“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.
