The Outsiders
...epts as right or normal. Marie asks Meursault if he loves her, and he answers that he probably didn’t. He shows complete indifference to Marie’s emotions. Marie shows loyalty and love to Meursault which contrasts to his indifference. She shows the most positive characteristics of all the characters. Raymond is also a contrast to Meursault because while Meursault seems to be amoral, Raymond is immoral, always up to no good. The Arab turns out to be the final catalyst of the downfall of Meursault by coming onto the scene with a knife which will reflect the sunlight that bothers Meursault. Through the book, there is a series of events that show Meursault has an indifferent attitude toward life which comes out of an unhealthy repressing of his feelings. At the beginning of the book, Meursault learns that his mother has died and attends her funeral. Meursault spends a fair amount of time focusing on his own comfort and what others may be thinking of him. The show of emotion or the silence of others was irritating to him and he appears not to pay any attention to his mother’s funeral or have any patience for the emotions of her friends. His reality is only the irritation of having to attend the funeral and put up with the mourners. This is noticed by many people attending the funeral. Later in the story, Raymond asks Meursault to help him write a letter to his mistress so that he can lure her back for more abuse. Meursault does not see any reason not to and so he does it. He does not see that it is wrong to help someone inflict pain on another human being. All these non-emotional reactions are not normal and highlight Meursault’s abnormal behaviour. The characters surrounding Meursault don’t seem to see that this could be a mental health problem. All the previous events are leading up to the final event, the murder. With each event, a clearer picture of Meursault’s thinking and lack of compassion is presented. Since the Arab was bothering him by flashing his knife is such a way as to reflect sun into Meursault’s eyes, Meursault ends up killing him just to get rid of the little irritation. He could have run away or reasoned with the Arab but instead, almost as a reflex, he kills him. This is the weakness of relativism. The person who holds this view has no thought for the rights of other people but is only a concern for him/herself and what he/she wants. Society must have a clear picture of right and wrong and put laws in place according to that. If everyone was allowed to have their own reality, how could there be any order? The laws should be in place to protect the rights of all people, not just a few or none. The trial is in progress on page 97, the second paragraph. “I was listening and I could hear that I was being judged intelligent but I couldn’t understand how the qualities of an ordinary man could be used as damning evidence of guilt.” Meursault has admitted he killed the Arab and seemed to understand what he was doing but sees the act as a reasonable one. He expects the court to see it that way as well. Again, he is only concerned about his own comfort. On page 102, the second paragraph, Meursault asks his lawyer if there was any chance of getting the sentence “quashed if it was unfavourable”. He does not s...