The Strange Sun
The sun is essentially, in Meursault's mind, at fault for the crime of murder. Throughout the entirety of The Stranger, the sun makes recurring appearances, almost inserting itself as another character. During Meursault’s attendance of his mother's funeral the sun begins making its aggressive appearance known. While walking from the nursing home to where the burial of his mother takes place, he acknowledges that, “today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was in-human and oppressive,” (Camus 15). The sun’s rays being described as ‘bearing’ layers a more intense approach to what could also be described as the sun shining. The sun’s rays are hitting Meursault personally, yet when the surrounding areas are being described the verb ‘shimmer’ is used, a more light hearted word. The sun suppressing Meursault is just the start of his encounters having an altered state of being, which could likely be intentionally foreshadowed by the descriptive wording.
Towards the end of the first section of The Stranger, the sun begins its comeback, this time more harmful than the last. While walking along the beach Meursault recalls that he “wasn’t thinking about anything, because I was half asleep from the sun beating down on my bare head,” (Camus 53). The sun dulls Meursault’s ability to produce thought, which may not actually be that large of a deal as his go with the flow mentality creates minimal ideas in the first place. As he stood in the sun for longer he realized that “[t]o stay or to go it amounted to the same thing. A minute later I turned back toward the beach and started walking,” (Camus 57). Meursault gives off the impression that he is mindlessly guided by the sun. There is no matter what he does, he is just simply a pawn to the discretion of the sun. Meursault’s recognition of the sun's doing is obvious as his descriptions of himself slowly losing mindful control take place, but he also has awareness of others in the sun. As he approaches the Arab man that he would shortly kill he sees that, “his forehead [was] in the shade of the rock, the rest of his body in the sun,” (Camus 57-58). The observation of the separation of the man’s body lying in the sun while his forehead being concealed by shade provided by the rock seems intentional as Meursault’s mind was being clouded.
As Meursault advances continuously towards the man, he is already in little control over his person due to the vast effects from the sun. With little prompting from the Arab man, aside from his knife, Meursault manages to have his gun lifted to a high enough point that it was ready to fire, although there is no description of this taking place at all. Suddenly his “whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver. The trigger gave,” (Camus 59). At no point does Meursault admit to shooting the first bullet, it seems to have magically just happened. There was no point in which he was entirely ‘there’; to him, his mind and body were just carrying out the bidding of the sun. Towards the end of the novel, during his trial, when Meursault comes forward to state what has taken place, he states that he “blurted out that it was because of the sun,” (Camus 103). The committing of the murder was entirely, from Meursault’s perspective, the fault of the sun. The aggressive, potential extra character of The Stranger, that altered Meursault’s state of function supposedly controls him the entire novel; Meursault could have been a clean man without solar interference.
Sources Cited
Camus, Albert. Translated by Matthew Ward. The Stranger. Vintage Books, 1988.
Good analysis, I think the aspect of Meursault's increasing awareness of the sun appears throughout the book. Which in term creates the question: why does he focus on the sun? and why is he so aware of the sun's impact on him? Is it because of his present focused mindset or is it something else. Overall, good post.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea that "Meursault is mindless guided by the sun" is very intriguing. In class we discussed how the sun often represents positive figures in religions like Christianity, which throughout the book Meursault often gets ridiculed for rejecting. But in your phrasing the sun leads Meursault down the wrong path, suggesting that Meursault tried to avoid killing the man, but was misguided by conventional morals.
ReplyDeleteThe reoccurring importance of the sun was also something I noticed while reading the novel. In the first instance you mentioned (when Meursault is walking in the funeral procession), we also see his mind becoming clouded and him losing control over his actions- as his observations of the procession become increasingly scattered and incoherent as the sun rises and the day become hotter.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Meursault's narration--especially in chapter 6 of part 1--depicts the sun as an active "character" that influences events. In some ways the sun is more active in these scenes than the Arab men, who weirdly sit still and silent, one of them playing a reed flute. Some readers of chapter 6 came to class believing that the man had slashed at Meursault with his knife--a close reading reveals that somehow it is the SUN and its rays that are "slashing" Meursault's eyes and face. There is a kind of knife fight going on, but it's between Meursault and the sun. It's almost as if the Arab man gets in the way, collateral damage in this ongoing struggle with the sun.
ReplyDeleteBut it's not only that Meursault seems to "think" that the sun is at fault: the way Camus frames the scene, readers really can't see it any other way. "Because of the sun" seems like an accurate interpretation of chapter 6 as it is narrated, and yet Meursault is fully aware that this explanation won't make sense to anyone else. And again, we see his uncomfortable degree of honesty--he sticks to the absurd explanation because it is true to his experience, rather than offering a much more plausible and self-serving lie about self-defense (remember, he is the only living witness of the scene--except for the sun, which can't really testify in court).
I disagree with the idea that the sun can be entirely blamed for Meursault’s actions. While the oppressive heat and sunlight obviously affect Meursault’s physical and mental state, I think they function more as symbolic representations of external pressures than literal forces controlling him. Meursault’s decision to shoot the Arab man, even if it was impulsive, still reflects his lack of internal regulation and moral compass.
ReplyDeleteI'd never noticed the sun's reoccurring appearance within the story, and I think you're correcting in linking it to Meursault's view that it was the sun's fault for the Arab man's death. However, I think it is Meursault's opinion alone that the sun forced him to kill the man. I interpreted the naturalness of the sun directly conflicting with Meursault's unnatural character, and it was this conflict, between the natural and unnatural, that aggravated Meursault to kill the man.
ReplyDeleteThe sun basically being a driving force in the worst of Meursault's sporadic behavior is such an interesting concept to me, and I am glad you were compelled by it too! That whole scene is written somewhat like a blur, and I think the way you phrased it as the "bidding of the sun" really encapsulates that feeling. As present-focused and confusing as Meursault was throughout the entirety of the book, nothing could beat the feeling of reading about the lack of control Meursault had when killing a man and his disregard for it in the scenes following. I didn't read too much into the sun's presence in other parts of the book since it didn't feel that important, but now reading them again, the sun definitely had a great impact on Meursault outside of just that one scene.
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ReplyDeleteI think that I interpreted the sun in a different way as I was reading! It seemed more like an external force that Meursault struggles to ignore, but it is also there to represent his internal disputes. The idea that the sun is the sole force in Meursault's thought process was also brought up by some people at my table, and they mentioned that he does not have guilt or moral judgement and therefore is not the actual guilty party. I entirely understand that argument, but I think that he had to have silenced the human restraint to not kill people, and that in and of itself is what makes him guilty, whether it's due to the sun or not. You brought up really good points that I had not fully looked into! Great post!
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