Summary
Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe,
I don’t know.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Meursault, the novel’s narrator and protagonist, receives
a telegram telling him that his mother has died. She had been living
in an old persons’ home in Marengo, outside of Algiers. Meursault
asks his boss for two days’ leave from work to attend the funeral.
His boss grudgingly grants the request, and makes Meursault feel
almost guilty for asking. Meursault catches the two o’clock bus
to Marengo, and sleeps for nearly the entire trip.
When Meursault arrives, he meets with the director of
the old persons’ home, who assures Meursault that he should not
feel bad for having sent his mother there. The director asserts
that it was the best decision Meursault could have made, given his
modest salary. He tells Meursault that a religious funeral has been
planned for his mother, but Meursault knows that his mother never
cared about religion. After the brief conversation, the director
takes Meursault to the small mortuary where his mother’s coffin
has been placed.
Alone, Meursault sees that the coffin has already been
sealed. The caretaker rushes in and offers to open the casket, but
Meursault tells him not to bother. To Meursault’s annoyance, the
caretaker then stays in the room, chatting idly about his life and
about how funeral vigils are shorter in the countryside because
bodies decompose more quickly in the heat. Meursault thinks this
information is “interesting and [makes] sense.”
Meursault spends the night keeping vigil over his mother’s
body. The caretaker offers him a cup of coffee, and, in turn, Meursault gives
the caretaker a cigarette. Meursault finds the atmosphere in the
mortuary pleasant and he dozes off. He is awakened by the sound
of his mother’s friends from the old persons’ home shuffling into
the mortuary. One of the women cries mournfully, annoying Meursault.
Eventually he falls back asleep, as do nearly all of his mother’s
friends.
The next morning, the day of the funeral, Meursault again
meets with the director of the old persons’ home. The director asks
Meursault if he wants to see his mother one last time before the
coffin is sealed permanently, but Meursault declines. The director
tells Meursault about Thomas Perez, the only resident of the home
who will be allowed to attend the funeral. Perez and Meursault’s
mother had become nearly inseparable before she died. Other residents
had joked that he was her fiancé.
The funeral procession slowly makes its way toward the
village. When one of the undertaker’s assistants asks Meursault
if his mother was old, Meursault responds vaguely because he does
not know her exact age. The oppressive heat weighs heavily on him
during the long walk. He notices that Thomas Perez cannot keep up, and
keeps falling behind the procession. A nurse tells Meursault that he
will get sunstroke if he walks too slowly, but will work up a sweat and
catch a chill in church if he walks too quickly. Meursault agrees, thinking,
“There was no way out.” He remembers little of the funeral, aside
from Perez’s tear-soaked face and the fact that the old man fainted
from the heat. As he rides home on the bus to Algiers, Meursault
is filled with joy at the prospect of a good night’s sleep.
