Stranger: #3

“The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; and there, in that noise, sharp and deafening at the same time, is where it all started. I shook off the sweat and sun. I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I’d been happy. Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. And it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” (59).

            Now that we have background information on Mersault, this passage essentially makes more sense. It is clear that Mersault is a man of few words. He even tells the judge this after he is arrested. If Mersault does not know how to answer a question or does not know how to respond to someone, he simply does not say anything. Because of this, he comes off as cold and heartless. Mersault does not cry at his mother’s funeral, he does not show emotion when his girlfriend proposes marriage, and he does not show remorse when he kills a man. Mersault is a man of few emotions, and this is seen in the passage above. The fact that he pauses in between the first bullet and the next four puzzles the judge. Mersault is smart; therefore, he knew that the man was dead after the first shot, so what triggered him to shoot four more bullets? Was it his lack of emotions and remorse, or was it something else? Before the murder he says, “it occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it” (58) and after it he says “and it was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” (59). Clearly, Mersault knew that what he was doing was wrong and it would forever alter his life. There is something inside Mersault that makes him put up a wall of disinterest and detachment. It is almost as if he floats through life like a ghost because nothing significantly impacts him. He feels nothing; he just breathes.