the jury had been manipulated!! No, I'm not making ANY of this up But he was basically just nuts and very likely a psychopath There are quite a few literati who realize that Camus wasn't quite existentialist.

Camus is the kind of author who wrote books which have overlapping layers of meaning which can be tragic and funny on different levels. And since this book had to satisfy Nazi censorship, it couldn't have been straightforward in all respects even if the author had been the straightforward type. I don't see why one theme would "derail" another. Rather, properly understood, I would think they'd complement each other. The author's abstract ideas were to some extent the product of bleak socio-political circumstances to begin with.