We didn't really know much about the type of person Mersault was for the first half of the book. We found out that he lives a pretty drab life and that he doesn't have strong emotions, but we didn't know what this meant regarding who he is.
The moment Mersault killed the arab is when his existence gained essence because this action finally gave us insight into the person he is. Every action Mersault did was passive, he had no real opinion and didn't have deep thoughts about anything. Mersault knew he had the choice to shoot the arab since this was not their first encounter. Certain decisions can define a person and it was this one that gave him essence. He realizes now how his actions are affecting him which shows us that he has become a person.
I agree with you for the most part. Do you think Mersault really understood how his actions could really affect him? I know he said that it was like knocking on the door of unhappiness four times, but, in my opinion, he didn't really think about it much after that. Even when he shoots the Arab, the description of that scene was really passive. It was mostly him complaining about the sun/light. Then when he finally shot the Arab, he said it in a way that made it really passive by saying that he only squeezed the revolver and the trigger gave.
ReplyDeleteI agree Mersault was pretty closed off or we didn't have a lot of knowledge on him. He seemed to be in a constant state of depression and lack of emotion.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that when he killed Arab it was the first time we were able to really see who Mersault was as a person rather than just the assumptions we were making about his personhood. His choice to shoot Arab was a choice that would define his life forever.