Meursault: Heartless or Nonchalant?

From the first line of The Stranger, we are introduced to what would seem to us as a very important female character: Meursault’s mother. However, when talking about it, Meursault focuses on the time rather than who died or the verb “died”. As he goes on, he doesn’t pay much attention to the event at hand but instead is nervous about his work, his temperature and his appetite. To some people, that can send a message of not caring, showing little love for his mother. For others, this can convey how he deals with his grief. At first, I was more supportive of this being the way that he deals with his grief. However, my opinion of this event has fluctuated throughout what we have read of the book.

Later Meursault introduces us to Salamano and his dog. He explains that the dog has an intense skin condition and that Salamano abuses his dog. When asked his opinion on this matter, he doesn’t give one. He believes that it isn’t his place to judge or intervene. He doesn’t even voice his opinion or make comments to his friend. It is almost as though he doesn’t see anything wrong with the abuse. Yet we never get a straight forward opinion of the matter from him.

The next incident is when Raymond asks Meursault to write a letter, coaxing his “mistress” to come over in order to beat her. Meursault says he doesn’t care if he writes the letter, so Raymond takes that as a yes. Meursault then writes the letter, which makes us think that he is extremely heartless. Yet, again, he never voices his opinion on the matter. He just says that he doesn’t care. When the woman shows up and Raymond beats her, Marie tells Meursault to call the police. Meursault doesn’t because he doesn’t feel that calling the police is his responsibility. When the police do show up, Raymond asks Meursault to testify for him in court. Meursault testifies for Raymond giving the illusion that he is supportive of Raymond, when he never directly says his opinion (at least not anytime while narrating to us).

We lastly see an opportunity for Meursault to voice his opinion about love when asked by Marie if he loves her. He tells her that love doesn’t have any meaning and that he probably didn’t. I viewed this as being rude, but it follows the carelessness pattern we have been seeing in Meursault. His words could be read in different ways. Marie reads them as Meursault just being a peculiar man whom she likes.

In part one alone, we have witnessed multiple instances where Meursault has done or said things that would not be viewed favorably by society. However, in each case, Meursault displays a nonchalance to the matter rather than a heartlessness. I believe that Meursault is just peculiar and him not displaying emotion or opinion is just who he is. The author is showing us that even if a person remains neutral, they are still viewed as having an opinion and can unintentionally support a side. Even though I don’t agree with his actions/words, I still believe that that is the type of person Meursault is.