The
Outsider: Chapter Notes – Part 1, Chapter 2
Summary:
·
Meursault experiences his first
weekend after the death of his Mother.
·
This chapter consists of his daily routines and what he does
to pass the time on his days off.
·
On Saturday he meets an ex-colleague who he ends up spending
the day and night with, remembering his infatuation for her.
·
We find, what seems to be, how he spends his usual Sundays,
a day which he dislikes, sitting on his balcony watching all the people go by,
pondering on every detail.
·
At the end of the chapter he reviews his day and the recent
events, realising that everything has stayed the
same.
Themes:
Alienation
In the chapter, Meursault
seems to follow, what perceives to be, a ‘daily routine’ on Sunday. In which he
sits on his balcony watching the world go by. Eyeing every person that passes
by, carefully describing every detail from day to night. This suggests his
disconnection from other members of society which is reflected in lines like “After
that the street gradually became deserted. The shows had all started, I
suppose.” Additionally, the manner in which he notices the most minute details
of the world around him makes him seem to somewhat alienated from the world; it
is as though he watches the world through a glass.
While the majority of people follow
their routine of Sunday night at the cinema, Meursault
sits on his balcony and observes this ‘flood’ of people go to the cinema and
back: he is once again not part of this common social activity; he is again the
observer, the stranger not outside this society, but the stranger within this
society (Original French novel was called ‘L’Étranger’; ‘The
Stranger’ and some argue that ‘The Outsider’ is an inaccurate translation). The way he describes the
groups of people on the street, it’s as if he is from another planet that
doesn’t seem to belong anywhere, fascinated by human life that he watches them
all day long: “Seeing him with his wife, I understood why local people said he
was distinguished.”
Absurdism
The many blunt, short and non
descriptive sentences throughout this chapter, suggest the dry absence of
meaning that Meursault seems to have in his life. He
never elaborates on the statements he gives such as ‘I don’t like Sundays.’ The sentences
are short and simple statements of simple truths: ‘After lunch I was a bit
bored and wandered around the flat.’
This obviously depicts the lack of depth in all aspects of life; the
absence of meaning.
Also when talking about his Mother’s
death to Marie he considers ‘It didn’t mean anything.’ He is not directly
referring to his Mother’s death not meaning anything, but telling her it wasn’t
his fault. However, this does seem to mirror that he believes his Mother’s
death did not mean anything.
‘Only the shopkeepers and
the cats remained.’ This sentence seems odd when read; the shopkeepers
and the cats seem almost of equal importance. The humans (shopkeepers) lack
importance due to the fact that they aren’t conscious, they haven’t
yet made the realisation that Meursault on some level
seems to have made (that there is no meaning in life and also none to be
created or found). Thus, this being the case, the shopkeepers, from Meursault’s point of view, seem to be little better than
animals; just as the cats roam the streets, so do they. Meursault
doesn’t deem to be more important than others, he makes no judgement, the fact is simply that he has made the absurd realisation
(though subconsciously at this point) that nothing really matters.
The meaninglessness of the world and
its events is most easily summarised by the line that concludes the chapter: ‘I
realized that I’d managed to get though another Sunday, that mother was now
buried, that I was going to go back to work and that, after all, nothing had changed’
·
The last three words ‘nothing had changed’ refer to the fact that even
events like his mother dying and being buried, and all the events that Saturday
had entailed, had managed to change absolutely nothing in his life as none of
them really had any meaning. This reveals the Absurdist concept of life having no meaning, no ‘grander plan’
·
While it might sound “heartless” for Meursault to believe so, especially after his mother’s
death, we as readers of an absurdist novel are meant to appreciate that Meursault only considers the elements of the world that are
tangible and real.
Emotions are intangible and so he often seems devoid of emotions, as if
they are not ‘real’, in fact he doesn’t even feel the emotions that you
‘should’ feel as opposed to actually feeling. They don’t ‘really matter’.
·
In contrast, however, perhaps we will be appalled at
this absurd man, devoid of emotions and that what makes a human human, and thus will seem to us a stranger, an outsider.
Motifs:
Nature
‘Above the roofs the sky began to
redden and with evening approaching, the streets came to life.’ A vivid
appreciation of nature is evident throughout the chapter, Meursault
refers to the sky many times, “I watched the sky for a long time.” continuously
describing its change in colours throughout the day,
always in such detail. He appears to also, only ever use words such as
‘beautiful’ when referring to nature or the sky. Although he seems to have no
significant feelings towards humans, he gives the impression that he does for
nature: “The street lamps were making reflections on the wet pavements, and the
trams…would light up a smile or some shiny hair…” This is possibly because nature is real, it’s
continuous, it’s factual and you don’t have to seek for its beauty.
