On Meursault and the Concept of Guilt
On Meursault and the Concept of Guilt The Stranger is a very unique, thought provoking, and hard-to-interpret book. How are we as readers supposed to find any purpose in the story of this essentially purposeless man? Meursault essentially views all of his actions as a result of circumstance. He doesn’t have many feelings beyond the instant and physical. He is even unbothered by the murder he committed. He describes what he’s feeling as he’s walking towards the Arab by saying that “the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back,” showing that although he very well could have turned around, he felt that he had to go on (Camus, 58). If he feels like he physically must commit the murder, is he really guilty of it? Guilt is a complicated subject in The Stranger , one that the court gets stuck on as they come to realize it’s something he lacks, as the prosecutor stated, “I [Meursault] had no place in a society whose fundamental rules I ignored,” (C...