Meursault's 'Division Of The Stranger'

Essay 2 The division of the stranger into two separate parts heavily emphasizes the development of Meursault’s character by abruptly splitting his transformation. The first half of the novel is very terse – Meursault describes the events in his life in very succinct, to-the-point sentences. He is also devoid of emotions, and even when his mother dies, he talks mainly of the weather, of his annoyances, and other irrelevant and unemotional occurrences. Further, the secondary characters assist in contrasting, while simultaneously stressing, Meursault’s apathy. Raymond, Marie, and Salamano all possess powerful emotions, all of which Meursault lacks. The first half also details the events leading up to Meursault’s murder of the Arab. The death …show more content…
When she approaches him with the question about marriage, he states “I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her.” He continues, “I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if we wanted to, we could get married.” (Pg. 57) This is particularly standout, because marriage is commonly one of the most paramount events in the lives of many people. And, often, marriage is based on a mutual love and respect for one another. However, for Meursault, is it rather a deed that can be done “if she wanted,” but really has no consequential meaning to him. When Marie points out that marriage is serious, Meursault simply replies with “No.” This further emphasizes that Meursault has no intention to feel, but rather only act. He does not define marriage as important, or an act of love, because to him, it doesn’t matter in the end whether is it important or for love. All that does matter is that he embraces his freedom as long as his can, before his life ends by the only phenomenon that matters –

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