Intense
Sensory Experience
Following from this we can see that Meursault seems to experience sensory details with
particular intensity. He mentions nothing of Marie’s personality but describes
her smell: ‘[he] tried to find the
salty smell of Marie’s hair’ and once again, while one might expect a
description of his emotions for her, he instead describes the tangible sensory
details of Marie. Camus also focuses on Meursault’s
physical interaction with Marie describing how he could ‘...feel Marie’s stomach throbbing gently at
the back of [his] neck.’ as opposed to emotions one might expect
us to feel for her
Absence
of emotion
Once again, Meursault’s
descriptions are dry and lacking
emotion: he describes his physical (to him real, tangible) interactions with
Marie (‘ [He] brushed against her breasts’) but does not describe her personality or show any sign of an emotional
connection with her—there is a clear absence of any emotions such as love. Sex
is meant to be passionate expression of feelings and emotions; but for him it
almost like a simple physical human need, like hunger, completely devoid of
emotions. ‘I’d fancied her at the time, and I think she fancied me too’ This hints that perhaps there is some
emotion, though judging by the character of Meursault
it is likely to be a more physical attraction than the genuine love for her.
In addition, he does not behave as
if his mother had just died, going on a date and having sex barely a day after
his mother’s burial is not really wrong; perhaps put in Meursault’s own words: ‘it doesn’t really matter’.
We’re not meant to view him as heartless for not grieving over his mother,
rather that we are all very much by ourselves, whatever we do the world around
us treats it with the uttermost indifference (there is no ‘bigger plan’), and
this indifference is epitomised by Meursault’s
indifference, most strikingly perhaps, to his mother’s death (among other
events).
Observation/
Watching
Meursault watches the
world pass him by from his balcony: ‘The children were either crying or
trailing behind. Almost immediately, the local cinemas poured out their
audiences in a great flood onto the street...’ Meursault
is continuously observing even the smallest of the tangible details around him;
this gives a sense of a perpetual search for a meaning while, as Camus’s
absurdist theory dictates, there is none.
Empty
routines
Going to
the cinema, indeed all of the Sunday activities seem to be habitual and
we can imagine that the scene underneath Meursault’s
balcony has played itself out many times before.
Characters:
Meursault
Although at this point in time he
hasn’t made a conscious realisation that life has no meaning (Camus’s absurdist
theory), his mostly short statements of empirical truths reflect the his belief in a lack of depth, lack of meaning in life.
His constant focus on and detailed descriptions of sensory details creates
a sense of him only believing in what is tangible, because that is what is, ultimately (to him) real. This
is the reason why there is a significant lack of emotion in his actions,
reactions and speech; emotions are intangible and therefore, unreal. This is,
perhaps, also why he describes his physical interactions with Marie, yet
doesn’t show any sign of an emotional connection. He gives us flat,
emotionless, valueless descriptions to reflect back at us as readers. This is
depicted by when he gives mechanical, flat description of the girls and the
boys on the street below him flirting; he undermines all of the vibrancy of
emotions (i.e. nervousness, tension etc) that these boys and girls would be
feeling.
Marie
This is the chapter where the
readers are introduced to Marie for the first time. It is stated that she used
to work with Meursault, that he had feelings for her
that perhaps she returned. We are not well acquainted with her character,
although on finding out that Meursault’s mother had
died the day before, “She recoiled slightly, but made no remark.” It seems
that, in contrast to Meursault, she is not an
absurdist and remains firmly connected to society and societies expectations of
behaviour, hence the shudder which she does, however decide to see past.
Imagery
& Setting:
There are only two key settings in
this chapter: the beach, where he meets Marie, and his balcony. At the beginning of the
chapter, on the beach, surrounded by nature the imagery and setting suggests a
mellow, calm start to the weekend, considering it was the day after Meursault’s mother’s death. This serves to emphasise his
absurdist attitudes as he expresses rather placid feelings as opposed to how
one might usually feel after their own mother’s death. Camus uses this setting
and Meursault’s reaction to it to emphasise how
different he is. This image of peacefulness is greatly emphasised during the
scene where Meursault is sitting on his balcony
watching others carry out their Sunday routines, he seems rather content doing
this and in addition, rather enthused by the atmosphere, especially the sky,
around him.
One of the elements that Meursault is descriptive about is nature and its beauty. He
says ‘The street lamps suddenly came on then and they made the first few stars
that were appearing in the night sky look quite pale’. This perhaps embodies
how man-made objects / “human constructs” take away from the beauty of natural
elements of our world and leave them under-appreciated. Meursault,
however, for the most part, is not engaged with human distractions and thus is
able to appreciate such beauty.
Narrative Style:
The style within Chapter 2 is
similar to Chapter 1: it is a first person narrative and Camus continues
using short sentences making Meursault speak of the
basic reality of things around him. However, there are sentences and paragraphs that
seem longer and more descriptive than in Chapter 1, as if they have with more
emotion. For instance, when he describes the beauty of the sky the narrative
style seems to have more sentiment.
Relation
Part to Whole:
In chapter 2 we are given a deeper
insight into the character of Meursault as more is
revealed by his interactions with Marie. He, from dominant reading, rarely
experiences any emotions and once again focuses on the tangible details. We
even read of his romantic encounter, and the value of this to him seems only to
be physical rather than emotional. The evening when Meursault
is watching others from his balcony clearly reflects his disconnection from everyone
else and therefore further reinforces the key themes of alienation and
absurdism established in Chapter 1.